John Wycliffe

True Christian heroes remain unconditionally faithful to Christ and His Word even under the most severe pressure. One inspiring example is John Wycliffe (1320–1384), a theology professor at Oxford. He boldly proclaimed the headship of Christ, the authority of the Scriptures, and salvation by grace through faith.

Concerned with those teachings, on May 22, 1377, Pope Gregory XI issued five bulls condemning the work of Wycliffe for promoting “certain erroneous and false propositions and conclusions, savoring even of heretical pravity, tending to weaken and overthrow the status of the whole church, and even the secular government.” In response to the pope’s bulls, Wycliffe stated, “I profess and claim to be by the grace of God a sound (that is, a true and orthodox) Christian and while there is breath in my body I will speak forth and defend the law of it. I am ready to defend my convictions even unto death. In these my conclusions I have followed the Sacred Scriptures and the holy doctors, and if my conclusions can be proved to be opposed to the faith, willingly will I retract them.” On May 4, 1415, the Council of Constance retroactively excommunicated Wycliffe and banned his writings. His works were to be burned, and his remains removed from consecrated ground. This order, confirmed by Pope Martin V, was carried out in 1428 —forty-three years after Wycliffe’s death! In the presence of several ecclesiastical authorities, his remains were taken out of his grave in Lutterworth, burned to ashes, and cast into the nearby brook Swift. Someone wrote an epitaph at his former grave declaring him “the devil’s instrument, church’s enemy, people’s confusion.”42 In The Church History in Britain (published originally in 1655), Thomas Fuller states, “Thus this brook [Swift] hath conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into the narrow seas, they into the main ocean; and thus the ashes of Wicliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispensed all the world over.”43 And by God’s grace, we, too, have inherited this wonderful legacy of truth. Even though we are not compelled to pay such a high price for our faith, we should have the same commitment Wycliffe had. Let’s carry his torch until the end!