JOHN WYCLIFFE AND THE FIRST
ENGLISH BIBLE
Chapter 1
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In 1425 and angry mob, led by the local Roman
priests and bishops, entered into a cemetery in the little town of Lutterworth,
England, and proceeded to desecrate the grave of a man who had been dead
forty-one years. His remains were exhumed and burned along with his
writings, and his ashes scattered into the River Swift. He had been
declared a notorious heretic, posthumously, excommunicated, posthumously, his
memory condemned, and the vile act of destroying his earthly remains had been
ordered.
Who was this man, and why was he so hated?
What crime so heinous could he possibly have been guilty of, that more than four
decades after his death his mere presence in a graveyard could not and would not
be tolerated? The man was John Wycliffe, and his only crime was
translating the Bible into the English language.
Wycliffe was born in the early fourteenth century,
during the historical period known as the "Dark Ages." Secular historians
would have us to believe that the Dark Ages were thus named because humanity had
not yet reached the Age of Enlightenment. Technology, say they, had not
yet begun to escalate. Medical science and the other sciences were in
emryonic states at this time.
Their assessment of the industrial, technological
and medical climate of Wycliff's day is not inaccurate. However, the Dark
Ages were not so designated because of the lack of modern human
development. The Dark Ages were dark because of the lack of modern human
development. The Dark Ages were dark because of spiritual darkness,
because of religious oppression of the true message of salvation by grace
through faith, because the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, by grand
conspiracy and diabolical design, was nearly extinguished from the face of the
earth. For the thousand...
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year period that we refer to as the Dark Ages (AD
500-800) sand the Middle ages (AD 800-1500), the church of Rome ruled. The
technique to sustain its power was simple: Control people's minds by controlling
their education, and control their education by controlling their
language. One empire, many languages, but only Latin was allowed for
education and instruction. Ultimately, the pope's decrees became the
textbook of both ecclesiastical and civil law and order. The roman Church forbade the reading of the Scriptures in English or any
language other than Latin.
In similar fashion, this is how Africa became
known as the "Dark Continent." It is not because oso many black people
live there. It is because the light of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is relatively unknown to the multiplied millions of people who inhabit that
great land.
It was a satanic conspiracy that robbed the
precious African people of the gospel of Christ. In Acts chapter eight, we
read of the eunuch from Ethiopia returning to his homeland after having been in
Jerusalem to worship. He had acquired a copy of the scroll of Isaiah,
which he was hungrily reading when God sent Philip to preach unto him
Jesus. Being converted to Christ, born again and baptized in the Gaza
desert, "he went on his way rejoicing," and eventually reached home in
Ethiopia. Tradition holds that the great Coptic Revival was begun as a
result of this one lone African man coming to Christ, a far-reaching revival
that swept the continent in the early first century. Only through a
concerted effort of Satan and his minions did the continent that once knew
Christ the LIght of the world become the "Dark Continent."
John Wycliffe lived in a time when Bible reading
was unknown to the common people. The few, rare portions of Scripture in
English were locked away in the monasteries and universities. The Bible
was read only by the clergy and the priests, and only in the tongue of Mother
Rome, Latin. Many priests rarely saw a Bible, and most could not read it
when they did see it.
The first English copies of Scripture were merely
fragments...
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and portions of Biblical texts, richly illustrated
so the poor and illiterate could also understand. The "Poor Man's Bible"
is a product of this era. On one side of the page the Scripture text was
given. On the other, a detailed drawing depicted what was being conveyed
in the written Word. Illiteracy was the rule rather than the except8on in
the fourteenth century. The vast majority of the people of England could
not read or write.
In the 1340's Wycliffe was at Oxford University
when the Great Plague broke out in Europe for the first time. In less than
three years, the thriving University city of 15,000 people was reduced by the
plague's destructive power by four-fifths of its inhabitants. Only three
thousand people survived that awful time. During the same time span half
the population of England died. No home was untouched by the death
angel.
