Undoubtedly, when we think of the great deeds of the Lord in the history of the church during the time of the Reformation, our thoughts immediately go to the two giants of the Reformation: Luther and Calvin. This of course, is not without reason. While the first is known for igniting the need for reform within the Roman Catholic Church when he nailed his 95 theses to the church door of Wittenburg on October 31, 1517, the second giant for the cause of reform has been especially valuable to the church in his organization of the Reformed Church in Geneva and his very great literary works, central to which is his Institutes of the Christian Religion. Although these men have been used by the Lord to bring especially the European Continent back to the truths of Holy Scripture so that the teachings of God's Word would never again be ignored and almost totally lost even to this day, we should not neglect the work which other men of God have done in seeking to return mankind to the Bible, which work in a sense can be called, the laying of foundations for reform.

Undoubtedly, one of these men was John Wycliffe of England who is often referred to as the "Morning Star" of the Reformation. It is uncertain who coined this term concerning Wycliffe's place in the reformation of the church, but when we examine the insights and labors which this servant of God performed about 150 years before the Reformation spread throughout Europe in earnest, this title certainly fits this English reformer who was mightily used of God in England and beyond. As you may know, the Morning Star in nature is the star which appears with the new dawn's morning light. As scientists of the modern era have discovered, this morning star, as it is called, is actually the planet Venus which shows up briefly in the morning light. This term is also a Scriptural term and is used in Revelation 2:28 and 22:16, the latter of which refers to the Lord Jesus Himself. We read: "I Jesus have sent My angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star." Certainly, as we hope to con­sider, in the work which John Wycliffe performed in seeking to reform the church, we will see that the true Morning Star, even Christ Jesus, became a living reality to this man of God.

Early Life and Education⤒🔗

John Wycliffe was born somewhere between 1320 and 1324, in or near the village of Old Richmond, Yorkshire, England. He was one of few Reformers who was actually born of noble ancestry. As a result, he did not have to provide for his livelihood by way of hard labor as so many thousands of young men his age did. His parents were well off and saw to it that their son got a good education. Very little is known about his early life. At the age of about sixteen, he attended the University of Oxford and remained affiliated with this institution of learning for much of his life, first as a student, and in 1361 as a Master of Balliol College which was a branch of Oxford. Three years later, in 1364, he received his Doctor of Theology and from then on he also began to preach at the relatively late age of about forty-four years old.

Wycliffe's Position Regarding the Roman Catholic Church←⤒🔗

Wycliffe was the ablest scholar of Oxford during his day. Although he did not formally separate from the Roman Catholic Church, he denounced many practices of Rome. For one thing, he declared that the only head of the Church is Christ; and the Pope, unless he be one of the predestinate who rule in the spirit of the Gospel, is the vicar of anti-Christ. He did not at all support the hierarchy which was so prevalent in the Roman Catholic Church. The power grasping hier­archy, and the monks and the friars who claimed special religious sanctity are without Scriptural warrant, he said. Instead, the church of God consists of true believers who are to be found over the whole earth wherever the Gospel is faithfully preached.

Wycliffe very habitually used the terms visible and invisible church during his lectures and addresses. The visible church is comprised of all those who attach themselves to a local church and attend the proclamation of the Gospel. The invisible church is that narrower circle of true believers of the various churches which are gathered in Christ's name. They have a living relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ, having found salvation in His finished work upon the cross. Wycliffe subscribed to the catholicity of the church, as we also confess in the Apostle's Creed every Lord's Day: I believe in a holy catholic church.

Besides having a controversy with Rome concerning its hierarchical system, Wycliffe especially became embroiled in heated debate and argumentation concerning the church's ownership of wealth and land. By 1366 this controversy came to a head, when Pope Urban V tried to exact money from the English King, Edward Ill. Already more than one hundred years earlier, Pope Innocent Ill had received the annual payment of 1,000 marks from the English crown and now the new pope would have the new English monarch, Edward III, do the same.

