author
John Wycliffe
d. 1384
A bold Oxford thinker who challenged church power and helped inspire one of the earliest movements for reform in England. He is closely linked with the push to bring the Bible into English so ordinary people could read it for themselves.
1 Audiobook
The last age of the church
by John Wycliffe
About the author
Born in Yorkshire around the 1320s, John Wycliffe became a scholar, priest, and theology professor at Oxford. He built a reputation as a sharp thinker and outspoken critic of abuses within the medieval church.
Wycliffe argued that Scripture should stand above church wealth and political power, and he attacked practices he believed had drifted away from Christian teaching. His ideas helped shape the Lollard movement, and he is often remembered as an important forerunner of the Protestant Reformation.
He is also traditionally associated with the first complete translation of the Bible into English, though historians debate exactly how direct his role was in the finished work. Wycliffe died on December 31, 1384, but his writings and reputation continued to influence religious debate long after his lifetime.