WYCLIFFE, JOHN

born c. 1330, , Yorkshire, Eng. died Dec. 31, 1384, Lutterworth, Leicestershire Wycliffe also spelled Wycliff, Wyclif, Wicliffe, or Wiclif English theologian, philosopher, church reformer, and promoter of the first complete translation of the Bible into English. He was one of the forerunners of the Protestant Reformation. The politico-ecclesiastical theories that he developed required the church to give up its worldly possessions, and in 1378 he began a systematic attack on the beliefs and practices of the church. The Lollards, a heretical group, propagated his controversial views. Additional reading H.B. Workman, John Wyclif: A Study of the English Medieval Church, 2 vol. (1926), the definitive biographya full, scholarly work favourable to Wycliffe; K.B. McFarlane, John Wycliffe and the Beginnings of English Nonconformity (1953), highly critical of Wycliffe but indispensable to the student; John Stacey, John Wyclif and Reform (1964), an attempt to make a balanced assessment of Wycliffe and his contribution to Reform. See also: H.B. Workman, The Dawn of the Reformation, vol. 1, The Age of Wyclif (1901); David Knowles, The Religious Orders in England, vol. 2, The End of the Middle Ages (1955), and with Dimitri Obolensky, The Christian Centuries, vol. 2, The Middle Ages (1969).