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| John Wycliffe |
In 1302, pope Boniface VIII issued a papal decree known as Unam Sanctum [one holy church] to all of
Europe. This official message declared
that there was one true church composed only of those who were baptized and obedient
to the Roman pontiff because as the vicar of Christ, he is the supreme ruler
over the inhabitants of the earth. This
assertion of supreme authority came at a time when the papacy and church
hierarchy was receiving pushback from many quarters throughout Europe including
branches of the church and different monarchs.
Although the statement is the epitome of superbia and was considered so by many at the time, it reflected an
overall view of the nature of the Christian church that was so deeply seated,
it truly was considered heresy to think otherwise. In many regards the idea of papal supremacy
is the debate that led to the Catholic-Protestant division two centuries
later. In looking at the life and career
of John Wycliffe, it is important to understand this conflict because he was a
devoted clergyman and theologian who in his public life and pastoral practice
both implicitly and explicitly challenged this idea.
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| Pope Boniface VIII |
Wycliffe’s life intersected with what was one of the darkest
centuries in Western Europe. Born in
1328 in the county of Yorkshire England, Wycliffe would witness in his lifetime
the Black Death which took as much as 50% of the populace in some places, the
bloody conflict of the Hundred Years War with France (which actually lasted
well beyond 100 years), and finally the Western Schism of the Church where
rival claimants to the papacy divided Christians for nearly 40 years. Christ promised his disciples that as long as
they were in this world there would be tribulation (Jn. 16:33) but it seems
that the life and times of John Wycliffe received an extra portion of trouble
somehow.
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| The Black Death took 50% of the populace in places |
Of John Wycliffe’s early life not much is known. The Wycliffe family raised sheep and lived in
a village some 200 miles outside of London.
What early education he received probably came from his local
priest. In 1342 Wycliffe’s village comes
under the leadership of the Duke of Lancaster, John of Gaunt, the second son of
King Edward III. Later in life there
would be strong ties between the Duke of Lancaster and Wycliffe but it is not
likely the two knew each other prior to Wycliffe’s rise to national prominence. In 1345, when Wycliffe is 17 years old, he
begins to attend Oxford University starting what would be a long and
distinguished academic career. Like most
students in his socio-economic status paying for college was a struggle, but he
was able to work his way through college living very modestly in a residence
near his school.
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| Oxford today |
Wycliffe was to be associated with the colleges of Oxford as
a student, academic, and teacher for almost the remainder of his life. In 1361 he received his Master of Arts degree
and in 1372 was made a doctor of theology.
If this seems like a long time to be in school it should be remembered
that the length of training to teach and be ordained for ministry was much
longer in this period of history. Once
Wycliffe received the Master of Arts, he worked as a minister and a professor
while continuing his studies towards his doctorate. When he received his doctorate he was also
made the rector of Lutterworth church, a position he held for the remainder of
his life.
In terms of biography, speaking of Wycliffe’s education is a
bit more important than just explaining that he had credentials he could put on
a resume. He was a man of humble
beginnings who was able to attain expert status in interpreting and
understanding the Bible. He had equal
interest in law and philosophy and studied them quite deeply as well. The sum of this prepared him to be an able
spokesman for the English crown to the papacy as well as made him one of the
most well-known and trusted theologians in all of Europe. In essence, Wycliffe’s greater influence was
that he was truly learned and intellectually honest. This would bring both fame and controversy as
time went on, but it is why he is important as a forerunner of the Protestant
Reformation.
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| Wycliffe the preacher |
Between 1374-76 Wycliffe develops and publishes what has
been called his “Dominion Theory.” This
is the idea that all resources in the world are God’s and He alone gives them
to men. If anyone misuses these in some
way, God is quite justified in removing them and giving them to another as an
act of discipline or punishment. No one
possesses anything by “divine right” but at the pleasure of God.
As this idea played out in historical context, England was
at the time facing a possible war with France.
Strapped for cash, England was also facing great demands from the Catholic
Church for more and more support. Wycliffe
goes against the church and urges parliament not to comply with their demands. He argued the church already had enough
wealth and Christ urged his disciples to poverty not aggrandizement. This certainly made him popular with the
state (at least for the moment) but earned him the attention of Pope Gregory XI
who issued five papal bulls against Wycliffe on this theory calling it error
from the master of errors.
