WYCLIFFE, John, who was born about the year 1324, derived his name from the place of his nativity, a village six miles from Richmond in Yorkshire. From the era of the Norman conquest, the family to which he is supposed to have belonged had been lords of the manor, and patrons of the rectory of Wycliffe; and it is to be inferred that his parents were able and willing to give him the best education which the kingdom then afforded. In due time he became a commoner of Queen’s College, Oxford, a seminary of very recent institution; but he speedily removed to Merton College, which then enjoyed a higher reputation than any other house of learning: the scholastic celebrity of Duns, Ockham, and Bradwardine, was alone sufficient to consecrate its walls. Having been duly initiated in logic and rhetoric, he directed his attention to other branches of knowledge. His proficiency in the civil, the canon, and the municipal law, has been noticed by Lewis, and other biographers; but his greatest efforts were devoted to the study of theology, not merely that barren art which was then taught in the schools, but that divine science which is derived from the spirit as well as the letter of the Scriptures. In the prosecution of his inquiries, he had to contend with numerous and formidable difficulties: the genius of the age was hostile to any plan of study or mode of investigation which the church had not sanctioned; the text of the sacred writings was in a great measure neglected, while its place was supplied by systems of scholastic divinity; the original language of the New, as well as the Old Testament, was almost totally unknown in the kingdom; the inhabitants of the western world had almost universally surrendered their understanding to the control of a body of priests, who reduced spiritual tyranny and delusion to a complete system; and the student eagerly bent on the search of divine truth, was left without encouragement and without a guide. But in spite of all these disadvantages, Wycliffe pursued his course with alacrity and perseverance. He arrived at a degree of scriptural knowledge which had not been equalled for many centuries; and his veneration for the sacred writings procured him the honourable appellation of the Evangelic Doctor.

His earliest publication, entitled “The last Age of the Church,”^[1. the last Age of the Church, by John Wycliffe: now first printed from a manuscript in the University Library, Dublin. Edited, with notes, by James Henthorn Todd, D. D., &c. Dublin, 1840, sm. 4to. ] appeared in 1356, when he is conjectured to have attained the age of thirty-two. In 1347, England had been visited by a pestilence, which first made its appearance in Tartary, and after ravaging various countries of Asia, proceeded by the shores of the Nile to the islands of Greece, and carried devastation to almost every nation of Europe. So prodigious was the waste of human life, that this quarter of the globe is supposed to have lost a fourth part of its inhabitants.^[2. The Black Death in the fourteenth Century, from the German of I. F. C. Hecker, Μ. D., translated by B. G. Babington, M. D., p. 77. Lond. 1833, 12mo. "It may therefore be assumed, without exaggeration, that Europe lost during the Black Death 25,000,000 of inhabitants.” ] The direful distemper was even communicated to the brute creation, and the land was covered with putrid carcasses. These portentous signs of the times filled the pious mind of Wycliffe with gloomy apprehensions, and led him to indulge in speculations respecting the last age of the church. He arrived at the conclusion that the day of judgment was not to be deferred beyond the close of the century in which he himself lived. Many individuals of a visionary turn of mind, and some possessed of the most vigorous understanding, have in various ages hazarded similar predictions. It is stated by Dr Vaughan, that “the opinions and the feeling disclosed in this production, though but imperfectly developed, are such as to prepare the reader to anticipate in Wycliffe a devout opponent of the corruptions which it describes with such solemnity and pathos. It is important to know, that even at this period of his history, the nefarious practices connected with the appointment of the clergy to the sphere of their duties, had so far shocked his piety, as to dispose him to expect a speedy and signal manifestation of the displeasure of heaven.” After an interval of a few years, he distinguished himself by his strenuous opposition to the mendicant orders, who then infested the best parts of Europe, and, under the pretext of betaking themselves to a life of poverty and devotion, consumed the fruits of the earth, and too often set an example which did not tend to edification. In 1360 he published his Objections to the Friars, which were long afterwards committed to the press by Dr James. The errors and