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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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John Wycliffe
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(c.1330–84)
Important precursor of the *Reformation. After a brilliant career as a theologian at Oxford, he became in his last years a powerful opponent of the claims of the papacy – the worldliness of which was emphasized in 1378, when the *Great Schism produced two rival popes. At about this time Wycliffe wrote a series of works not only attacking the wealth of the Church but emphasizing various points which were later central to the Reformation. He argued that the scriptures provide the only firm basis for religious authority; that the Bible must therefore be available to Christians in their own languages; and that the bread and wine of the sacrament do not literally become, through transubstantiation, the body and blood of Christ.
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In Oxford in 1381 his opinions were pronounced heretical, but he had not been brought to trial by the time he died in 1384 in his Leicestershire parish of Lutterworth. His ideas lived on among the *Lollards and inspired the great Czech reformer, John *Huss (or Jan Hus). The Council of *Constance (1414–18) finally ended the Schism but also burned Huss and condemned Wycliffe; his remains were dug up, burnt and thrown into the river Swift at Lutterworth.
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