52-567: John Wycliffe ( / ˈ w ɪ k l ɪ f / ; also spelled Wyclif , Wickliffe , and other variants; c. 1328 – 31 December 1384) was an English scholastic philosopher , Christian reformer, Catholic priest , and a theology professor at the University of Oxford . Wycliffe is traditionally believed to have advocated or made a vernacular translation of the Vulgate Bible into Middle English , though more recent scholarship has minimalized
104-656: A bull against Wycliffe, dispatching one to the Archbishop of Canterbury , and the others to the Bishop of London , King Edward III , the Chancellor , and the university. Among the enclosures were 18 theses of his, which were denounced as erroneous and dangerous to Church and State: all were drawn from De Civili dominio . Stephen Lahey suggests that Gregory's action against Wycliffe was an attempt to put pressure on King Edward to make peace with France. Edward III died on 21 June 1377, and
156-473: A chief executive ; and for representing the college externally, both within the government of the university and further afield often in aid of fund-raising for the college. The nature of the role varies in importance depending on the nature of the central university. At a loosely federated university such as the University of London or the National University of Ireland , where each member institution
208-413: A Bishop. The Council of Constance declared Wycliffe a heretic on 4 May 1415, and banned his writings. The Council decreed that Wycliffe's works should be burned and his bodily remains removed from consecrated church ground, following the customary logic that heretics had put themselves outside the church. This order, confirmed by Pope Martin V , was eventually carried out in 1428. Wycliffe's corpse, or
260-472: 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. He 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. In a book concerned with the government of God and
312-494: A form of sedition or treason, and ordered that Lollard books, frequently associated with Wycliffe, be handed over and burnt; someone who refused and would not abjure could be burnt. The "Constitutions of Oxford" of 1408 established rules in Oxford University, and specifically named John Wycliffe as it Lollard writings as heretical; it decreed that new translation efforts of Scripture into English should be first authorized by
364-488: A man of monastic training, turned the leadership of the college over to a monk. In 1367, Wycliffe appealed to Rome. In 1371, Wycliffe's appeal was decided and the outcome was unfavourable to him. The incident was typical of the ongoing rivalry between monks or friars and secular clergy at Oxford at this time. In 1368, he gave up his living at Fillingham and took over the rectory of Ludgershall, Buckinghamshire , not far from Oxford, which enabled him to retain his connection with
416-517: A neighbour's, was exhumed; unusually, on the orders of the bishop the remains were burned and the ashes drowned in the River Swift , which flows through Lutterworth. None of Wycliffe's contemporaries left a complete picture of his person, his life, and his activities. Paintings representing Wycliffe are from a later period. In The Testimony of William Thorpe (1407) (possibly apocryphal), Wycliffe appears wasted and physically weak. Thorpe says Wycliffe
468-590: A reforming pope. The literary achievements of Wycliffe's last days, such as the Trialogus , stand at the peak of the knowledge of his day. His last work, the Opus evangelicum , the last part of which he named in characteristic fashion "Of Antichrist", remained uncompleted. While he was saying Mass in the parish church on Holy Innocents' Day , 28 December 1384, he suffered a stroke, and died a few days later. The anti-Lollard statute of 1401 De heretico comburendo classed heresy as
520-449: A small treatise, The Last Age of the Church . In the light of the virulence of the plague, which had subsided seven years previously, Wycliffe's studies led him to the opinion that the close of the 14th century would mark the end of the world. While other writers viewed the plague as God's judgment on sinful people, Wycliffe saw it as an indictment of an unworthy clergy. The mortality rate among
572-812: Is said to have completed a translation direct from the Vulgate into Middle English – a version now known as Wycliffe's Bible . He may have personally translated the Gospels of Matthew , Mark , Luke and John but it is possible he initially translated the entire New Testament Early Version. It is assumed that his associates translated the Old Testament and revised the Late Version. Wycliffe's Bible appears to have been completed prior to 1384, with additional updated versions being done by Wycliffe's assistant John Purvey , and others, in 1388 and 1395. More recently historians of
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#1732859223300624-542: Is said to have had rooms in the buildings of The Queen's College . In 1362, he was granted a prebend at Aust in Westbury-on-Trym , which he held in addition to the post at Fillingham. In 1365, his performance led Simon Islip , Archbishop of Canterbury , to place him at the head of Canterbury Hall , where twelve young men were preparing for the priesthood. In December 1365, Islip appointed Wycliffe as warden, but when Islip died in 1366, his successor, Simon Langham ,
676-522: Is self-governing and some hold university status in their own right, the head of each institution has the same level of responsibility as the vice-chancellor of a university. At more centralised universities, the heads of colleges have less power and responsibility. Heads of colleges will often participate in the governance of the central university. Mechanisms for this very between university and include: Many different titles are used for heads of colleges. These have also changed with time, in particularly