vices of the mendicants, it has been remarked, had never been so generally or so forcibly assailed; and while those who preceded aimed only at the removal of particular abuses, he perceived that the institution itself was unnecessary and pernicious. The friars were a class of men whom it was dangerous to provoke; nor is it to be doubted that he thus made a large addition to the catalogue of his enemies. His friends however were likewise numerous. In 1361 the society of Balliol College presented him to the rectory of Fillingham, in the diocese of Lincoln; and he became master of that college in the course of the same year. In 1368, he exchanged this living for Lutger-shall, in the archdeaconry of Bucks; a benefice of inferior value, but situated at. a more convenient distance from Oxford. After retaining his mastership for the space of four years, he was appointed warden of Canterbury Hall, recently founded in the same university by Simon Islep, archbishop of Canterbury, with a provision for twelve scholars, eight of whom were to be secular clerks, and the remaining four, including the warden, were to be chosen from the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury. The warden first nominated by the founder, was one Wodehall, a fierce and turbulent monk, whom he soon found it necessary to remove from his office. Wycliffe was invited to supply his place, and the archbishop did not long survive. His successor in the primacy was Langham, bishop of Ely, who had previously been abbot of Weslminster, and still retained the spirit of a monk. Wodehall appealed to this new visitor, and found the support which he expected. The appointment of Wycliffe having, with little regard to law or fact, been pronounced null and void, a person named Radyngate was first substituted in his place, and in the course of a few weeks Wodehall resumed the office of warden. From this arbitrary sentence, Wycliffe appealed to the sovereign pontiff; and, after an interval of several years, found it was vain to expect that justice should flow from so polluted a fountain. The decision of the pope was confirmed by the authority of the king, who did not however pronounce an unbribed judgment.

About the time when Wycliffe was appointed warden of Canterbury Hall, a controversy had arisen between Urban the Fifth and Edward the Third, in consequence of the renewed demand of an annual tribute of a thousand marks, as an acknowledgment of the feudal superiority of the pontiff over the kingdoms of England and Ireland. The payment of this degrading tribute had never been regular, and it had been entirely discontinued for thirty-three years; but on the renewal of the papal claim, the king thought it necessary to consult both houses of parliament. “The prelates solicited a day for private deliberation; but assembling on the morrow, the lords spiritual and temporal, and the members of the commons, w ere unanimous in stating, that neither King John, nor any other sovereign, had power thus to subject the realm of England, without consent of parliament; that this consent was not obtained; and that, passing over other difficulties, the whole transaction, on the part of the king, was in violation of the oath [7:21:950]which he had taken on receiving the crown. By the temporal nobility, and the popular representatives, it was farther determined, that should the pontiff commence his threatened process against the monarch of England, as his vassal, the strength of the nation should be instantly called to the king’s aid.”^[3. Vaughan’s Life and Opinions of John de Wycliffe, D. D., vol. i. p. 280, second edition. Lond. 1831, 2 vole. 8vo. See the Edinburgh Review, vol. li. p. 221. ] But the most gross and scandalous usurpations will always find a sufficient number of defenders, when the usurpers have the power of bestowing a sufficient number of rewards. The claims of the pope were maintained by some nameless monk, who on this subject published a tract, in which he called upon Wycliffe to refute his arguments. In this appeal to him by name, we discover an obvious proof that his character had already become very conspicuous; and although it was apparently the writer’s intention to do him an injury rather than an honour, he did not decline the challenge which had thus been given. He published a work in which he endeavoured to circumscribe the arrogant claims of the church, and to fix the legitimate extent of civil authority: he maintained the right of the king and his parliament to refuse the tribute claimed by the court of Rome, to subject all ecclesiastics to the secular jurisdiction in all civil cases, and even to alienate the property of the church. Some of his opinions are so much at variance with the doctrines of the canon law, that he had evidently made no inconsiderable progress in his retrograde motions from the popish standard of orthodoxy.

