What is john wycliffe known for
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John Wycliffe's Life and Work
John Wycliffe set the groundwork for the Protestant Reformation with his criticisms of the Roman Catholic church and his translation of the Bible into English. Let's take a look at this man's life and his importance today.
John Wycliffe: Reformation Morningstar
John Wycliffe, heralded as the "Morning star of the Reformation" was the leading philosopher of the 14th century and an English priest. There were many reformers throughout the history of the Christian church and all of the great ones that we will look at in the next several issues came from within the Roman Catholic heritage. They did not set out to form new denominations nor did they seek to break from the Church. Rather, they passionately desired that the Church reform from within and correct abuses that had crept in over many generations.
In the sixteenth century the need for drastic reform and correction of religious abuses burst forth in full force with leaders, such as Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli. (We will look at them in future issues in this cycle.) But a necessary gr
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John Wycliffe
English theologian (c. 1331 – 1384)
"John Wickliffe" and "Wycliff" redirect here. For the ship, see John Wickliffe (ship). For other uses and other people, see Wycliffe.
John Wycliffe (; also spelled Wyclif, Wickliffe, and other variants;[a]c. 1328 – 31 December 1384)[2] 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 the extent of his advocacy or involvement for lack of direct contemporary evidence.[3]: 7–8 [4][5]
He became an influential dissident within the Catholic priesthood during the 14th century and is often considered an important predecessor to Protestantism.[6] 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.[7&# John Wyclif was born near Richmond (Yorkshire) before 1330 and ordained in 1351. He spent the greater part of his life in the schools at Oxford: he was fellow of Merton in 1356, master of arts at Balliol in 1360, and doctor of divinity in 1372. He definitely left Oxford in 1381 for Lutterworth (Leicestershire), where he died on 31 December, 1384. It was not until 1374 (when he went on a diplomatic mission to Bruges) that Wyclif entered the royal service, but his connection with John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, probably dates back to 1371. His ideas on lordship and church wealth, expressed in De civili dominio (On Civil Dominion), caused his first official condemnation in 1377 by the Pope (Gregory XI), who censured nineteen articles. As has been pointed out (Leff 1967), in 1377–78 Wyclif made a swift progression from unqualified fundamentalism to a heretical view of the Church and its Sacraments. He clearly claimed the supremacy of the king over the priesthood (see for instance his De ecclesia [On the Church], between early
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John Wyclif
1. Life and Works
1.1 Life
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