John Wycliffe (1320-31 December 1384)
John Wycliffe, often referred to as the
morning star of the reformation was born in 1320 at Hipswell, Yorkshire in England. He is known to have been in Oxford by 1345 and was influenced by William
of Occam, Roger Bacon and Robert Grosseste.
He studied theology, ecclesiastical law and philosophy. He became unhappy with the scholastics and
the state of the church, especially the clergy in his day. He supported the king’s power over the church
in temporal affairs (and of course we must realise that the King was supposed
to be Christian.) He argued that the
scriptures should be the centre of authority for the church, that the claims of
the papacy had no basis in history, that monasticism was beyond repair and that
the unworthiness of many priests invalidated the sacraments.
Since he regarded scriptures as being so
important, he began translating the scriptures into English, he himself
probably translated the Gospels, and it is possible that he translated Acts,
the Epistles and Revelations. The Old
Testament was translated by his friend, Nicholas of Hereford. This translation had a great influence on the
English language of the time.
Wycliffe desired to see the church return
to the simplicity of the first three centuries.
He desired to see an end to the hierarchy and replace it with poor
priests, bound by no vows, but who would preach the gospel to the people. He created an order of lolard preachers, who
went out, two by two, bare foot, dressed in dark red robes, armed with a staff,
who taught his doctrines. Wycliffe saw
the church as Christ’s body, but not necessarily being the same as the Roman
Catholic Church.
Struck with apoplexy, he died rather
suddenly on December 31st, 1384 after having written many
treatises. After Richard II’s wife, Anne
of Bohemia died, her servants brought many of these tracts to Bohemia, where they were to have a great
affect on Jan Huss, whose writings in turn affected Martin Luther. Wycliffe’s greatest contribution was the
English bible. Wycliffe translators, who
translate the Bible into many languages is named in his honour.
Emanuel, as you
raised up John Wycliff to challenge the church to follow Yeshua and to
translate scriptures into the language of the common man, raise up for us
clergy who will call us to follow you, and who will make scripture clear to
all, that we may truly follow Yeshua.
This we ask in the name of Yeshua, whose birth we celebrate. Amen.
(White)
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