Wycliffe

JOHN WYCLIFFE (c. 1329 - 1384)

'The Morning Star of the Reformation' was born in or close to Wycliffe-on-Tees, a member of the ancient family celebrated by Sir Walter Scott in Rokeby, where Oswald and Wlfrid Wycliffe are characters. Wycliffe went to Balliol College, oxford, founded by the Balliols of nearby Barnard Castle, and became a celebrated lecturer in theology and philosophy. He was Master of Balliol at 36.

In his religious writings, mainly in Latin, but latterly in English, Wycliffe came to attack Rome's control of the English church, denying the validity of confession, indulgences and, eventually, transubstantiation. He asserted the right of every man to examine the bible for himself, and instituted a project for translating the Bible into the vernacular, though this was officially prohibited. The idea, propounded in De Civile Domino (1376) that all authority, whether of church or state, was founded in grace, and that the wicked forfeited their right to rule, had major political implications. Contemporaries sought to establish a connection between Wycliffe's preaching and the Peasant's Revolt of 1381, though Wycliffe spoke against the rising. He was eventually condemned for heresy after several attempts, but for some reason he was not judged, and was left to live out his days in peace. In 1428, however, his bones were dug up, burned and thrown into the river.

Wycliffe's ideas gained a wide following in England where his adherents were known as 'Lollards', and their influence persisted down to the Protestant Reformation. The importance of Wycliffe's translation project, marking as it does the beginning of a biblical tradition in English prose, can hardly be exaggerated, His ideas are reflected in the poetry of Chaucer (q.v.) and Langland's celebrated Piers Plowman (c. 1367-70).

The North East can also take pride, at one remove, in the work of William Tyndale (1484?-1536). The Tyndales had moved south to Gloucestershire from Langley Castle during the Wars of the Roses, possibly in the 1460s. They also changed their tell-tale name to Hutchins, the name Tyndale bore at Oxford. Tyndale's great translation of the bible, which was to cost him his life, was the foundation of all future such undertakings.

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
JOHN WYCLIFFE (c. 1329 - 1384) 'The Morning Star of the Reformation' was born in or close to Wycliffe-on-Tees, a member of the ancient family celebrated by Sir Walter Scott in Rokeby, where Oswald and Wlfrid Wycliffe are characters. Wycliffe went to Balliol College, oxford, founded by the Balliols of nearby Barnard Castle, and became a celebrated lecturer in theology and philosophy. He was Master of Balliol at 36. In his religious writings, mainly in Latin, but latterly in English, Wycliffe came to attack Rome's control of the English church, denying the validity of confession, indulgences and, eventually, transubstantiation. He asserted the right of every man to examine the bible for himself, and instituted a project for translating the Bible into the vernacular, though this was officially prohibited. The idea, propounded in De Civile Domino (1376) that all authority, whether of church or state, was founded in grace, and that the wicked forfeited their right to rule, had major political implications. Contemporaries sought to establish a connection between Wycliffe's preaching and the Peasant's Revolt of 1381, though Wycliffe spoke against the rising. He was eventually condemned for heresy after several attempts, but for some reason he was not judged, and was left to live out his days in peace. In 1428, however, his bones were dug up, burned and thrown into the river. Wycliffe's ideas gained a wide following in England where his adherents were known as 'Lollards', and their influence persisted down to the Protestant Reformation. The importance of Wycliffe's translation project, marking as it does the beginning of a biblical tradition in English prose, can hardly be exaggerated, His ideas are reflected in the poetry of Chaucer (q.v.) and Langland's celebrated Piers Plowman (c. 1367-70). The North East can also take pride, at one remove, in the work of William Tyndale (1484?-1536). The Tyndales had moved south to Gloucestershire from Langley Castle during the Wars of the Roses, possibly in the 1460s. They also changed their tell-tale name to Hutchins, the name Tyndale bore at Oxford. Tyndale's great translation of the bible, which was to cost him his life, was the foundation of all future such undertakings.
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