Endowed with integrity, moral courage, and a deep love and understanding of the Bible, John Wycliffe was amply suited to set in motion the great revolution that was consummated generations later by Martin Luther and other celebrated religious reformers in England and in Europe.
The man who came to be known as the “morning star” of the Protestant Reformation was born in the mid-1320s in Yorkshire, England. After earning a doctorate in theology at Oxford, he remained on the faculty and quickly gained a reputation as one of the most brilliant theologians, philosophers, and preachers of his day—the “jewel of Oxford,” his peers proclaimed.
But the great significance of John Wycliffe’s lifework derived from his steadfast conviction of the centrality of the Word of God, the Bible—and obedience to its teachings—as the key to drawing close to God and to human salvation. In order that the common people might be able to read the Bible for themselves, he and a team of assistants undertook the first-ever complete translation of the Bible into English from the Latin Vulgate, around the year 1380.
