John WycliffeΒ (also spelledΒ Wyclif,Β Wickliffe, and other variants;Β c.Β 1328 β 31Β December 1384)Β was an EnglishΒ scholastic philosopher, theologian, biblical translator, reformer,Β CatholicΒ priest, and a seminary professor at theΒ University of Oxford. He became an influential dissident within the Catholic priesthood during the 14thΒ century and is considered an important predecessor toΒ Protestantism. Wycliffe questioned the privileged status of the clergy, who had bolstered their powerful role in England,Β and advocated radical poverty of the clergy.
Wycliffe has been characterized as the "evening star" ofΒ scholasticismΒ and as theΒ morning starΒ of theΒ English Reformation.
Wycliffe advocated the translation of the Bible into the commonΒ vernacular. According to tradition, Wycliffe is said to have completed a translation direct from theΒ VulgateΒ intoΒ Middle EnglishΒ β a version now known asΒ Wycliffe's Bible. He may have personally translated the Gospels ofΒ Matthew,Β Mark,Β Luke, andΒ John, but it is possible he initially translated the entireΒ New TestamentΒ Early Version. It is assumed that his associates translated theΒ Old TestamentΒ and revised the Late Version. Wycliffe's Bible appears to have been completed prior to 1384 with additional updated versions being done by Wycliffe's assistantΒ John Purvey, and others, in 1388 and 1395. More recently, historians of the Wycliffite movement have suggested that Wycliffe had at most a minor role in the actual translationΒ or contributedΒ ad hocΒ passages taken from his English theological writings, with some, building on the earlier theories ofΒ Francis Aidan Gasquet,Β going as far as to suggest he had no role in the translations other than the translation projects perhaps being inspired, at least partially, by Wycliffe's biblicism at Oxford, but otherwise being orthodox Catholic translations later co-opted by his followers.
(Text taken from Wikipedia)
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Article about Alfred the Great
Wycliffeβs theology
Book Referenced in the podcast
Wycliffe in Tracts and Treatises of John de Wycliffe, with Selections and Translation from his Manuscripts, and Latin Works