49 Facts About John Wycliffe

John Wycliffe was an English scholastic philosopher, Christian reformer, Catholic priest, and a theology professor at the University of Oxford.

John Wycliffe has been characterised as the "evening star" of scholasticism and as the morning star or stella matutina of the English Reformation.

John Wycliffe was born in the village of Hipswell, near Richmond in the North Riding of Yorkshire, England, around the 1320s.

John Wycliffe has conventionally been given a birth date of 1324 but Hudson and Kenny state only records "suggest he was born in the mid-1320s".

John Wycliffe would have been at Oxford during the St Scholastica Day riot, in which sixty-three students and a number of townspeople were killed.

Around the year 1354, John Wycliffe encountered two Waldensian men who had travelled from Piedmont to England to spread what they believed to be the true Gospel in Britain.

In 1356, John Wycliffe completed his bachelor of arts degree at Merton College as a junior fellow.

John Wycliffe is said to have had rooms in the buildings of The Queen's College.

In 1371, John Wycliffe's appeal was decided and the outcome was unfavourable to him.

In 1369, John Wycliffe obtained a bachelor's degree in theology, and his doctorate in 1372.

In 1374, John Wycliffe's name appears on a commission, after a bishop, which the English Government sent to Bruges to discuss with the representatives of Gregory XI a number of points in dispute between the king and the pope.

John Wycliffe was no longer satisfied with his chair as the means of propagating his ideas, and soon after his return from Bruges he began to express them in tracts and longer works.

John Wycliffe entered the politics of the day with his great work De civili dominio, which drew arguments from the works of Richard FitzRalph's.

John Wycliffe argued that the Church had fallen into sin and that it ought therefore to give up all its property, and that the clergy must live in poverty.

Stephen Lahey suggests that Gregory's action against John Wycliffe was an attempt to put pressure on King Edward to make peace with France.

John Wycliffe was asked to give the king's council his opinion on whether it was lawful to withhold traditional payments to Rome, and he responded that it was.

John Wycliffe wrote a letter expressing and defending his less "obnoxious doctrines".

John Wycliffe then wrote his De incarcerandis fedelibus, with 33 conclusions in Latin and English.

John Wycliffe's stand concerning the ideal of poverty became continually firmer, as well as his position with regard to the temporal rule of the clergy.

From 1380 onwards, John Wycliffe devoted himself to writings that argued his rejection of transubstantiation, and strongly criticised the friars who supported it.

When this was announced to John Wycliffe, he declared that no one could change his convictions.

John Wycliffe published his great confession upon the subject, and a second writing in English intended for the common people.

The revolt was sparked in part by John Wycliffe's preaching, carried throughout the realm by "poor priests" or "poor preachers" appointed by John Wycliffe, and mostly laymen.

John Wycliffe still commanded the favour of the court and of Parliament, to which he addressed a memorial.

John Wycliffe was neither excommunicated then, nor deprived of his living.

John 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 Gospel to the people.

Urban VI, contrary to John Wycliffe's hopes, had not turned out to be a reforming pope.

The anti-Lollard statute of 1401 De heretico comburendo classed heresy as a form of sedition or treason, and ordered that Lollard books, frequently associated with John Wycliffe, be handed over and burnt; someone who refused and would not abjure could be burnt.

None of John Wycliffe's contemporaries left a complete picture of his person, his life, and his activities.

Thorpe says John Wycliffe was of unblemished walk in life, and regarded affectionately by people of rank, who often consorted with him, took down his sayings, and clung to him.

John Wycliffe is said to have written about two hundred works in Latin and Middle English.

However, while John Wycliffe is popularly credited, it is not possible exactly to define his part, if any, in the translations, which were based on the Vulgate.

John Wycliffe accepted the existence of purgatory but not the usefulness of intercession for the saved in purgatory.

John Wycliffe directed his strongest criticism against the friars, whose preaching he considered neither scriptural nor sincere, but motivated by "temporal gain".

In each John Wycliffe has two approaches: he attacks both the Papacy and its institutions, and Roman Catholic doctrine.

John Wycliffe's influence was never greater than at the moment when pope and antipope sent their ambassadors to England to gain recognition for themselves.

John Wycliffe argued that criminals who had taken sanctuary in churches might lawfully be dragged out of sanctuary.

John Wycliffe was a prominent English theologian and scholastic philosopher of the second half of the 14th century.

John Wycliffe earned his great repute as a philosopher at an early date.

The practical application of this for John Wycliffe was seen in the rebellious attitude of individuals towards rightful authority.

John Wycliffe demanded strict dialectical training as the means of distinguishing the true from the false, and asserted that logic furthered the knowledge of catholic verities; ignorance of logic was the reason why men misunderstood Scripture, since men overlooked the connection, the distinction between idea and appearance.

John Wycliffe was not merely conscious of the distinction between theology and philosophy, but his sense of reality led him to pass by scholastic questions.

John Wycliffe rejected the sacrament of confession, saying they were against scripture.

John Wycliffe was attacked as being a Donatist, however the claim was a misconception, perhaps used to discredit his views on the Eucharist, which were consubstantiation:.

John Wycliffe argued that all events occur by absolute necessity, and that God is the author of even man's evil deeds.

John Wycliffe appears to have had similar ideas of justification as the later reformers would.

John Wycliffe taught that the scriptures were literally true unless obviously figurative, to the extent that when Jesus spoke in parables, he was reporting events that had actually occurred.

John Wycliffe is popularly connected with the view that scriptures should be translated into the vernacular and made available to laymen, and that this was a critical issue in the censures against him.

John Wycliffe was instrumental in the development of a translation of the Bible in English, thus making it accessible to English speakers with poor Latin, though whether he himself translated the Bible, in part or whole, or merely played a part in motivating its translation indirectly through his revival of Oxford biblical studies, is a matter of debate.