The question respecting the wardenship was finally decided in the year 1372, when the king confirmed the sentence of the pope. Wycliffe now found other employment in the university. Having taken the degree of D. D., says Lewis, he “publickly professed divinity, and read lectures in it; which he did with very great applause, having such an authority in the schools, that whatever he said was received as an oracle. In these lectures he frequently took notice of the corruptions of the begging friars, which at first he did in a soft and gentle manner, till finding that his detecting their abuses was what was acceptable to his hearers, he proceeded to deal more plainly and openly with them.” It is more than probable that the influence which he exercised over his own age, is in some degree to be ascribed to the circumstance of his occupying a theological chair in this university, which about that period was frequented by a great multitude of students. The invention of printing had not yet afforded the means of disseminating knowledge with great facility, and with great rapidity: books, which could only be multiplied by the slow process of transcription, were necessarily sold at a high price; and the number of individuals capable of reading them was surprisingly small. But the voice of the public teacher was raised with living energy; and his opinions, inculcated with learning and fervour, could not fail to influence those who in their turn were to become public teachers.

In the year 1374, he was employed in an embassy to the pope, Gregory the Eleventh, whose residence was at Avignon. The first person named in the commission is the bishop of Bangor, and the second is Dr Wycliffe. Their mission had a reference to one of the flagrant abuses of that period, the papal reservation of benefices in the English church. The ecclesiastical revenues, to a very great amount, were appropriated in this manner, and in many instances were most unworthily bestowed upon foreigners who were entirely unacquainted with the language of the country, and who were sometimes of too tender an age to be intrusted with the cure of souls. Against this branch of pontifical usurpation, the statute of provisors had been enacted in the year 1350. The embassy was not received at Avignon, but at Bruges; and with most of the pontiffs it would have been an act of wisdom to keep all strangers at a distance from their ordinary place of residence, which was too commonly the fountain-head of all iniquity. John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, had at the same period repaired to Bruges on another diplomatic mission; nor is it improbable that Wycliffe may thus have had a favourable opportunity of recommending himself to his powerful protection. The duke, as Dr Vaughan has remarked, is “the only son of Edward the Third, whose name is connected with the religion of that period, and who is known as the patron of Chaucer and Wycliffe.” It is not certain that the latter returned to England before the year 1376; but in the mean time he received different marks of the royal favour. He had formerly been nominated one of the king’s chaplains. In the month of November 1370, the king presented him to the prebend of Aust, in the collegiate church of Westbury, in the diocese of Worcester, and about the same period to the rectory of Lutterworth in Leicestershire, the presentation to this benefice having devolved upon the crown, in consequence of the minority of the patron, Lord Ferrars.

Wycliffe had now risen to high distinction, and if his views had been directed to the ordinary objects of a mere churchman’s ambition, it is probable that he might have obtained much higher preferment. Many individuals of the middle classes were gradually added to the number of his converts; nor was the duke of Lancaster the only man of rank and influence who regarded his person and doctrines with a favourable eye. But his proceedings must for a long time have excited the watchful jealousy of those who enjoyed the principal emoluments of the church, and were suspicious of all spiritual innovations, lest they might eventually lead to some encroachment on their own temporalities; for it has been remarked in every age, that those well-beneficed clergymen who, by the general tenor of their conduct, indicate the most perfect indifference as to the vital interests of religion, are yet the most loud and vehement in proclaiming the danger to which their “excellent establishment” must be exposed by the slightest change or concession. Being accused of heresy, he was summoned to appear before the convocation, which commenced its sittings in the month of February 1377, and in which Courtenay, bishop of London, made the most conspicuous figure. This prelate was son to the earl of Devonshire, by a grand-daughter of Edward the First, and added the pride of royal descent to the arrogance of priestly