In 1377, Wycliffe is condemned at a meeting he has with
church officials at St. Paul’s cathedral in London. Later that year he is put under a house
arrest when he refuses any further questioning before the bishops. When Wycliffe is summoned to a trial at
Lambeth Palace (home of the Archbishop of Canterbury) the following year, the
queen mother and other prominent citizens of London show up to give their
support which in turn made a conviction of heresy exceedingly impolitic in that
moment.
And then, as so often happens in history, the sudden death
of Pope Gregory XI that year stopped all efforts to silence Wycliffe.
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| The Western Schism |
The papal election that summer was to result
in the division of Christendom for the next 36 years. Gregory XI had only recently returned the
papacy to Rome after a 70 year hiatus in Avignon. Gregory and several of his predecessors were
Frenchman as well as many of the cardinals.
The fear that the cardinals would elect another Frenchman and the papacy
would return to Avignon caused riots in Rome and death threats against the
conclave. Under duress, the cardinals
elected an Italian bishop who took the name Urban V. Feeling bad about making such a choice under
pressure and not particularly liking their choice, most of the French cardinals
leave Rome and hold another election where they choose Clement VII as a rival
pope and they do return to Avignon. And
so with all the confusion and division that ensued in the wake of rival
papacies, John Wycliffe found himself out from all the scrutiny for at least a
while. This gave him the room to enter
into even greater controversy the following year.
In 1379, Wycliffe publishes his controversial views on the
Eucharist (also known as Communion or the Lord’s Supper). In his day the idea of transubstantiation was
accepted as dogma by the Church.
Transubstantiation is the belief that when an ordained priest
consecrates the bread and wine used in this ceremonial meal, it actually
becomes the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ even though its external appearance
is unchanged. This idea, which has a
long and deep root system in Christian history, comes from an extremely literal
understanding of John 6:53 which reads: “So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly,
I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you have no life in you.’” What is being
suggested in this view is that the eternal life is assured and sustained by
regular participation (eating the body and blood of the Lord) in this meal. A further entailment of this idea is that
only an ordained priest under the authority of his bishop and ultimately the
pope is authorized to consecrate the meal and thus confer this benefit to the
Christian.
This doctrine also became a
means of enforcing the pope’s views or wishes.
On many occasions, if a prince, king, or even teacher in the church said
or did something at odds with the pope, what was known as an interdict would be
issued against them. An interdict
withholds some or all the sacraments until further notice. Imagine being a king with an entire
population fearing for their souls because they are being denied the Eucharist
because of some choice you made. More
than once was this used to bring pressure to bear on a secular ruler.
Wycliffe saw this idea as something quite novel (it had only
become the official teaching of the Church at the Lateran Council of 1215) and
from his theological and philosophical perspective thought the idea to be
unsound. From a pastoral perspective, he
felt the practice to be idolatrous and superstitious and putting too much
emphasis on the priest. Wycliffe came to
write a treatise called De Eucharista
which directly attacked transubstantiation.
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| "it all depends on the definition of 'is'" |
When President Bill Clinton was facing impeachment during
January of 1999, he famously deflected the idea that he perjured himself when
he had previously denied a relationship with Monica Lewinsky with the now
famous “that all depends on what the definition of ‘is’ is”. Apparently John Wycliffe preceded Mr. Clinton
by several centuries in his parsing of the word ‘is’ when it came to his
understanding of the Eucharist. On this
topic Wycliffe gave special meaning to the word ‘is’ when it came to his
understanding of Christ’s words “this is my body.” Wycliffe believed that the consecrated host
was still bread, but “is” the body of Christ in terms of its significance and
effect in the believer partaking in the Eucharist. Known as the “receptionist view”, Wycliffe
emphasized the faith of the communicant over priestly consecration as to how
the body and blood of Jesus are partaken in the Lord’s Supper. He believed that
the bread and the wine on the altar remained bread and wine after their
consecration. Christ was present and
received in the Eucharist on the basis of faith by the individual communicant.
By 1381, Oxford University was put under pressure by the
church and Wycliffe was so controversial that he is officially banned from his
teaching post. Still a pastor he moves
to the parish church of Lutterworth where he serves the remainder of his
life. It is in this exile of sorts,
Wycliffe develops some of his most influential theology which gives shape to
what a reformed Christian church will eventually look like in the next 200
years.
