John Wyclif

John Wyclif, Translator and Controversialist

Commemoration: 31 December 1384

John Wyclif (also spelled Wycliffe, Wycliff, Wicliffe, or Wiclif) was born in Yorkshire around 1330, and educated at Oxford, where he became a Doctor of Divinity in 1372.

Early Career and Royal Service

In 1374, King Edward III appointed him rector of Lutterworth, and later included him in a royal delegation to Brussels to negotiate with papal envoys. Around this time, Wyclif began to advance his controversial teaching of dominion founded on grace.

By dominion he meant both the right to exercise authority and the right to own property, which he believed were gifts from God and contingent on a person’s spiritual state. According to this view, anyone in mortal sin—including clerics or rulers—could not lawfully wield authority or hold property.

Wyclif urged the disendowment of a corrupt church and the restoration of apostolic poverty among the clergy. He argued that such measures should be carried out by the crown. From 1376 to 1378 he advised John of Gaunt, who effectively governed England as regent. While the degree of influence between them is debated, their shared opposition to clerical wealth made common cause.

In 1377, Parliament consulted Wyclif on the lawfulness of withholding payments to Rome; he supported the crown’s independence. Pope Gregory XI issued five bulls against him, but without decisive effect. His final political intervention came in 1378, when he argued against sanctuary protections for criminals. Thereafter he retired to Lutterworth.

Theological Controversy

From his parish, Wyclif launched increasingly severe attacks on the corruption of the church hierarchy. While some of his criticisms might have won sympathy, his denial of transubstantiation proved decisive. He held that the bread remained bread, yet that Christ was truly present in a non-material way. This view alienated John of Gaunt and other patrons, and marked Wyclif as a dangerous innovator.

Despite his challenges to accepted doctrine, Wyclif repeatedly declared himself a loyal son of the Church, subject to papal judgment. Nonetheless, his teachings were condemned, and in 1382 his writings were officially banned. That same year he suffered a stroke; another in 1384 proved fatal. He died at Lutterworth on 31 December 1384.

Legacy and Condemnation

In 1381, the Peasants' Revolt shook England. Though his scholarly works likely had little direct influence on the rising, the revolt made his doctrine of "dominion founded on grace" appear subversive. Wyclif’s followers, the Lollards, were persecuted, and in 1428 his remains were exhumed and cast out of consecrated ground.

Later reformers hailed him as a forerunner of the Protestant Reformation, though his direct influence was limited; only Jan Hus seems to have read his works extensively.

Bible Translation

Wyclif’s most enduring contribution was his role in the first complete English translations of the Bible in the 1380s. Two versions circulated: one more literal, the other more idiomatic. While it remains uncertain how much he personally translated, Wyclif’s leadership inspired the effort. He also envisioned a new order of Poor Preachers who would proclaim the English Scriptures to the people.

Modern Bible translation societies, such as the Wycliffe Global Alliance, trace their name to his pioneering role in bringing Scripture into the vernacular.

Commemoration

Anglicans remember John Wyclif as a bold, if controversial, reformer who anticipated the call to biblical authority and clerical poverty. His feast is kept on 31 December, the day of his death.

Sources

• Every Man’s Book of Saints (Mowbray’s, London and Oxford, 1981).
• Encyclopedia Britannica.
• The New Catholic Encyclopedia.
• H. B. Workman, John Wyclif: A Study of the English Medieval Church, 2 vols., 1926.