728-522: The Ten Commandments , he attacked the temporal rule of the clergy, the collection of annates , indulgences , and simony . According to Benedictine historian Francis Aidan Gasquet , at least some of Wycliffe's program should be seen as (naive) "attempts at social reconstruction" in the aftermath the continuing institutional chaos after the Black Death (1347-1349) Wycliffe entered the politics of
780-604: The friars who supported it. In the summer of 1381, Wycliffe formulated his doctrine of the Lord's Supper in twelve short sentences, and made it a duty to advocate it everywhere. Then the English hierarchy launched proceedings against him. The chancellor of the University of Oxford had some of the declarations pronounced heretical. When this was announced to Wycliffe, he declared that no one could change his convictions. He then appealed – not to
832-473: 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
884-432: The 1320s. He has conventionally been given a birth date of 1324 but Hudson and Kenny state only records "suggest he was born in the mid-1320s". Conti states that he was born "before 1331". Wycliffe received his early education close to his home. It is unknown when he first came to Oxford , with which he was so closely connected until the end of his life, but he is known to have been at Oxford around 1345. Thomas Bradwardine
936-634: The Middle English works (tracts) ascribed to Wycliffe can be confidently attributed to him, in contrast to the Latin works, with the possible exception of six: On the Pastoral Office , On the Pope , On the Church and Her Members , Of Confession , Of Pseudo-Friars , and Of Dominion . A large number of sermons ascribed to him, about 250 in Middle English and 170 in Latin, survive. According to tradition Wycliffe
988-602: The Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.132 via cp1112 cp1112, Varnish XID 388194981 Upstream caches: cp1112 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Fri, 29 Nov 2024 05:47:03 GMT Master (college) A head of college or head of house is the head or senior member of a college within a collegiate university . The title used varies between colleges, including dean , master , president , principal , provost , rector and warden . The role of
1040-619: The Wycliffite movement have suggested that Wycliffe had at most a minor role in the actual translations or contributed ad hoc passages taken from his English theological writings, with some, building on the earlier theories of Francis Aidan Gasquet , going as far as to suggest he had no role in the translations other than the translation projects perhaps being inspired, at least partially, by Wycliffe's biblicism at Oxford, but otherwise being orthodox Catholic translations later co-opted by his followers. In keeping with Wycliffe's belief that scripture
1092-407: The arrest of those in error. The citadel of the reformatory movement was Oxford, where Wycliffe's most active helpers were. The ban applied to them and they were summoned to recant. Nicholas of Hereford went to Rome to appeal. On 17 November 1382, Wycliffe was summoned before a synod at Oxford. He still commanded the favour of the court and of Parliament, to which he addressed a memorial. In 1383 he
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#17328592233001144-583: The bull against Wycliffe did not reach England before December. 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. Back at Oxford, the Vice-Chancellor confined Wycliffe for some time in Black Hall, but his friends soon obtained his release. In March 1378, Wycliffe was summoned to appear at Lambeth Palace to defend himself. However, Sir Lewis Clifford entered
1196-479: The chapel and in the name of the queen mother ( Joan of Kent ), forbade the bishops to proceed to a definite sentence concerning Wycliffe's conduct or opinions. Wycliffe wrote a letter expressing and defending his less "obnoxious doctrines". The bishops, who were divided, satisfied themselves with forbidding him to speak further on the controversy. Wycliffe then wrote his De incarcerandis fedelibus , with 33 conclusions in Latin and English. In this writing he laid open
1248-486: The clergy had been particularly high and those who replaced them were, in his opinion, uneducated or generally disreputable. In 1361, he was Master of Balliol College . That year he was presented by the college to the parish of Fillingham in Lincolnshire , which he visited rarely during long vacations from Oxford. For this he had to give up the headship of Balliol College, though he could continue to live at Oxford. He
1300-445: The clergy must live in poverty. The tendency of the high offices of state to be held by clerics was resented by many of the nobles, such as the backroom power broker John of Gaunt , who would have had his own reasons for opposing the wealth and power of the clergy, since it challenged the foundation of his power. Wycliffe was summoned before William Courtenay , Bishop of London , on 19 February 1377. The exact charges are not known, as
1352-459: The consultations on 21 May an earthquake occurred. The participants were terrified and wished to break up the assembly, but Courtenay declared the earthquake a favourable sign, which meant the purification of the earth from erroneous doctrine, and the result of the " Earthquake Synod " was assured. Of the 24 propositions attributed to Wycliffe without mentioning his name, ten were declared heretical and fourteen erroneous. The former had reference to
