John Wycliffe

An Oxford philosopher and theologian, Wycliffe (c. 1328–1384) became a fierce critic of ecclesiastical corruption, the wealth of the church, and papal power, and inspired the first complete English translations of the Bible. Protected by powerful patrons, he died of natural causes in 1384; his followers, the Lollards, were later persecuted.

He struggled against the church hierarchy that condemned his teachings, relying on political protectors amid the turbulence of the Papal Schism and the social unrest of late-fourteenth-century England.

Wycliffe taught the supreme authority of scripture over church tradition, questioned transubstantiation, and argued that the church should renounce worldly wealth and that all believers should read the Bible in their own language — themes the Reformation would later take up.

A scholar and churchman, Wycliffe fought no wars, though his teachings were linked in the minds of authorities to the social upheaval of the age, including the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.

His ideas were condemned as heresy, and decades after his death the Council of Constance ordered his remains exhumed and burned. Whether he directly inspired later reformers or the Hussites, and how far the "Wycliffe Bible" was his own work, are debated by historians.

Wycliffe is remembered as a precursor of the Reformation; his emphasis on scripture and the vernacular Bible influenced Jan Hus and, through him, the later reformers, earning him the title "morning star of the Reformation."