The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

III. Progressive Developments in Thought and Action

In 1374 Wyclif was sent as a member of a royal commission to Bruges, in the Netherlands, to meet with papal nuncios and discuss differences between the British crown and Gregory XI. There he met ecclesiastics from Italy, France, and Spain, and had opportunity to look behind the scenes. For the first time he saw the stark realities of the Papacy. And upon his return to England he began to speak openly of the “Antichrist” of prophecy ³ and to warn against its abominations and errors. CFF2 52.4

His trip to the Continent also brought him in contact with the Waldenses, who held the Scriptures to be their sole rule of faith and conduct, and suffered fearful persecution as a consequence. And their Bible was in the Romaunt idiom—the language of Southern Europe at that time. It was this impact that evidently changed Wyclif’s emphasis from legal and scholastic to scriptural arguments in subsequent discussions with various dignitaries of the Roman Church. And it was through this visit that he received the conviction that the people must be able to read the Scriptures in their own “modir tonge [“mother tongue”]”—hence his subsequent rendering of the Bible into English. CFF2 53.1

1. CONFLICTS WITH ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY

Upon his return to England, Wyclif was appointed rector of Lutterworth. But soon, because of his utterances, charges of heresy began to be hurled at him, with demands that he be silenced. This produced the first great crisis in his life, as he was brought into direct conflict with ecclesiastical authority, and opposed the secularity of the Medieval Church and its abuses, particularly in the monastic system. In 1377 he was summoned by Bishop Courtenay to St. Paul’s in London to give an account of his teachings, but was protected by John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster. CFF2 53.2

In May, 1377, Gregory XI issued five bulls condemning Wyclif’s positions, ⁴ demanding that he answer charges of insubordination and heresy, condemning eighteen propositions in his writings, reproving Oxford for not disciplining him, and ordering his imprisonment. Wyclif, however, paid little attention to the bulls. So there was a second citation. In 1378 he was summoned to the bishop’s palace at Lambeth and confronted with a formidable list of charges. The charges, it should be added, were based on the common controversial device of taking extracts out of context, and without the explanations of the writer. Condemnation seemed inevitable. CFF2 53.3

Wyclif not only answered his accusers but arraigned them before the bar of truth. It was they who were now on trial, not he—their charges were rebounding on themselves. But a popular uprising of London sympathizers burst into the hall and aborted the proceedings. Wyclif was next summoned to the tribunal of Rome, but illness prevented the journey. So he wrote a masterful letter. Standing practically alone, he fully expected to pay the price of death at the stake. CFF2 54.1

2. BREAKS NEXT WITH MEDIEVAL THEOLOGY

In 1381 the second crisis came, involving a break with the underlying errors of medieval theology. On these he demanded sweeping reform. In a series of lectures at Oxford he openly attacked transubstantiation. The wafer was “neither Christ nor any part of Him”—only a sign or symbol of the reality, a spiritual presence. If the priests could not produce the actual body of Christ, then the whole system was hierarchical pretension. He publicly challenged the dictum of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215). That, of course, was an open break with the church. Such flagrant “heresy” over the Eucharist sealed his doom, as he now stood alone in witnessing to the truth of Scripture. The chancellor of the university forbade Wyclif’s view of the Eucharist to be taught in the university, under pain of suppression, imprisonment, and excommunication. CFF2 54.2

Wyclif appealed to the king. But in 1382 the Archbishop of Canterbury summoned a synod of bishops at London. And a group of twelve judges declared Wyclif’s opinions heretical, ⁵ and prohibited their being taught in the university. Under papal pressure Wyclif was expelled from the university after forty years of service. Nevertheless, he remained on as rector of Lutterworth, whence, after his “banishment,” tracts continued to pour forth—such as De Potestate Papae (“On the Power of the Pope”), De Veritate Sacrae Scripturae (“On the Truth of Sacred Scripture”), et cetera—against papal departures and for the truth of the Word. His principles continued to be spread abroad by his followers, the Lollards. And as long as he lived the hierarchy was unable to force his excommunication as a heretic. CFF2 54.3

