This beautifully-produced, illustrated book is a very readable account of John Wycliffe, "The Morning Star of the Reformation," and his contribution to English Protestantism.
Overview: This work draws on recent scholarship situating John Wyclif in his fourteenth-century milieu to present a survey of his thought and writings as a coherent theological position arising from Oxford's "Golden Age" of theology. It takes into account both Wyclif's earlier, philosophical works and his later works, including sermons and Scripture commentary. Wyclif's belief that Scripture is the eternal and perfect divine word, the paradigm of human discourse and the definitive embodiment of truth in creation is central to an understanding of the ties he believes relate theoretical and practical philosophy to theology. This connection links Wyclif's interest in the propositional structure of reality to his realism, his hermeneutic program, and to his agenda for reform of the Church.
John Wyclif is known for translating the Vulgate Bible into English, and for arguing for the royal divestment of the church, the reduction of papal power and the elimination of the friars and against the doctrine of transubstantiation. His thought catalyzed the Lollard movement in England and provided an ideology for the Hussite revolution in Bohemia. Wyclif's Trialogus discusses divine power and knowledge, creation, virtues and vices, the Incarnation, redemption and the sacraments. It consists of a three-way conversation, which Wyclif wrote to familiarize priests and layfolk with the complex issues underlying Christian doctrine, and begins with formal philosophical theology, which moves into moral theology, concluding with a searing critique of the fourteenth-century ecclesiastical status quo. Stephen Lahey provides a complete English translation of all four books, and the 'Supplement to the Trialogue', which will be a valuable resource for scholars and students currently relying on selective translated extracts.
Wycliffe was known as the MORNING STAR of the Reformation; a star rising upon a new day. Wickliffe (or Wycliffe) was born in 1330 AD and died in 1384. He attended Oxford University, receiving his doctorate in 1372. Most of his life was spent teaching at Oxford, and studying God’s Word in Oxford’s extensive library. He was a brilliant scholar who mastered the late medieval scholastic tradition, and was recognized by John of Guant (The Duke of Lancaster) as one who was extraordinarily gifted in theology and preaching. Not only was he an able clergyman, but he was also involved in state affairs. Wickliffe performed diplomatic duties for the crown, and wrote extensively on supporting civil government. This is one of the few biographies that exist on the life of Wickliffe.
John Wycliffe, the Morning Star of the Reformation, gave us the first English translation of the Bible. A noted scholar and teacher at Oxford, his reliance on the Bible as the sole source of truth stood in stark contrast to the teachings of the Catholic church. His followers went out, teaching and preaching to the common man throughout England. Bowing himself to the authority of the Bible, his great aim was to bring men to the Word. He saw it as the one great authority, the Law that exceeded all other laws. His life’s work continued through men like John Hus and laid the groundwork for Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox and the other great men of the Reformation.
John Wyclif has been a controversial figure since his own time, often dividing opinion between devoted followers and intransigent opponents. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, there was already a developing mythos about him, and he was variously used as a symbol of heretical depravity or of valorous defense of the gospel. The Reformation calcified opinions, and the two subsequent centuries did not see much development. The nineteenth century marked the beginning of important changes in scholarly opinion, with confessional approaches weakening and giving way to greater objectivity. This trend was strengthened by the emergence of a professional class of historians around the turn of the twentieth century, but the established confessional biases were not quickly done away with until the postwar period. Today, confessional mythmaking is gone and the goal is no longer to show why one particular branch of Christianity is correct, but to present as accurate a picture as possible of the past. As the concerns of the twentieth century give way to those of the twenty-first, it is encouraging that there are still new things to be learned about the past, new ways of seeing and engaging, even with figures so well studied as Wyclif.
Repeatedly denounced by bishops, local synods, national councils, and popes, simony - the buying and selling of spiritual offices - had enjoyed a centuries-old existence in the church when John Wyclif penned this treatise in the late fourteenth century. The tenth in a series of twelve treatises the English reformer wrote between 1374 and 1382, On Simony forms an integral part of the writings generally considered his summa. Basing his condemnation of simony on an idiosyncratic concept of dominion developed in earlier treatises, Wyclif argues that the church, with its spiritual message and mission, has no right to temporal power or temporal goods. Viewing simony as a form of theft, the selling of spiritual things over which it has no dominion, Wyclif advocates the removal of all property from the church - by secular force, if necessary - and the abolition of ecclesiastical patronage. In the Introduction to this first-ever English translation, Professor McVeigh traces the history of simony in the church and describes the circumstances prompting Wyclif to develop his theory of dominion, showing the decisive influence of this theory on his concept of simony. A brief discussion of the treatise's influence on later reformers, both inside and outside England, follows a thorough, chapter-by-chapter analysis of the treatise itself.
How did the Bible get translated into English and made available to English-speaking people? The Bible in English tells the dramatic story of these events, and of the human costs involved. In this concise yet thorough study, John Long answers the above questions, exploring the lives and deaths of John Wycliffe and William Tyndale and explaining their roles in translating the Latin Vulgate and the New Testament, respectively. Long discusses the Roman Catholic Church's resistance to translation of the scriptures from Latin into English and other languages, and he shows which parts of Tyndale's translation endured to appear in the King James, Revised Standard, American Standard, New American Standards, New King James, and other translations of the Bible in English. This easy-to-read, comprehensive book is a fascinating study of a dramatic time in the Bible's history.