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| Wycliffe influenced many preachers to go out in England |
Wycliffe, himself a noted preacher, felt that preaching of
the Word of God was the most important thing people needed and the most
neglected task of the church. He was
also critical how many of the common practices of church were connected only by
tradition but not by direct teaching from scripture. Things like confession to a priest or masses
to relieve the dead in purgatory he believed to be unbiblical and
abominable. Wycliffe emphasized in his
teaching that the believer only needed one mediator before God and that was
Christ alone.
During this period Wycliffe and several aides translated the
Bible from Latin to English. Technically this would be a translation of a
translation but it is the first English Bible and sets a tone for future
reformers such as Tyndale and Luther to produce vernacular scriptures. What is important to know is that the audience
for this Bible was the common person. Latin was the language of educated clergy and
French the language of the educated Englishman.
In Wycliffe’s time more and more ordinary people were learning to read
and Wycliffe believed it was God’s will that the common man could have greater
access to the Bible by hearing it preached in his own language. Both Wycliffe and Luther strategically
published their books in the common language to give their ideas a broader
reach. Wycliffe, unfortunately lived
prior to the mass-production of books and so his audience was obviously more
restricted than Luther’s but it still had a wider reach than it would have if
it were only written in Latin.
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| Wycliffe the Bible translator |
The detractors of Wycliffe had great criticism of his Bible
translating activities. For the Church,
Latin was the language of the learned.
Something as important as the Bible should not be available to the
unlearned and untrained to read on their own, but should be interpreted for
them by the clergy. In this sense, it
was said that Wycliffe had “thrown pearls before the swine.” In one sense, this criticism is not entirely
unjust. People who attempt to interpret
the Bible without proper understanding can and do make a mockery of its
contents all the time. However, on the
other side of the equation, the general message of the Bible is relatively
clear and accessible to all who read it, even those without a faith
commitment. Thus, a lay person who reads
the Bible, although they may require some guidance at times, can certainly read
it to his or her own edification without much problem.
An interesting unintended consequence of Wycliffe’s
translation of the Bible was that it unified the form of English that was
spoken in Britain because of the Bible’s popularity.
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| Wycliffe actually died in the pulpit |
Probably one of Wycliffe’s more influential writings was his
treatise known as De Ecclesia. In it he explains the nature of the Church is
not the visible organization (with its pope, cardinals, bishops) but the
congregation of the predestined. The
only head of the church then is not the pope, but Jesus himself. Wycliffe, not one to fear controversy, pointed
out that it was quite possible that even the pope may not be of the elect. While the church on earth will always be a
mixture of wheat and tares as Jesus said it would, the true church will always
be composed of those whom the Lord has called to himself and who live by
faith. Even as the Medieval church
emphasized the external structures and the use of sacraments as the guarantee
of eternal life, Wycliffe pointed to the ancient path of the prophets and apostles
who taught that the just shall live by faith.
This too would be an idea picked up and carried forward by the later
Reformers.
Even as the Roman Catholic church has a long memory of those
it considers saints and martyrs, it has an equally long memory of those it
considers heretics. John Wycliffe had
the good fortune of dying and going to heaven in 1384 after a second stroke and
a life wearied by conflict with the church hierarchy and the burden of many
labors on behalf of its people. In 1418,
some 34 years after his death, 260 separate charges of heresy were brought
against him at the ecumenical council of Constance and the conclusion of the
council, which also condemned to the flames John Huss a popular preacher also
influenced by Wycliffe, was that he was to be posthumously condemned, executed
and deprived of Christian burial. The
job of carrying out the sentence fell to the newly elected Pope Martin V who
didn’t get around to carrying out this sentence for another 11 years. In 1429, the pope had the bones of John
Wycliffe disinterred from the church yard where he was buried, and then burned
to dust (as would be done if he were burned at the stake) and the ashes cast
into the nearby river Swift. He was
considered an ‘obstinate heretic’ by the Church but later generations would
look upon his influence and contributions and call him “the Morningstar of the
Reformation.” His light was the
Scripture alone and his call was for the church to consider them the true voice
of the Lord on earth.
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| Wycliffe's macabre posthumous execution |
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