Wycliffe was an itinerant preacher, and in his
travels saw great despair among the people of England. With no Bible to
bring comfort and peace to troubled souls, no one knew Psalm 121: 1-2, "I will
lift up mine eyes unto the hilss, from whence cometh my help. My help
cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth." No one knew Psalm
116:15, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." No
one knew the promise of the lord Jesus in John 11:25, "I am the resurrection,
and the life: he that believeth in me, thogh he were dead, yet shall he
live." No one could rest in the promises and the love of Almighty
God. The land was filled with despair, misery, hopelessness,
sadness. God burdened the heart of John Wycliffe with a desire to see the
Bible in the language of the people of England. His burden was a
completed English Bible "so that every man in the realm might read in the tongue
wherein he was born the wonderful works of God."
Wycliffe was inspired and influenced by men such
as Peter Waldo, whose followers became known as Waldensians. Waldo was an
Anabaptist. He believed that the Scriptures were the sole authority for
human conduct. The Anabaptists had produced several Bible translations in
their respective languages by...
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Wycliffe's day, translated
from the faithful Biblical texts preserved through the centuries by the
providence of God and the perseverance of God's people. Faithful copies of
the Word of God in Italian, French, Spanish, and of course, Hebrew, Greek and
Latin, existed during this time.
The Anabaptists for the most part lived as
fugitives, heretics and outlqws, and were forced into exile in nearly every
country where they were found. Paul the apostle certainly penned words of
prophetic truth concerning our forefathers in the faith when the Holy Spirit
breathed through him Hebrews 11:35-38.
"And others, were tortured, not accepting
deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial
of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They
wre stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword:
they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted,
tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in
mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth."
Christian men, women, boys and girls were placed
inside hollowed out logs. two executioners with large, two-handled saws
slowly saw the Christians in half, subjecting them to an agonizing
death.
Those accused of being followers of Christ were
sewn into animal skins that had been soaked in water. The Christians were
then turned out into the wilderness in this pitiable condition, their arms
pinned to their sides by the weight of the skins. They ahd no way to find
off the wild beasts who were sure to attack in the night. They had no
means with which to feed themselves or get water. As the sun began to dry
the animal skins, they shrank around the bodies of the suffering saints of God,
slowly suffocating them to death, strangling the life out of their mortal
bodies. The people in the countryside were warned that if they helped the
Christians, they, too, would suffer a similar fare.
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Needless to say, not many dared rush to the aid of
the condemned believers.
It was determined by Pope Innocent VIII that the
waldensians should be exterminated from the valley of Loyse. He marched a
great body of troops to the place. When they arrived at the valley, they
found that it had been deserted by the inhabitantss, who had hidden themselves
in the mountains in caverns and in caves. The archdeacon followed them
with the troops, and catching many, cast them headlong from precipices, by which
they were dashed to pieces. Several, however retired to the farthest part
of the caverns and were abole to conceal themselves. The mouths of the
caves were filled with wood, which being lighted, those within were
suffocated. The cave being afterward searched, four hundred infants were
found smothered, either in their cradles or in their mothers' arms. In
all, about three thousand men, women and children were destroyed in this
persecution.
Tens of thousands of Anabaptists were martyred in
one night, in what has become known as the "St. Bartholomew's Day
Massacre." John Fox relates the atrocity in this
manner:
"It so fell out that certain soldiers were
appointed in divers places of the city of Paris to be ready at a watch-word at
the command of the prince, upon which watch-word given, they burst out to the
slaughter. The armed soldiers with rage and violence ran upon the
Christians, slaying and killing all they knew or could find within the city
gates enclosed. This bloody slaughter continued the space of many days,
but especially the greatest slaughter was in the three first days, in which were
numbered to be slain above 10,000 men and women, old and young, of all sorts and
conditions. The bodies of the dead were carried in carts to be thrown in
the river: so that not only the river was all stained therewith, but also whole
streams in certain places of the city did run with the blood of the slain
bodies."
The Inquisition was begun by the Holy Roman Church
to...