Supported by the able defense of Wycliffe, the English king refused to pay any levies which the pope tried to impose upon him and his people. Wycliffe wrote a booklet containing seven argu­ments which the lords of Parliament used when the matter was debated. The Reformer's argu­ments can be summarized very simply, namely, that the pope had no business to exact taxes from the secular ruler; in fact, the clergy were to rule over the spiritual sphere of life, while it was the duty of the ruling monarch and his advisors to rule over the material wealth of the earth, also as God's vicars.

Wycliffe emphasized the idea that all of mankind was to exercise stewardship over the wealth of the earth. A pamphlet which he wrote in defense of the secular rulers was widely distrib­uted, also among the common people, so that it became impossible for the Roman Catholic Church to fatten its coffers at the expense of the laity in England.

Obviously, the Roman clergy were furious when they saw that a large part of their funding for their lavish lifestyles was being taken away from them. In fact, the Pope himself commanded that Wycliffe appear before him in Rome within three months. The Reformer refused to do so, knowing that it would cost him his life. Well then, if Wycliffe would not come to Rome, then he would be tried in England by the archbishop of London.

An ecclesiastical assembly was called and Wycliffe was summoned to appear before it to give an answer for his "heretical" views. Having the support and protection of the civil authorities, Wycliffe finally did go to London in 1377 to give an account. However, due to the fact that the Reformer had such strong support from the nobility, including the son of King Edward, a certain John of Gaunt, also known as Duke of Lancaster, the charges of the clergy did not become a threat to his life. He was stripped of his teaching position at Oxford, however.

When we take a closer look at this development, we can discern the providence of God in it. Although he still served the pastorate at Lutterworth, which he had been given a few years previous to receiving the professor's chair in Oxford, he was now free from the lecturing posi­tion which he had held for about twelve years. As a result, during the last five years of his life, Wycliffe had more time to turn his attention to the abuses and errant beliefs which were adhered to by the Roman Catholic Church and much of religious society. And so it was especially during those final years of his life that most of Wycliffe's literary works appeared.

Wycliffe's Attack Upon the Errors of the Church←⤒🔗

In this final stage of Wycliffe's life the Reformer rapidly developed his reforming activities in a flood of treatises in both Latin and English. He taught that the Scriptures are the only law of the Church. They are God's holy Word and can never be called into question. Wycliffe asserted the veracity and authority of the Bible under which all men were to place themselves. The Church is not centred around the pope and his cardinals, but it is the whole company of the elect. Its only true head is Christ, since the pope may or may not be one of the elect. A pope who is grasping for earthly wealth and power is certainly not a true vicar of the church, but must be even regarded as anti-Christ.

Besides attacking the Church of Rome in its desire for earthly wealth and power, Wycliffe also spoke out against the many mendicant orders which had sprung up as a result of the Middle Ages movement towards asceticism. It is true, these mendicant orders also spoke out against the worldliness of the clergy and the wealth which the Church was amassing to itself, allowing its leaders to live in profligate luxury. These things were abhorrent to the monastic orders of that day. However, they did not oppose the false doctrines which were held by Rome, and that is precisely what Wycliffe began to do. With a much deeper knowledge of the Bible than what they had, he began to attack the foundations of Rome's beliefs which raised the clergy above the laity to the point of almost being divine. While the monastic orders sought to change their life outwardly by living a sober ascetic life, they retained all the errors of the Church of Rome. Wycliffe, however, attacked the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church.

One abuse which Wycliffe vigorously attacked was Rome's belief concerning the real presence of Christ at the Lord's Supper. The Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation raised the priest in the eyes of the Church high above the princes. When they celebrated the Lord's Supper, Christ was supposed to be really present in the ele­ments of bread and wine. Wycliffe said: No! The bread remains bread and the wine remains wine. Bread and wine are not the body of Christ, but they signify the body of Christ.