elevation. Wycliffe made lus appearance at St Paul’s on the 19th of the same month, and, to the no small dissatisfaction of the bishop and his partisans, was accompanied by the duke of Lancaster, and by Lord Percy, earl-marshal of England. So great was the concourse of people, that it was not without considerable difficulty that the marshal could procure him an avenue to the presence of his judges, Archbishop Sudbury, and other prelates, who were assembled in our Lady’s chapel, behind the high altar. “Dr Wicliffe, according to custom, stood before the commissioners, as one cited to appear there to hear what things they had to lay to his charge; but the earl-marshal, out of tenderness for Dr Wicliffe, and having but little regard to a court which owed all its authority to a foreign power, bid him sit down, telling him he had many things to answer to, and therefore had need of a soft seat to rest him upon during so tedious an attendance. The bishop of London, hearing that, answered, ’ he should not sit there ;’ for, says he, ‘ it is neither according to law nor reason, that he who was cited here to answer before his ordinary, should sit downe during the time of his answer adding, ‘ that if he could have guessed [7:21:951] that the earl-marshal would have played the master there, or been so troublesome, he would not have suffered him to come into the court.' On which many angry words passed betwixt the bishop and the earl-marshal. The duke of Lancaster took the earl-marshal’s part, and told the bishop that ‘ the earl-marshal’s motion was but reasonable, and that as for him, who was grown so proud and arrogant, he would bring down the pride, not only of him, but of all the prelacy of England; that he depended upon the greatness of his family, but that they should have enough to do to support themselves.”^[4. Lewis’s History of the Life and Sufferings of the reverend and learned John Wicliffe, D. D., p. 53. Lond. 1720, 8vo. See however p. 57 of the last edition, Oxford, 1820, 8vo, which contains various additions. ]

The duke of Lancaster did not then stand high in the popular favour; and his magnificent palace of the Savoy was attacked during the tumults which followed this stormy discussion. A clergyman, who had the misfortune of being mistaken for Lord Percy, was put to death by the populace. The decease of the aged king ensued on the 21st of June 1377, and he was succeeded by his grandson Richard, who had not completed the twelfth year of his age. A parliament was summoned soon after his accession, and the subject of the papal encroachments was again resumed. By this parliament, a question was submitted to the judgment of Wycliffe, whether a kingdom might not, in a case of necessity, prevent its treasures from being conveyed to a foreign country, although it should even be demanded by the pope himself. Here we have a sufficient proof that the charge of heresy, however it might expose him to resentment from the rulers of the church, had not diminished his credit with the rulers of the state. What answer the professor of divinity returned to this question, no reader can fail to anticipate. His opinions as to the temporalities of the church must have been thought fully as dangerous as his theological doctrines; and on the same day no fewer than four different bulls had been issued against him by Gregory the Eleventh; three of which were directed to the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of London, and a fourth to the chancellor and university of Oxford. All these documents, together with an apostolical epistle addressed to King Edward on the same subject, are dated on the 22d of May. The bulls of this “servant of the servants of God,” enjoin the parties to whom they are addressed to commit John Wycliffe to prison, and, having transmitted to Rome a full account of his heretical tenets, to detain him in custody until they should receive further instructions; but should they fail in their endeavours to seize his person, they are required to affix in suitable places a citation for his appearance before the pontiff within three months from the date of such citation. These pastoral mandates were not however very effectually executed; but during the earlier part of the year 1378, he appeared before a meeting of papal delegates in the archiepiscopal chapel at Lambeth. His doctrines were rapidly extending their influence, not merely among the people, but even at court. The populace were now alarmed for his personal safety, and, having surrounded the chapel, many of them forced their way into it, and gave sufficient indications of the part which they were prepared to act; nor was the mortification of the delegates diminished by the appearance of Sir Lewis Clifford, who, in the name of the queen mother, the widow of the Black Prince, prohibited them from proceeding to any definite sentence respecting the doctrine or conduct of Wycliffe.

