Individual Reformers

Well, there were some individual reformers, as well. Once again, they are making a small contribution, sort of “preparing the soil” for the Reformation to come.

One such individual was a man named John Wycliffe. He was an Englishman. His exact date of birth is not known, but some scholars say it was probably around 1320. He attended Oxford University, where he would later become a very outstanding scholar and teacher.

There was in England at this time a growing resentment toward the pope. Even though Wycliffe was a member of the clergy himself, he, nevertheless, shared in this growing disdain for the authority of the pope. Until 1378, Wycliffe’s attacks on the Catholic Church were fairly mild. He sought to do things there in England, such as eliminate the immorality that existed within the clergy. He sought, also, to strip the Catholic Church of much of its property. The Catholic Church had become quite wealthy, had acquired quite a bit of property, and so on.

But, beginning in about 1378, Wycliffe began a more revolutionary attack against the Roman Catholic Church and its teaching. He repudiated the authority of the pope. He insisted that Christ, rather than the pope, was the head of the church. He insisted that the Bible was, and should be, the only source of authority in the church and for individual’s lives.

There was a problem, though. He advocated this—he stressed it quite strongly. However, in order for an individual to be able to follow the Bible, and for that to become one’s sole source of authority, one would need to possess a copy of the Scriptures. As we mentioned a moment ago, it was at this time that, first of all, very, very few copies of the Scriptures were available, and those that were available were generally in the hands of “church officials,” of the “clergy,” and so on. And they were primarily in the Latin language, a language which was unknown, certainly, here in England where Wycliffe was. And so, recognizing this problem, he really raised the ire of the Catholic Church by making a translation of the New Testament into his English of the day. And then, once he had done that, others were inspired to translate the Old Testament, and by 1384, which was the year of Wycliffe’s death, the whole Bible was available in the English language of the day.

Well, there were a number of other things that Wycliffe espoused—a number of other ways that he irritated and “got under the skin” of the pope and the Roman Catholic Church. He was quite prolific in his writings, not only in his translation of the New Testament, but he was quite outspoken, both verbally as well as in writing. And he was a constant source of irritation, during this period of his lifetime, to the Catholic Church.

He also evoked a certain following among individuals who would adopt his ideas and approve of his concepts. He would die, though, in 1384. However, his followers would soon begin to face persecution—persecution brought on them by the Catholic Church. How angry, how upset, was the pope and the Catholic Church about this outspoken individual? Well, several years after his death, a church council declared Wycliffe as being a heretic, and thus, they ordered all of his writings that they could obtain to be burned. Also, they demanded that his remains be removed from “consecrated soil.” At papal command, Wycliffe’s bones were dug up, they were burned, and the ashes cast into a stream. Well, say, he was not one of the favorite people of the Roman Catholic Church, was he?

There was another individual who came along a few years after Wycliffe. His name was John Hus. He felt the influence of Wycliffe, not in England, but in Bohemia, an area that was Czechoslovakia and is the Czech Republic and Slovenia (Czechoslovakia being divided).

There were some people from Bohemia who attended Oxford University in England, and they were exposed to Wycliffe and his doctrine. In 1402, when John Hus was about 30 years old, he was appointed “Rector of the University of Prague.” Having been exposed to the teachings of Wycliffe, he began to preach his version of this reformation message.

He was a very eloquent man. He was very moral. As a matter of fact, it is said that he was such a motivational speaker, and he would present his message to crowds in such a persuasive way—a message that individuals should leave the Catholic Church, should begin teaching and preaching and even go off into the mission field—that sometimes wives felt threatened and tried to and keep their husbands and sons from going to hear him, because he was such a motivational speaker.

Well, again, he was one who began demanding that changes be made in the Catholic Church. He was one who was critical of the immoral lives of the clergy of the church. He was one who, also, urged the church to relinquish their land holdings, to divest themselves of the very significant wealth that they had accumulated. He was critical of their doctrine and the differences that had come about through creeds and through the various councils that had been held.