When the Reformer gave voice to his beliefs in his addresses and writings, he was striking at the heart of one of the most cherished beliefs of the later Middle Ages, namely that of transubstantiation. Wycliffe's doctrine concerning the Lord's Supper was that Christ was spiritually present in the sacrament. Therefore, when he began to publish the truth concerning the sacrament of the Holy Supper, the priests, of course, lost much of the veneration which they were given by the people, because they did not have power over the presence of Christ in the sacrament as had been previously thought.

We can be thankful that the Reformers, such as Wycliffe, and especially Calvin, were given clarity in this vital matter in the faith life of the Church. How merciful, good and kind the Lord is when He reveals Himself through His Spirit to His peo­ple in a clearer way when the elements of bread and wine are partaken of during the Supper of Remembrance of Christ's death. The Lord Jesus has instituted this sacrament as an aid to focus the often weak faith of His people upon His suf­fering and substitutionary death. That is why this sacrament is often called the visible Gospel.

Besides striking a hard blow against the heresy concerning the Lord's Supper which had elevated the priests in the eyes of the common people, Wycliffe spoke out against a number of the false teachings which Luther would also include almost one hundred and fifty years later in his 95 Theses. He denounced the sale of indulgences and vehe­mently rejected the veneration of relics and image worship. Using evidence from the Scriptures, he wrote against the idea of purgatory in which the Roman Catholic Church taught that the souls of the faithful go through an intermediate state at which time they are purified so that they may enter heaven. Furthermore, he denied the infallibility of the Roman Church in matters of faith. Moreover, he rejected auricular confession, where church members made confession of their personal sins to the priests. Certainly, when we read passages such as 1 John 1:8, 9, we are taught to acknowledge our sins, first of all to God. In these verses we read: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He, that is, Jesus Christ, is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." To cite another Scripture example we have only to think of Psalm 32:5, where David says: "I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin."

May God in His grace, through the indispensable leading of His Holy Spirit lead us to acknowl­edge our personal sin unto Him as well, whether it be for the first time or by renewal. Be assured, a broken and a contrite heart the Lord will not despise.

Another thing Wycliffe did not believe in was the value of pilgrimages as a way by which a person might make himself more acceptable to God. Neither did he approve of monastic life as a means by which mankind might make itself more acceptable to God, namely by living an ascetic life. He came down hard against the mendicant orders. Wycliffe could not tolerate it that monks spent their days doing nothing and as a result went about begging for their livelihood. Many spent their days in laziness and existed at the expense of the common people. Consequently, in the last years of his life, Wycliffe began to experience opposition from both the papacy as well as the various monastic orders. However, his life was never really in danger because he had the support and protection of the nobility.

Wycliffe's position was made more difficult in 1381 by the Peasants' Revolt. The unrest of the lower classes of society had been growing over the years due to the dislocation of much of the labor force because of the "Black Death." This plague had taken by death close to one-third of England's population in 1348-50. Wycliffe and his followers were blamed for this revolt which was put down with great difficulty. The palace of John Gaunt was attacked and only when the new young king, Richard II, appeared in person to face the rebels, were the dissidents quelled and dispersed. At that juncture, John of Gaunt advised Wycliffe to abandon his cause for reform; but instead, Wycliffe produced a further Confession of Faith.

Wycliffe's Greatest Contribution to Reform←⤒🔗

The most important work of Wycliffe was the translation of the whole Bible into the English lan­guage for the very first time. The Roman Church only used the Latin Bible, called the Vulgate, which they refused to have translated into the language of the people. In their opinion, only those who are consecrated to the holy office of priests were able to read the Holy Scriptures without doing injustice to them. Moreover, as you can imagine, the ignorance of the common people elevated the position of those who were consecrated to a divine office. Convinced that the Bible is the law of God for man, Wycliffe was determined to give it to the people in the English tongue. We cannot be certain exactly what part Wycliffe played in the Bible's actual transmission into English, although it is generally thought that the Reformer was responsible for translating the whole New Testament, while some of his followers, especially Nicholas of Hereford, did much of the translating of the Old. Since Wycliffe was not proficient in Greek or Hebrew, but was fluent in Latin, the Vulgate was the basis for this first translation into the vernacular. This new version in the English language proved to be a means of blessing to many people and set a stamp upon those who heard it and were able to read it.