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squelch movements like Peter Waldo's, and
continued for hundreds of years. In 1380, a monk named Boralli opened an
inquisition at Ambrune, and summoned all the inhabitants to appear before
him. Those who were found to be non-Catholic were immediately delivered
over to the secular power and burnt. Those who did not appear were
excommunicated and had thier effects confiscated. All the reformed
inhabitants of the other places named in his commission were equal sufferers;
for devastation marked his journey, and his footsteps might be traced in
blood.
Wycliffe took offense that the Bible in his day
was only lawfully produced in Latin. Only those educated at Oxford and
Cambridge could read or speak Latin; therefore the Bible was a closed, forbidden
Book.
From his studies of history during his University
days, Wycliffe kenew that the Bible had been translated into more than five
hundred languages by the early fifth century and that common language
translations had flourished until the Roman Catholic Church decided to outlaw
any and all Biblical languages but Latin.
Greek had been the language of scholarship during
the second, third and fourth centuries. By the fourth century, Latin
became the second language of higher learning after Greek. Latin became a
Biblical language because many scholars had studied both Greek and
Latin.
In AD 380, Jerome was commissioned by a bishop to
translate the Bible into Latin. He spent seven or eight years in
Bethlehem, where he set up a monastery, a convent and a research center, and
completed his translation work. Jerome's finished product is known as the Latin
Vulgate, the corrupt Roman Catholic text of the Scriptures.
By the sixth century, only one language for the
Scriptures was tolerated in the Roman Empire, that language being Latin, by a
concerted effort of the Church authorities in Rome. They knew tha if they
could control the language and education from Rome they could control the minds
of men. The Bible was forbidden to...
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be translated into other languages, and those who
dared defy the papacy were fiercely persecuted.
This single conspiracy plunged the world into the
Dark Ages. Less than two hundred and fifty years after the Word of God had
been made available to more than five hundred language groups, the holy
Scriptures were now locked away in the language of Roman Catholic scholarship
and hidden from the eyes of the world.
John Wycliffe was Professor of Divinity at Oxford,
the most exalted preacher in England, and arguably the most learned an of his
time. Of his personal salvation there can be no question or doubt.
In 1356, at the age of 32, he wrote, "So when we were sinful and the children of
wrath, God's Son came out of heaven and, praying His Father for His enemies, He
died for us. Then much rather shall we be saved, now we are made righteous
through His blood."
Wycliffe preached,
"All truth is contained in Scripture; we
should admit no conclusion not approved there. Those heretics who pretend
that the laity need not know God's law, but that the knowledge which priests
have had imparted to them by word of mouth is sufficient, do not deserve to be
listened to. For Holy Scriptures is the faith of the church, and the more
widely its true meaning becomes known the better it will be. Therefore
since the laity should know the faith, it should be taught in whatever language
is most easily comprehended. Christ and His apostles taught the people in
the language best known to them.
"The clergy cry aloud that it is heresy to
speak of the Holy Scriptures in English, and so they would condemn the Holy
Ghost, who gave tongues to the Apostles of Christ to speak the Word of God in
all languages under heaven."
Did he say, "all languages under heaven"? He did not say, "heavenly languages"? or
"ecstatic utterances"? How is it that a...
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Roman Catholic priest in the Middle Ages knew more
about true Bible tongues than the entire charasmatic movement of our
generation?
Wycliffe, with the aid of John of Gaunt, the
English monarch, defied Rome and in 1384 produced the first completed English
Bible in the world.
Wyclife's own contemporaries at the University
shunned him for his translation work. Their argument was, "If just any
man, woman, boy, or girl can read the Bible for themselves, why do they need
us?" The point is well taken.
Wycliffe's work was remarkable, but, having
nothing to compare his English Bible to, it literally translated word-for-word
from the Latin Vulgate and thus very difficult to read. Also, having been
produced seventy-two years before the invention of the moveable type printing
press in 1456, Wycliffe's Bbile was produced entirely in long hand. To
produce one copy of the Wycliffe Bible required ten onths of tedious
copying and transcribing by the most able scribes. Needless to say,
English Bbles were extremely rare and highly prized in the fourteenth
century. They were also illegal to possess, to read, or to sell, under
penalty of death.