1404-454: The day with his great work De civili dominio ("On Civil Dominion"), which drew arguments from the works of Richard FitzRalph 's. This called for the royal divestment of all church property. In 1377, Wycliffe's ideas on lordship and church wealth caused his first official condemnation by Pope Gregory XI, who censured 19 articles. Wycliffe argued that the Church had fallen into sin and that it ought therefore to give up all its property, and that
1456-485: The effect was to give Wycliffe "very gloomy views in regard to the condition and prospects of the human race". In September 1351, Wycliffe became a priest. Wycliffe would have been at Oxford during the St Scholastica Day riot , in which sixty-three students and a number of townspeople were killed. In 1356, Wycliffe completed his bachelor of arts degree at Merton College as a junior fellow. That same year he produced
1508-559: The entire case, in such a way that it was understood by the laity. In it he demanded that it should be legal for the excommunicated to appeal to the king and his council against the excommunication: the state should be able to override the church. Some ordinary citizens, some of the nobility, and his former protector, John of Gaunt, rallied to him. Before any further steps could be taken in Rome, Gregory XI died in 1378. The attacks on Pope Gregory XI grew ever more extreme. Wycliffe's stand concerning
1560-463: The extent of his advocacy or involvement for lack of direct contemporary evidence. He became an influential dissident within the Catholic priesthood during the 14th century and is often considered an important predecessor to Protestantism . His theory of dominion meant that men in mortal sin were not entitled to exercise authority in the church or state, nor to own property. Wycliffe insisted on
1612-403: The head of college varies significantly between colleges of the same university, and even more so between different universities. However, the head of college will often have responsibility for leading the governing body of the college, often acting as a chair of various college committees; for executing the decisions of the governing body through the college's organisational structure, acting as
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1664-533: The ideal of poverty became continually firmer, as well as his position with regard to the temporal rule of the clergy. Closely related to this attitude was his book De officio regis , the content of which was foreshadowed in his 33 conclusions. This book, like those that preceded and followed, was concerned with the reform of the Church, in which the temporal arm was to have an influential part. From 1380 onwards, Wycliffe devoted himself to writings that argued his rejection of transubstantiation , and strongly criticised
1716-567: The matter did not get as far as a definite examination. Lechler suggests that Wycliffe was targeted by John of Gaunt 's opponents among the nobles and church hierarchy. Gaunt, the Earl Marshal Henry Percy , and a number of other supporters accompanied Wycliffe. A crowd gathered at the church, and at the entrance, party animosities began to show, especially in an angry exchange between the bishop and Wycliffe's protectors over whether Wycliffe should sit. Gaunt declared that he would humble
1768-594: The notion of caesaropapism , with some questioning the veneration of saints , the sacraments , requiem masses , transubstantiation , monasticism , and the legitimacy or role of the Papacy . Wycliffe's writings in Latin greatly influenced the philosophy and teaching of the Czech reformer Jan Hus ( c. 1369–1415). Wycliffe was born in the village of Hipswell , near Richmond in the North Riding of Yorkshire , England, around
1820-496: The parish church to prevent disputation. The preachers didn't limit their criticism of the accumulation of wealth and property to that of the monasteries, but included secular properties belonging to the nobility. Although Wycliffe disapproved of the revolt, some of his disciples justified the killing of Simon Sudbury , Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1382, Wycliffe's old enemy William Courtenay , now Archbishop of Canterbury, called an ecclesiastical assembly of notables at London. During
1872-472: The pope or the ecclesiastical authorities of the land, but to the king. He published his great confession upon the subject, and a second writing in English intended for the common people. As long as Wycliffe limited his attacks to abuses and the wealth of the Church, he could rely on the support of part of the clergy and aristocracy, but once he dismissed the traditional doctrine of transubstantiation , his theses could not be defended any more. This view cost him
1924-441: The pride of the English clergy and their partisans, hinting at the intent to secularise the possessions of the Church. The assembly broke up and Gaunt and his partisans departed with their protégé . Most of the English clergy were irritated by this encounter, and attacks upon Wycliffe began. Wycliffe's second and third books dealing with civil government carry a sharp polemic . On 22 May 1377, Pope Gregory XI sent five copies of
1976-616: The project was due to his leadership. For the initial Early Version (EV), the rendering of the Old Testament is attributed to his friend Nicholas of Hereford ; the rendering of some of the New Testament has been traditionally attributed to Wycliffe. The whole was revised perhaps by Wycliffe's younger contemporary John Purvey in 1388, known as the Late Version (LV). Linguistic analysis, however, suggests there were multiple translators for both EV and LV translations. There still exist over 200 manuscripts, complete or partial, mainly containing
