Wycliffe Manuscript New Testament: Revised by John Purvey circa A.D. 1400
John Wycliffe (also spelled Wyclif, Wycliff, Wiclef, Wicliffe, or Wickliffe) was born about 1324. His family was long settled in Yorkshire, centered around Wycliffe-on-Tees. Wycliffe pursued an avid interest in Biblical studies, and between 1366 and 1372 he became a Doctor of Divinity, lecturing on systematic divinity and writing his Summa Theologica.    Wycliffe’s theology was greatly influenced by Augustine, and his ecclesiology adapted from William of Occam. His preaching contained a strong belief in the “invisible” church of the elect, rather than in the “visible” Church of Rome. Appalled at the abuse of church finances, his fundamental belief was that the Church should be poor, as in the days of the apostles. Wycliffe aimed to do away with the existing hierarchy and replace it with the “poor priests” who lived in poverty, were bound by no vows, had received no formal consecration, and preached the simple Gospel to the people. These itinerant preachers spread the teachings of Wycliffe. Two by two they went, barefoot, wearing long dark-red robes and carrying a staff in the hand, and they passed from place to place preaching the gospel. The bull of Gregory XI impressed upon them the name of “Lollards,” intended as an opprobrious epithet, but it became to them a name of honor. The term “Lollards” is likely derived from the Dutch word lollaerd signifying a “mutterer” or a “mumbler” who did not speak in Latin (the language of academia and the church). Even in Wycliffe’s time the “Lollards” had an extensive popular influence in England.    Historical evaluation of his endeavors have led to the appellation of Wycliffe as “the Morning Star of the Reformation,” having espoused many of the tenets that were more fully developed in the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century.