John Purvey revised Wycliffe's original work in
1388, making the transition from Latin to English more readable and more
understandable.
Purvey was a Lollard, a disciple of
Wycliffe. The term "Lollard" meant "babbler." The Lollards were
street preachers and soulwinners. Even to this day, more than six hundred
years later, a Christian who dares walk the streets of his town and go
house-to-house with the gospel of Jesus Christ may be labeled a "babbler", or
worse.
The Lollards took Wycliffe's Bible to every
community, every...
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town, every hamlet and village across
England. Thousands learned to read and write using Wycliffe's gospels as a
textbook, and thousands came to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.
Great revival broke out as the light of the glorious gospel of Christ once again
shined, and by the time of Wycliffe's death in 1384 half the population of
England claimed to be disciples of Jesus Christ and followers of John
Wycliffe. Sadly, in England today, a country with a populati9n of over
fifty-three million, only two percent of the people claim any religious or
church affiliation at all. This same trend of turning away from
God and toward moral decay and destructtion will
manifest itself in the United States of America, should Jesus not return in the
very near future.
The Lollards were not a well liked lot due to
their preaching and Bible distribution and were subjected to violent oppposition
and persecution. Three hundred Lollards were burned to death at the stake
on the same spot in England in a place that has been dubbed "Lollard's
Pit." Great crowds would gqather to watch these human bonfires. On
more than one occasion the ground beneath the feet of the spectators became soft
and muddy, not because of rain, but because of the abundance of the shed blood
of the martyrs of Jesus, burning to death before their eyes. There stands
a memorial to this day outside a tavern in England comemorating the very spot
where these preachers of the gospel and followers of John Wycliffe were so
brutally murdered.
The Catholic Church's rule over the people
depended then, as it does today, on Biblical ignorance. The teachings of
the mass, transubstantiation, penance, the sale of indulgences, purgatory,
confession of sins to priests, Mariolatry, saint and angel worship, the
sacraments, relics, etc., are nowhere to be found in the Scriptures. In
many instances they are clearly refuted and condemned. The only sure way
to keep people from finding out what is and is not contained or taught in the
Bible is to deny them access to a Bible. This the Roman Church was
successful in accomplishing for many hundreds of years.
The Church hierarchy sold pilgrimages, or guided
tours, to see...
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the hair of Jesus, or the shroud of Jesus, or the
bones of the apostles, or splinters from the cross, and participation in and
payment for these field trips would count some way in eternity for the
unsuspecting and unlearned parishioner.
Even though he was a Catholic priest, Wycliffe abhorred the abuses of the papacy and the
Church, especially the sale of indulgences. In Wycliffe's day, a man
guilty of murder could make a hasty retreat to his priest or bishop, pay him the
equivalent of two dollars and fifty cents for an indulgence, and would be
absolved of the guilt of his crime. The sheriff then had no authority to
prosecute the criminal because according to the Church he had paid for his crime
and purchased his "innocence."
With the spread of the Wycliffe Bible and the
preaching of the Lolards leading to the conversion of the multitudes to the true
gospel, the Roman Church began to lose its grip. In 1408 a papal decree
was issued:
"We therefore decree and ordain, that no man,
hereafter, by his own authority translate any text of the Scripture into English
or any other tongue, by way of a book, libel, or treatise, and that no man ready
any such book, libel, or treatise, and that no man ready any such book, or
treatise upon pain of greater excommunication. He that shall do contrary
to this shall likewise be punished as a favourer of error and
heresy."
Certain rich men and priests received a license to
own scripture portions in English, but anyone caught in
possession of a Wycliffe Bible was tried and condemned as a
heretic.
Wycliffe denounced the pope as "antichrist, the
proud worldy priest of Rome, the most cursed of clippers and cut-purses.
He called the nomasteries dens of thieves, nests of serpents, houses of living
devils." He said the priests
"take poor men's livelihood, but they do not
oppose oppression. They set more price by the rotten penny than by the
precious blood of Christ. They pray only for show, and collect fees for
every religious service that they...