2028-516: The radical poverty of all clergy. Wycliffe has been characterised as the "evening star" of scholasticism and as the morning star or stella matutina of the English Reformation . Certain of Wycliffe's later followers, derogatorily called Lollards by their orthodox contemporaries in the 15th and 16th centuries, adopted a number of the beliefs attributed to Wycliffe such as theological virtues , predestination , iconoclasm , and
2080-489: 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
2132-461: The support of John of Gaunt and many others. In the midst of this came the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 . The revolt was sparked in part by Wycliffe's preaching, carried throughout the realm by "poor priests" or "poor preachers" appointed by Wycliffe, and mostly laymen. A contemporary record claims local sympathetic knights would force local people to hear the preaching, sometimes acting as armed guards in
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2184-604: The supremacy of the king over the priesthood. He also rejected the selling of indulgences . The battle against what he saw as an imperialised papacy and its supporters, the "sects", as he called the monastic orders, takes up a large space not only in his later works, such as the Trialogus , Dialogus , Opus evangelicum , and in his sermons, but also in a series of sharp tracts and polemical productions in Latin and English (of which those issued in his later years have been collected as "Polemical Writings"). Scholastic philosopher Too Many Requests If you report this error to
2236-607: The teachings of Wycliffe. 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 honour. Even in Wycliffe's time the "Lollards" had reached wide circles in England and preached "God's law, without which no one could be justified." Furthermore, not all anti-clerical people were Lollards, not all Lollards were Wycliffites, and not all productions attributed to Wycliffites were anti-Catholic, despite later conflation. In
2288-473: The transformation in the sacrament, the latter to matters of church order and institutions. It was forbidden from that time to hold these opinions or to advance them in sermons or in academic discussions. All persons disregarding this order were to be subject to prosecution. To accomplish this, the help of the State was necessary, but the Commons rejected the bill. The king, however, had a decree issued which permitted
2340-572: The translation in its LV form. From this, it is possible to infer that texts were widely diffused in the 15th century. For this reason, the Wycliffites in England were often designated by their opponents as "Bible men"; it has been noted, however, that the vocabulary in English Wycliffite sermons doesn't typically match that found in the EV or LV. Historian S. Harrison Thomson notes that Wycliff's theology
2392-535: The university. Tradition has it that he began his translation of the Bible into English while sitting in a room above what is now the porch in Ludgershall Church. In 1369, Wycliffe obtained a bachelor's degree in theology, and his doctorate in 1372. In 1374, he received the crown living of St Mary's Church, Lutterworth in Leicestershire , which he retained until his death. In 1374, Wycliffe's name appears on
2444-467: The years before his death in 1384 he increasingly argued for Scriptures as the authoritative centre of Christianity, that the claims of the papacy were unhistorical, that monasticism was irredeemably corrupt, and that the moral unworthiness of priests invalidated their office and sacraments . Wycliffe returned to Lutterworth . From there he sent out tracts against the monks and Pope Urban VI . Urban VI, contrary to Wycliffe's hopes, had not turned out to be
2496-637: 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. "I indeed clove to none closer than to him, the wisest and most blessed of all men whom I have ever found." Wycliffe is said to have written about two hundred works in Latin and Middle English . There are few experts in 14th-century scholastic Latin, and many of Wycliffe's Latin works have not been translated into English, which has limited their study by historians. His theological and political works include numerous books and tracts: Most historians hold that few to none of
2548-460: Was on a broader canvas than the continental reformation: however of the major Protestant notes, he certainly advocated "the supremacy of scripture over tradition", however it is difficult to find justification by faith alone or the priesthood of all believers espoused in his works. No reformer adopted his view that every verse in Scripture was in some way literally true. Wycliffe had come to regard
2600-448: Was summonsed to Rome, but he suffered a debilitating stroke and was excused from travel. He was neither excommunicated then, nor deprived of his living. 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. Itinerant preachers spread
2652-568: Was the Archbishop of Canterbury and his book On the Cause of God against the Pelagians , a bold recovery of the Pauline–Augustinian doctrine of grace, greatly shaped young Wycliffe's views, as did the Black Death , which reached England in the summer of 1348. From his frequent references to it in later life it appears to have made a deep and abiding impression upon him. According to Robert Vaughn,
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#17328592233002704-409: Was the only authoritative reliable guide to the truth about God, he is said to have become involved in efforts to translate the Bible into English. However, while Wycliffe is popularly credited, it is not possible exactly to define his part, if any, in the translations, which were based on the Vulgate . In common belief from only decades after the translations, it was his initiative, and the success of
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