He therefore returned to his former occupations, and by his pulpit discourses, his academical lectures, and his various writings, laboured to promote the cause of truth. The great and glorious labour of his declining years was his complete version of the Bible. It has always been one of the chief arts of priestcraft to keep mankind in a state of ignorance; and it may easily be conceived that an attempt to render the sacred books intelligible to every person capable of reading his mother-tongue, could not fail to kindle the fiery rage of the old Red Dragon. In our own time, we have heard divers denunciations from high-churchmen as to the danger of circulating the Bible without the Book of Common Prayer. According to their estimate, it is better to withhold the one, unless it can be duly qualified by the other. Are we then to conclude that there is no safety beyond the precincts of their own church; that the religion of protestants is only a safe way to salvation, when that way is paced in certain trammels, and swept with a white surplice? Or is the spiritual improvement of mankind of real importance in so far only as it may be circumscribed within the boundaries of episcopacy? The spirit of popery is not confined to professed papists. To translate the Bible was in Wycliffe regarded as an act of heresy, and his version continued to be a proscribed book till the era of the Reformation. Being ignorant of the Hebrew and Greek languages, which he had no opportunity of learning, he was under the necessity of translating from the Vulgate.^[5. Jablonski bas described Wycliffe as “vir excellenti ingenio, magno animo, et pietate solida praestans, sed quem linguarum sacrarum peritia, literarumque elegantiorum studia deficiebant.” (Institutiones Historiae Christianae, tom. i. p. 329.) ] What aid he may have received from others in the prosecution of his laborious undertaking, it is impossible to ascertain; but it is commonly understood that he was not without coadjutors. In a theological point of view, the value of his translation is far from being inconsiderable, and its value is still more conspicuous in illustrating the history of the English tongue. Wycliffe may indeed be regarded as the father of English prose. His version affords a very ample specimen of the language, as it existed in the fourteenth century; nor is it a little curious to remark, in very many instances, how immaterially his phraseology differs from that of the authorized version executed in the reign of King James. Of his translation of the New Testament, an edition was published by Mr Lewis in the year 1731, and another by Mr Baber in the year 1810; but it is not very creditable to his countrymen, who have derived so much benefit from his pious labours, that his translation of the Old Testament still remains in manuscript. This great deficiency however is at last to be supplied: Mr Forshall and Sir Frederic Madden, both of the British Museum, are now engaged in preparing an edition, which is to issue from the university press at Oxford. Of the influence of Wycliffe’s biblical labours, no person seems to have obtained a clearer view than Dr Lingard. He made, says this historian, “a new translation,^[6. From the researches of Mr Baber, who has bestowed much attention on the subject, it clearly appears that no entire translation into the English language had preceded that of Wycliffe. This editor has prefixed memoirs of the translator, including a long catalogue of his works. See likewise Dr Vaughan’s Life of Wycliffe, vol. ii. p. 379. ] multiplied the copies with the aid of transcribers, and by his poor priests recommended it to the perusal of their hearers. In their hands it became an engine of wonderful power. Men were flattered with the appeal to their private judgment; the new doctrines insensibly acquired partisans and protectors in the higher classes, who alone were acquainted with the use of letters; a spirit of enquiry was generated; and the seeds were sown of that religious revolution, which, in little more than a century, astonished and convulsed the nations of Europe.”

Wycliffe had at first exposed the discipline of the church, and the scandalous lives of churchmen; but he at length raised his voice against several of its doctrines, and particularly against the doctrine of transubstantiation. Wher [7:21:952] ever the understanding of mankind can be so completely debased as to admit this portentous doctrine, the dominion of the priest must be absolute: he is thus invested with a creative power; after the admission of such a dogma, no other can be found of very hard digestion; and he who exercises so much influence over a future world, must not be left without an ample share of what belongs to this. A persecution was again excited against the reformer; and the duke of Lancaster, who had hitherto befriended him, and who was well aware of the secular corruptions of the clergy, was not however prepared to support him in his attack on what was considered as a fundamental doctrine of the church. Courtenay, who had now become archbishop of Canterbury, was endowed with the spirit of an inquisitor, and appears to have wanted no inclination to confer upon Wycliffe the honour of martyrdom. This venerable man was summoned before a convocation held at Oxford; but although he made no recantation of his supposed errors, they did not venture to treat him as an obstinate heretic. A letter was however procured from the king, commanding him to banish himself from the university. About the same period, he was cited to appear before the pope; but, in return, he gave his holiness some salutary advice, and informed him that he neither felt strength nor inclination for so long a journey. His constitution was indeed exhausted by his multifarious exertions, and he had already been affected with a paralysis, which at length proved fatal. But after his final retirement to Lutterworth, he still continued to labour in the same great cause. He died on the last day of December 1384, when, according to the computation of his biographers, he had attained the age of sixty.