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15
perform. They live in luxury, riding fat
horses with harness of silver and gold. Theyare robers, malicious foxes,
ravishing wolves, gluttons, devils, apes."
Wycliffe's Bible was a precious commodity.
To rent it to read for one hour cost a wagon load of hay. I do not know
how much hay cost in Wycliffe's day, nor how many bales could be loaded onto one
wagon. But suppose one hundred bales would fill one wagon, at a cost of
one dollar per bale. That woud be the equivalent today of one hundred
dollars to rent a Bible to read for one hour. Is the Word of God that
precious to you? Would you be willing to pay such a price to gaze ont he
wonderful words of life for yourself? I think not. Too many of us
have too many Bibles in our homes collecting dust. Too many of us have to
spend too much time searching for our Bibles when church time comes so we can
carry them to church and keep up appearances, when the truth is we have not
picked up our Bibles since we laid them down the last itme we came home from
church.
To purchase a copy of the Wycliffe Bible for
oneself would cost the average cleryman a full year's salary. "The word of
the Lord was precious in those days." I dare say there are not too many
things in this world the average Christian would be willing to pay an entire
year's salary for, the least of which, I believe, would be a
Bbile.
John Wycliffe was tried for heresy on three
separate occasions, but miraculously, he did not suffer the death of a condemned
martyr. On the occasion of his third heresy trial, he had been judged
guilty and condemned to death. Just as the frenzied mob wa about to seize
him and drag him to his demise, God sent an earthquake, reminiscent of Acts
chapter sixteen, when God delivered Paul and Silas from a similar fate in
similar circumstances by shaking the jailhouse. In the ensuing chaos and
confusion, Wycliffe was rescued by his supporters and carried away to
safety. He died of a stroke in 1384, at the age of sixty-four.
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The "eulogy" accorded him by the Roman Catholics
was, to say the least, less than endearing. He was called "that organ of
the devil, enemy of the Church, author of confusion to the common people, idol
of heretics, image of hypocrites, a storehouse of lies." They judged that
he had been "struck with the horrible judgment of God, and breathed out his
malicious spirit into the abodes of darkness."
In 1401 Parliament ruled, "No one shall preach
openly or secretly without a license. No one shall preach, hold, teach, or
instruct, produce or write any book contrary to the Catholic faith. No
conventicles are to be tolerated." A conventicle was defined as an
"unofficial" gathering for worship, thereby outlawing any true church and the
meetings thereof, and only permitting the gathering of the people in the "Holy"
Roman Catholic Church.
The Parliamentary decree continued--"If any man is
convicted of these crimes, the sheriff shall cause him to be burned before the
people in a prominent place to strike fear into the mind of others."
People were burned at the stake simply for the ability to quote the Wycliffe
Bible from memory.
In 1411 Arshbishop Arundel, an avid opponent of
Wycliffe, wrote to Pope John XXIII, "This pestilent and wretched John Wycliffe,
of cursed memory, that son of the old serpent, endeavored to fill up the measure
of his malice by a new translation of the Scriptures in to the mother
tongue."
Wycliffe's Bible was the only English Bible in the
world for one hundred and forty-three years. Althogh he was limited in his
knowledge of the Biblical languages of Hebrew and Greek, and had only the
corrupt Latin Vulgate at his disposal for the work of translation, God greatly
used Wycliffe to open the hearts, minds and souls of English-speaking people to
know the Word of God, and instilled in them a desire to own a copy of the Bible
for themselves in their own language.
Amazingly, the very texts that liberal theologians
and Bible "scholars" and even many so-called conservative and fundamental Bible
critics reject as untrustworthy and not a part of their "oldest and most
reliable" manuscripts...
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appear to John Wycliffe's english
translation. What was the underlying text of the Wycliffe Bible? It
was Jerome's Latin Vulgate, a Bible text honored, revered and respected by
proponents of higher textual criticism.
