Ion Creangă State Pedagogical University

Theme: John Wycliff.

Covanjii Daniela,
Group 101 B,
The History of English Literature,
Teacher: Tataru Nina.

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Theme: John Wycliff.
1. Wycliff’s important work during the XIV-th century and his
importance in history after his death.
2. Doctrines.

1. John Wycliff
John Wycliff (lived from
about 1320 to 1384
in England)[1] was an
English theologian. He was
one of the first to translate
the Christian Bible into
common English. It is
generally known as
"Wyclif's Bible".[2] A
missions agency bearing
his name (Wycliffe Bible
Translators) continues
translating the scriptures
into languages around the
world.
Wycliffe wrote
that papal claims of
temporal power had no
foundation in the scriptures
and that
the scriptures alone should
be the standard of Christian
belief and practice.
John Wycliffe’s family
lived in a lower social
class, which meant they did
not live in great wealth, but
they were not poor either.
Later, after Wycliffe had
grown up, he
attended Oxford
University where he earned an arts degree. He became Master of Balliol
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College, Oxford in 1361.[3] He was also given a parish in Lincolnshire, which
meant he had to give up the position of Master. He lived at Oxford for a large
portion of his life and worked as a rector (a member of the clergy) at local
churches. There were many more changes to his life. Some of his ideas were in
conflict with those of the Church, but he had the support and protection of John
of Gaunt, who was ruling England at the time.[4]
Wycliffe encouraged the Church to benefit the sinners (people who broke some
religious laws) of the world by living a life of poverty, but not everyone agreed
with his thoughts and ideas. In some of late writings, he wrote that the Bible
was the authority of the Christian religion, not of the church. In 1382 Wycliffe’s
followers, the lollards, helped him translate the Bible. Early members of the
Christian churches called him the first great reformer.
2. Doctrines.
Wycliffe had come to regard the scriptures as the only reliable guide to the
truth about God, and maintained that all Christians should rely on the Bible
rather than on the teachings of popes and clerics. He said that there was no
scriptural justification for the papacy.
Theologically, his preaching expressed a strong belief in predestination that
enabled him to declare an "invisible church of the elect", made up of those
predestined to be saved, rather than in the "visible" Catholic Church. To
Wycliffe, the Church was the totality of those who are predestined to
blessedness. No one who is eternally lost has part in it. There is one universal
Church, and outside of it there is no salvation.
His first tracts and greater works of ecclesiastical-political content defended
the privileges of the State. By 1379 in his De ecclesia ("On the Church"),
Wycliffe clearly claimed the supremacy of the king over the priesthood. He
also rejected the selling of indulgences.
So far as his polemics accord with those of earlier antagonists of the papacy,
it is fair to assume that he was not ignorant of them and was influenced by
them. It was Wycliffe who recognised and formulated one of the two major
formal principles of the Reformation – the unique authority of the Bible for the
belief and life of the Christian.
Rudolph Buddensieg finds two distinct aspects in Wycliffe's work. The first,
from 1366 to 1378, reflects a political struggle with Rome, while 1378 to 1384
is more a religious struggle. In each Wycliffe has two approaches: he attacks
both the Papacy and its institutions, and also Roman Catholic doctrine.[38]
Wycliffe's influence was never greater than at the moment when pope
and antipope sent their ambassadors to England to gain recognition for
themselves. In 1378, in the ambassadors' presence, he delivered an opinion
before Parliament that showed, in an important ecclesiastical political question
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(the matter of the right of asylum in Westminster Abbey), a position that was to
the liking of the State. He argued that criminals who had taken sanctuary in
churches might lawfully be dragged out of sanctuary.
The books and tracts of Wycliffe's last six years include continual attacks
upon the papacy and the entire hierarchy of his times. Each year they focus
more and more, and at the last, the pope and the Antichrist seem to him
practically equivalent concepts. Yet there are passages which are moderate in
tone: G. V. Lechler identifies three stages in Wycliffe's relations with the
papacy. The first step, which carried him to the outbreak of the schism, involves
moderate recognition of the papal primacy; the second, which carried him to
1381, is marked by an estrangement from the papacy; and the third shows him
in sharp contest.

Bibliography:
1. https://wiki.kidzsearch.com/wiki/John_Wycliffe.
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wycliffe .