John Wycliffe
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his life, was not to fall a victim to the hatred of its foes. Wycliffe had
never sought to shield himself, but the Lord had been his protector;
and now, when his enemies felt sure of their prey, God’s hand removed
him beyond their reach. In his church at Lutterworth, as he was about
to dispense the communion, he fell stricken with palsy, and in a short
time yielded up his life.
God had appointed to Wycliffe his work. He had put the word of
truth in his mouth, and he set a guard about him that this word might
come to the people. His life was protected, and his labors prolonged,
until a foundation was laid for the great work of the Reformation.
Wycliffe came from the obscurity of the Dark Ages. There were
none who went before him from whose work he could shape his
system of reform. Raised up like John the Baptist to accomplish a
special mission, he was the herald of a new era. Yet in the system of
truth which he presented there was a unity and completeness which
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reformers who followed him did not exceed, and which some did not
reach, even a hundred years later. So broad and deep was laid the
foundation, so firm and true was the framework, that it needed not to
be reconstructed by those who came after him.
The great movement which Wycliffe inaugurated, which was to
liberate the conscience and the intellect, and set free the nations so
long bound to the triumphal car of Rome, had its spring in the Bible.
Here was the source of that stream of blessing, which, like the water of
life, has flowed down the ages since the fourteenth century. Wycliffe
accepted the Holy Scriptures with implicit faith as the inspired rev-
elation of God’s will, a sufficient rule of faith and practice. He had
been educated to regard the Church of Rome as the divine, infallible
authority, and to accept with unquestioning reverence the established
teachings and customs of a thousand years; but he turned away from
all these to listen to God’s holy Word. This was the authority which
he urged the people to acknowledge. Instead of the church speaking
through the pope, he declared the only true authority to be the voice
of God speaking through his Word. And he taught not only that the
Bible is a perfect revelation of God’s will, but that the Holy Spirit is
its only interpreter, and that every man is, by the study of its teachings,
to learn his duty for himself. Thus he turned the minds of men from
the pope and the Church of Rome to the Word of God.