The modern bible versions, supposedly based in
part on the Latin Vulgate, leave out Matthew 17:21. Some of King James
version "study Bibles," while retaining the verse in the text, discredit it with
the following footnote: "Many manuscripts do not contain this verse." John
Wycliffe either invented Matthew 17:21 himself, or he found it in the Latin
Vulgate, a fourth century document, and translated it into English. The
Wycliffe Bible says in Matthew 17:21, "But this kind is not cast out: but by
praying and fasting."
Matthew 18:11 is also omitted from the modern
English bible texts. It was not supposed to be in the "oldest and best
manuscripts." Wycliffe rendered it, "For man's Son came to save that thing
that perished."
Another example is found in Mark 9:44 and
46. The modern translations omit these verses. The modern
"fundamentalists" discount them with a footnote. "Many manuscripts do not
contain verses 44 and 46." Again, Wycliffe found these verses in the Latin
Vulgate. His English translation of them reads, "Where the worm of them
dieth not: and the fire is not quenched...Where the worm of them dieth not: and
the fire is not quenched."
Luke 4:4 in the modern translations reads, "Man
shall not live by bread alone." The King James Bible gives the completion
of the verse, "...but by every word of God." Wycliffe's Bible says, "It is
written that a man liveth not in bread alone: but in every word of
God."
Acts 8:37 is missing from the text of the modern
English translations. It is also undermined in the marginal notes of some
King James Version study Bibles. The footnote reads: "Most manuscripts do
not contain this verse." Acts 8:37 is of course one of the plainest
teachings of believers' baptism by immersion in the Bible. Wycliffe, a
Roman Catholic priest till the day he died, did...
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not refute or attempt to remove this clear
teaching on the Scriptural prerequisite and mode for baptism from the Biblical
text, as modern "fundamentalists" and evangelists do. We begin at verse 34
in Wycliffe's translation for the sake of context--
"And the gelding answered to Philip; and said,
I beseech thee: of what prophet saith he this thing: of himself either of
another? And Philip opened his mouth, and began at this Scripture: and
preached to him Jesus. And the while they went by the way, they came to a
water. And the gleding said, Lo water. Who forbiddeth me to be
baptised? And Philip said, If thou believest of all
the heart: it is lawful. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand
still. And they went down both into the water, Philip and the
gelding. And Philip baptized him." (Verse 37 is highlighted in bold
print.)
One sad and startling example of outright deceit
and seduction of unwary Bible students was relayed to me recently by an
upper classman in a "fundamental" Baptist Bible college. He was told in
class by a Bible professor that I John 5:7 was not found in any ancient Bbilical
text. First John 5:7 is a proof text for both the doctrines of the deity
of Christ and the trinity. Not only was this verse non-existent in early
texts, but furthermore, the professor asserted, it came into existence in the
sixteenth century, when Erasmus interposed it into a later edition of his Greek
New Testament. As he entered into the
company of some of his contemporaries to show them his manuscript, the ink where
he had just penned I John 5:7 for the very first time was
still wet.
My contention is that this particular professor,
and so many others of his ilk, are liars. Either that, or John Wycliffe
was a more remarkable man than anyone has ever given him credit for. For
when Wycliffe came to the place where I John 5:7 was not supposed to be found in
the Latin Vulgate, at least one hundred and fifty years before Erasmus
"invented" it, he wrote, "For three...
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be that give witnessing in heaven, the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost: and these three be one."
These are but a few examples of the vindication of the true text of
the Bible, retained in the King James Version in English, and even found in an
early corrupt Roman Catholic text, translated by John Wycliffe, but omitted and
discredited by modern textual critics and "scholars."
Two hundred Wycliffe Bibles are known to exist today, and one rare
leaf is worth several thousand dollars. Such beautiful phrases as "the
deep things of God," A wellspring of water springing up into everlasting life,"
and "the strait gate and the narrow way" were first rendered in the English by
John Wycliffe.
In 1425, Wycliffe's bones were exhumed and burned along with his
books and Bibles, and the ashes scattered into the River Swift. The world,
the Church and the devil thought they had rid themselves of the memory and
influence of John Wycliffe and his dreaded English Bible.
