John Wycliffe: The Morning Star of the Reformation

Long before Luther, Calvin, and Knox shook Europe with the message of reform, an English scholar and preacher was already laying the foundations. John Wycliffe -born around 1320 in Yorkshire - became known as the Morning Star of the Reformation. His courage, scholarship, and vision pointed the way toward a Bible-centered church and prepared the soil for the Reformation that would come more than a century later.

Wycliffe came from a modest background but rose through learning to become one of Oxford University’s most respected minds. He studied philosophy and theology, earned his Doctor of Divinity, and served as Master of Balliol College. His keen intellect and eloquence gave him a platform to challenge the greatest religious powers of his day.

By the 1360s, Wycliffe was appalled at the moral failings and worldly wealth of the clergy. He preached that the Church should abandon its corruption and return to the simplicity of the Gospel. For Wycliffe, Scripture - not pope, priest, or council - was the supreme authority in the life of a Christian.

He even challenged core medieval doctrines, including transubstantiation, arguing that the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper were symbolic rather than literally transformed into Christ’s body and blood. These bold positions gained him both loyal supporters and bitter enemies.

Perhaps Wycliffe’s greatest contribution was his insistence that the Bible belong to the people. In an age when Scripture was locked away in Latin, accessible only to the educated clergy, he laboured with his followers to translate the Bible into Middle English.

Completed in the 1380s, the Wycliffe Bible allowed ordinary men and women to hear God’s Word in their own tongue. This work not only spread the Gospel more widely but also laid the foundation for later translations, from Luther’s German Bible to the Authorised King James Version.

Wycliffe’s teachings were condemned by the Pope and later by the Council of Constance. After his death in 1384, Church authorities ordered his remains exhumed and burned in 1428 - an act meant to stamp out his influence. Instead, it only confirmed the power of his ideas.

Wycliffe’s followers, known as Lollards, carried his teaching throughout England. They championed the reading of Scripture, moral reform, and resistance to clerical corruption. Though persecuted, the Lollards ensured that Wycliffe’s vision endured, preparing the way for the Reformation to take root in English soil.

John Wycliffe died in 1384, but his influence only grew. Martin Luther and the Reformers who came after him saw Wycliffe as a forerunner of their work. His translation of the Bible, his insistence on the primacy of Scripture, and his call for a return to Gospel simplicity mark him as one of the great pioneers of Protestant faith.