The grain of mustard-seed which was now sown became a great tree. The doctrines which Wycliffe propagated with so much zeal and ability, could not again be suppressed: the scat of Antichrist was gradually shaken from its old foundation; and the impulse which he gave to religious enquiry is apparently destined to reach the distant ages of futurity. His theological opinions cannot be detailed in this brief and imperfect notice. It may however be remarked, that he clearly anticipated the most distinguishing doctrines of the protestants, and that his opinions on certain points present an obvious coincidence with those of Calvin. Of the simplicity of primitive times, he was too devoted an admirer to secure the unqualified approbation of modern churchmen; and one biographer is not a little scandalized, because it seems perfectly clear that he did not consider the episcopal order as at all essential to the legitimate constitution of a Christian church. We find Wycliffe “zealously inculcating the lessons of inspiration on the fall of man, and the consequent depravity of human nature; on the excellence and perpetual obligation of the moral law; on the exclusive dependence of every child of Adam, for the remission of his sins, on the atonement of Christ; and for victory over temptation, and the possession of holiness, on the aids of divine grace.” We have already had occasion to state, that the influence of his opinions extended to persons of various ranks and denominations. Lord Cobham, the most illustrious of his followers, sealed his testimony with his blood, and many individuals of inferior condition were likewise brought to the stake. The religion of the people was to be purified by fire and fagot; and Henry the Fifth, endeavouring to atone for the follies of his youth by the bigotry of his manhood, rendered himself a willing instrument of persecution in the hands of an unholy and unrelenting priesthood.

The influence of Wycliffe’s doctrines soon extended from England to the continent, and their connexion with the subsequent progress of the reformation may very easily be traced. The next conspicuous stage was the kingdom of Bohemia. The king of Bohemia’s sister was the consort of Richard the Second, and she came to England in the year 1382. She was a religious princess, and constantly studied the four gospels in English, explained by the expositions of the doctors. The Bohemians who had frequented her court, returned to their own country, and carried along with them some of the works of the great reformer, which, being written in Latin, were intelligible to the learned of all the European nations. Jerom of Prague, who had studied in the university of Oxford, is said to have translated many of his works into the Bohemian language; but, according to another and a more probable account, be only copied some of them in England, and carried the transcripts to Bohemia.^[7. Lenfant, Hist, du Concile de Constance, tom. i. p. 110. Gilpin, who i« not very critical in his enquiries, has stated that “he translated many of them into his native language, having with great pains made himself master of the English.” (Lives of John Wickliff, and of the most eminent of his Disciples, Lord Cobbam, John Russ, Jerome of Prague, and Zisea. Lond. 1765, 8vo.) ] By this eminent person, and by his pious leader John Huss, the writings and character of Wycliffe were held in the highest veneration; and they endeavoured to follow his footsteps, by contributing to remove the corruptions of the church. Their earthly career was however terminated in a more tragical manner. The council of Constance, which condemned them both to the flames, added gross perfidy to inhuman cruelty, by violating the safe conduct which Huss had obtained from the emperor Sigismund, and which that prince had not the honour or the resolution to enforce.^[8. If the reader has any inclination to see how perfidy and cruelty can be justified by a true Jesuit, we beg leave to refer him to the elaborate publication of Heribertus Rosweydus, “De Fille Haereticis servanda ex decreto Concilii Constantiensis Dissertatio cum Danicle Plancio, Scholoe Delpbensis Moderatore; in qua, quae de Husso Historia est excutitur.” Antverpiae, 1610, 8vo. ] The same council, a miserable assemblage of those who acted as the representatives of the Christian community, pronounced sentence of condemnation on the whole of Wycliffe’s writings; and having decided that he had died an obstinate heretic, and that his memory should be held as infamous, they further decreed that his bones, which had now reposed in the dust for the space of thirty years, should be removed from consecrated ground, and scattered on the dunghill. But the cardinals, archbishops, bishops, abbots, and doctors, who were permitted to play such fantastic tricks before high Heaven, are themselves mingled with the vilest earth, while the name and memory of John Wycliffe continue to be held in unimpaired veneration. (x.)