But the river Swift flows into the River Avon. The Avon flows
into the Severn, and the Severn into the Bristol Channel. The Bristol
Channel flows into the oceans, and the oceans flow around the world. And
so did the influence of John Wycliffe flow around the world, unlocking the souls
of men from the chains of pagan Romanism by giving them their first glimpse of
the Word of God in their own tongue. One writer aptly said, "Thus the
ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed the
world over."
The life, devotion and work of John Wycliffe earned him the title,
deservedly so, of "The Morning Star of the Reformation." His influence,
however, was much more far-reaching than just in the realm of theology and Bible
translation. Abraham Lincoln's famous line from his Gettysburg Address--"
...government of the people, by the people, and for the people..." was borrowed
from Wycliffe. In the preface of his 1384 English Bible, John Wycliffe
wrote, "The Bible is for government of the people, by the people, and for the
people." ...
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John Wycliffe was one of the earliest proponents of the doctrine of
separation of church and state. His sentiment was not that of the
perverted interpretation that the liberals of our day have wrested from our
Constitution, the philosophy that God has no place in politics or public
life. Instead, Wycliffe's idea was that the state should not
interfere with the activities of the church, and that the church should not be
involved in the state's role of prosecuting criminals, which the Roman Catholic
Church was heavily involved in, including the extermination of so-called
"heretics," which term was applied to anyone with a dissenting opinion from the
accepted Holy Mother Chruch's theology and doctrine.
Wycliffe was one of the first men to suggest that boundaries should
exist around various groups of people according to their languages. This
in part led to the division of the European nations as they are today. He
is also credited with aiding in the invention of reading glasses.
Wycliffe's influence spread beyond England, across the continent,
and into Bohemia. One notable man who was moved by the life's work of John
Wycliffe was John Hus.
Hus was born in 1369. He was ordained a Catholic
priest. He taught at the university of Prague and preached on
Sundays. Hus came under the influence of John Wycliffe by way of the
exchange students sent from Prague to study at Oxford. The students wrote
down every word that Wycliffe expounded in the classroom during their two-years
courses, and Hus eagerly studied their notes.
The great Bohemian reformer was arrested and imprisoned in 1414,
nearly dying in prison from starvation and violent illness.
At his inquisition it was demanded that he repudiate his statements
concerning the authority of popes and cardinals. He had said publicly in
his preaching and in his writings that the pope and the cardinals were not the
church. The church had once existed without them. The foundation of
the church was Christ, not Peter.
He replied that he would recant only if he could be
proven...
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wrong from the Scriptures. His judges railed, "You are an
obstinate heretic."
On July 6, 1415, Hus was brought to the cathedral and seated on a
high stool. The sentence was then read: "The holy council, having only God
before its eye, condemns John Hus to have been and to be a true, real and open
heretic, the disciple not of Christ, but of John Wycliffe." He was
stripped of his vestments, and a cap covered with pictures of devils was crushed
onto his head. Hus declared, "My Lord Jesus Christ, for my sake, did wear
a crown of thorns; why should not I then, for His sake, wear this light crown,
be it ever so ignominious?" With that, the "holy bishops" said, "Now we
commit thy soul to the devil." "But I," said Hus, "do commend into Thy
hands, O Lord Jesus, my spirit, which Thou hast redeemed."
He was chained to a stake, at which time he said, "My Lord Jesus
was bound with a harder chain than this for my sake, and why then should I be
ashamed of this rusty one?" One last offer of pardon was made if he would
by recant. He said, "What I have taught with my lips I now seal with my
blood." As the flames rose around him he was heard to sing, "Christ, Thou
Son of the living God, have mercy on me." His dying words were these: "You
are now going to burn a goose (Hus signifying gooose in the Bohemian language),
but in a century you will have a swan which you can neither roast nor
boil."
If Hus was fulfilling the role of a prophet with his last spoken
words on this earth, he must have been referring to Martin Luther, who, one
hundred years later, ignited the Protestant Reformation and led in the cause of
getting the Word of God into the language and into the hands of the common
people, and whose coat of arms displayed a swan.