Wycliffe's followers, who came to be known as the Lollards, were sent out in pairs by the Reformer throughout much of southern England with portions of God's Word, which had to be written by hand, since the printing press had not yet been invented. Wherever they could get an audience in hamlets and cities, they read to men and women. Under the blessing of the Lord, the truth of God's Word in Roman's 10 was being experienced, in many cases for the very first time. "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God."

We cannot imagine what that must have been — to have experienced hearing the very Word of God for the first time in a language that is understandable. I came across a little rhyme which outlines the work and the effect which Wycliffe's Bible translation work had:

Of the Book that had been the sealed up Book
He tore the clasps, that the nation
With eyes unbandaged might look
Theron and therein find salvation.

May we also be impressed with the importance of having the Word of God at our disposal, that we are able to read it as often as we wish without hindrance. That Word of God, the Bible, is the Word of Life, which alone is able to make us wise unto salvation. Therefore, let us not neglect the Word which speaks of sin and of grace, of judgment, but also redemption full and free through the shed blood of Christ Jesus.

The Significance of Wycliffe's Work of Reform←⤒🔗

In my reading I came more and more to the conclusion that the importance of John Wycliffe's activities have been largely underestimated and ignored. Perhaps the main reason for this is the fact that when he died, he was still serving the Church of Lutterworth in 1384 and had not for­mally distanced himself from the Roman Catholic Church. He had not spearheaded the formation of a new Protestant denomination as Luther and Zwingli and Calvin did. He had merely sent out his poor preachers, two by two, with the Word of God. Moreover, due to great suppression of the Lollards in the next century, not very much of the effects of Wycliffe's own work remained in his native country, England.

Although about 150 manuscripts of Wycliffe's English Bible survived the repression experienced by his followers in the 1400's, the Reformer's influence was felt more in Bohemia — in continental Europe — than in England. While John Huss was yet a young boy, the writings of John Wycliffe gained an entrance into that land when King Richard II married Anne of Bohemia in 1382. Although Huss did not have such a clear grasp of the truth as Wycliffe was given, nevertheless, he became one of the most important forerunners of the Reformation on the continent of Europe. As Luther himself admitted, he felt deeply indebted to the work of the Bohemian, John Huss. And so, due to the work of reform which he did by the grace of God and the Bohemian connection to John Huss, Wycliffe can justly be referred to as one of the greatest forerunners of the Reformation.

One last anecdote perhaps deserves mention because it illustrates the importance of John Wycliffe's work from another angle. By the order of the Council of Constance in 1415 (about forty years after Wycliffe's death), the Roman Catholic Church ordered that the Reformer's bones be dug up from his grave and be refused reburial. This was carried out when the Bishop of Lincoln burned his remains and scattered the ashes upon the River Swift which runs through Lutterworth. The hatred of the Roman Catholic Church against Wycliffe was so great that even forty years after his death, they made this official pronouncement. Two years later, in 1417, Wycliffe's translation of the Bible was also condemned as heretical. The Roman Catholic Church tried to suppress the truth of the Holy Scriptures again, leaving the people in gross darkness. But by God's grace, the Morning Star of the Reformation had shone brightly and would not be put out again.

In His infinite mercy and providence the Lord has allowed His truth to remain, even to this very day. May we, especially when we remember the great deeds of the Lord in history during this sea­son of Reformation Day, seek to remain true to the Reformational triad of Sola Scripture, Sola Gratia and Sola Fidei. May that triad not only remain the objective truth to which we mentally subscribe, but may it by the grace of the Holy Spirit's enlightening power become, more and more, a living reality in our own personal life.