Wycliffe, John

Wycliffe, John (about 1320-84), preacher, writer, b. probably Richmond, Yorkshire, England.

John Wycliffe (or Wyclif) became known as a scholar at Oxford University.

Later he began to write pamphlets attacking bishops and the Pope, and gathered around him a group known as 'poor priests' or Lollards.

Wycliffe wrote his pamphlets in English and, with help from others, he also translated the Bible from Latin into English. He believed everyone should be able to read the Bible for themselves. But in the fifteenth century it was decreed in England that no one should 'by his own authority translate any text of Scripture into English' and that no one should read such translations.

The Catholic Church considered Wycliffe to be a heretic.

In 1428, by order of the Pope his bones were dug up and burned.

See Stephen Edmund Lahey John Wyclif (Great Medieval Thinkers)