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Early Reformers
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had taken a bold stand against the payment of the tribute claimed
by the pope from the English monarch, and had declared the papal
assumption of authority over secular rulers to be contrary to both
reason and revelation. A few years later, he ably defended the rights
of the English crown against the encroachments of the Romish
power. The people and the nobility of England sided with him,
and his enemies could accomplish nothing against him. Upon one
occasion, when he was brought to trial before a synod of bishops, the
people surrounded the building where the synod met, and, rushing
in, stood between him and all harm.
About this time, strife was caused in the church by the conflicting
claims of two rival popes. Each professed infallibility, and demanded
obedience. Each called upon the faithful to assist him to make war
upon the other, enforcing his demand by terrible anathemas against
his adversaries, and promises of rewards in Heaven to his supporters.
This occurrence greatly weakened the power of the papacy, and
saved Wycliffe from further persecution.
God had preserved his servant for more important labors.
Wycliffe, like his Master, preached the gospel to the poor. As a
professor of theology, he presented the truth to the students under
his instruction, and received the title of “The Gospel Doctor.” In his
parish he addressed the people as a friend and pastor.
But the greatest work of his life was the translation of the Scrip-
tures into the English language. This was the first complete English
translation ever made. The art of printing being still unknown, it
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was only by slow and wearisome labor that copies of the work could
be multiplied; yet this was done, and the people of England received
the Bible in their own tongue. Thus the light of God’s word began
to shed its bright beams athwart the darkness. A divine hand was
preparing the way for the Great Reformation.
The appeal to men’s reason aroused them from their passive
submission to papal dogmas. The Scriptures were received with
favor by the higher classes, who alone in that age possessed a knowl-
edge of letters. Wycliffe now taught the distinctive doctrines of
Protestantism,—salvation through faith in Christ, and the sole in-
fallibility of the Scriptures. Many priests joined him in circulating
the Bible and in preaching the gospel; and so great was the effect
of these labors and of Wycliffe’s writings, that the new faith was