Death came to Gregory XI before the papal net could close about Wyclif. Then the Great Schism developed—with rival French Pope Urban IV reigning in opposition to Roman Clement VI—weakening papal power and prestige and causing Wyclif to say, Why give allegiance to either? Rather, they are “two halves of Antichrist, making up the perfect Man of Sin.” ⁶ Thus the Schism provided a breathing spell for Wyclif, but drove him farther away from the Roman Church. CFF2 55.1

3. ANTICIPATED FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF PROTESTANTISM

Wyclif’s mind now moved from the abuses of the fourteenth century back to the underlying principles of the conflict and the theological fallacies on which they were based. Wyclif had been professor of theology at Oxford, where he had fearlessly preached the Word. He was called the Gospel Doctor, because of his zeal for the saving truths of Scripture. There he taught the distinctive doctrines of Protestantism—salvation through faith in Christ and the sole infallibility of the Scriptures. In fact, his teaching anticipated all the fundamental principles of Protestantism. And he was much too devoted to restoring the simplicities of the primitive church to be concerned over the approbation or enmity of contemporary churchmen. He now opposed episcopacy as unessential to the legitimate constitution of the church. And the true church is the body of “trewe men,” whose sole head is Christ. CFF2 55.2

He had struck at such abuses as the payment of tribute to Rome and papal assumption of temporal authority over secular rulers. He had protested the swarms of mendicant friars, with their idleness and ignorance, which had brought them into contempt. He had denounced pilgrimages and relics. He had even attacked the confessional, denied the priestly power of absolution, and called for the ending of indulgences. CFF2 55.3

But now he began to strike at the root of the tree—showing that the papal system itself was basically wrong. He began to publish tracts calling men back to the Bible and denying the power of the pope to pardon or excommunicate. He boldly outlined the basic doctrinal reformation actually carried into effect by the Reformers of the sixteenth century. He was a century and a half ahead of his time. CFF2 56.1

Wyclif was not only a scholar and a controversialist but a preacher of power, and he devised a plan for meeting the appalling spiritual ignorance of the time. CFF2 56.2

First, he formed a company of “Poor Preachers” who went forth two by two, ⁷ clad in their russet robes. They distributed tracts and portions of Scripture as the Waldenses had done. They were to preach a simple saving gospel instead of abstract theories. CFF2 56.3

Second, he determined that the Bible must be translated into the language of the people. It must be made accessible to all, and this accomplishment constituted his greatest contribution, and helped give to the English tongue its initial form and beauty. Wyclif’s English translation, however, was based on the Latin Vulgate, which in itself was an imperfect translation. But such a work of translation was then regarded as an act of heresy. As a consequence his version continued to be proscribed until the sixteenth-century Reformation. CFF2 56.4

Word that Wyclif had fallen prey to serious illness was joyful news to the friars. They thought he would speedily repent and recant. So representatives of the various orders hastened to his bedchamber and gathered about the supposedly dying man, now gray with toil and age, and ascetic in appearance. But he told them, “I shall not die, but live!” Abashed, they hurried from the room. And he did live to translate with full mental vigor amid the storm that raged around him. There were no printing presses as yet, so all copies had to be multiplied by hand, and the demand could not be supplied. But their wide distribution brought dismay to the church authorities, and papal leaders determined to silence him. CFF2 56.5

Thus it was that Wyclif launched the great Protestant appeal to Scripture. The heart of his teaching was the infallibility of Scripture and salvation through faith in Christ. He was the first to conceive and to execute the revolutionary plan of putting the whole Bible into the common tongue of the people. He began with the New Testament, Nicholas Hereford assisting with the Old Testament, and John Purvey, his scholarly friend and curate at Lutterworth, helping in the revision. Wyclif died of a paralytic stroke in 1384. CFF2 57.1

In 1408 the Council of Oxford forbade the reading of any uncensored book composed by Wyclif. His books were burned at Oxford and at Prague. Reading his translation was forbidden under pain of excommunication, and by 1414 Oxford repudiated Wyclifism. But his teachings lived on. Then the Council of Constance, in 1415, extracted 45 propositions from Wyclif’s writings and condemned them, along with all his books, as heresies. Finally, following the mandate of the Council, Wyclif’s moldering bones were exhumed at Lutterworth, in 1428, more than forty years after his death, publicly burned, and his ashes cast into the neighboring rivulet, the Swift. CFF2 57.2