F r i e n d s   o f   W i l l i a m   T y n d a l e
H i s t o r y   o f   t h e   E n g l i s h   B i b l e
J o h n   W y c l i f f e
Morning Star of the Reformation
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~ E x c e r p t e d   f r o m ~ 
T H E   A N N A L S
O F   T H E   E N G L I S H   B I B L E
b y
C h r i s t o p h e r   A n d e r s o n

John Wycliffe, a native of Yorkshire, was born in the year 1324, and, in 1360, at the age of thirty-six, first came into public view, where he conspicuously remained to the day of his death, or the 31st of December, 1384. For his life and opinions we refer to other sources, and must here confine our attention to that work which will ever give the chief distinction to his name. Before the commencement of such a design, the position of Wycliffe should be contemplated. To say nothing of the Mahometan [i.e., Muslim] and Pagan worlds, two other communities had extended their influence over the nations. Alike opposed to the right of private judgment, and the rising freedom of the human mind, and now equally sunk into a state of unutterable depravity, both had fixed a malignant eye on that very book which Wycliffe had determined to give to his country. These two, it is well known, were the Eastern and Western, or the Greek [i.e., Greek Orthodox] and Latin [i.e., Roman Catholic] Churches. Both had not only, and long since, utterly neglected and contemned the Sacred Writings, but both had interdicted their translation into any vernacular tongue. 

In 1360 John Wycliffe, at the age of thirty-six, was allured from his hitherto retired life.  We have now, however, arrived at a point in history fraught with the deepest interest, and bearing so directly on the subject of the following pages, that it becomes necessary to pause a few moments, and look round.

Let Grecian literature, by all means, revive in Italy, for this will be drawn upon, as soon as the proper time arrives [the revival of Greek studies prepared the way for Erasmus, Luther and Tyndale, et al to conduct their work]; but, in the meanwhile, something else must be accomplished and very far to the west. The event which took place was not only a markedly powerful one, in relation to England, but it formed the first of a series in Europe, although more than an entire century passed away before the precedent was followed by other countries. We refer to the translation of the entire Sacred Volume into the language spoken by the people [i.e., the Bible translated by Wycliffe].  Fragments there had been in several languages, but the present work being complete from Genesis to Revelation, intelligible to the common people of that day, and intended for their express perusal, may be regarded as the first positive instance of its kind in modern Europe, no continental nation having anything similar to produce.

That it was not only unlawful, but injurious, for the people at large to read the Scriptures, had, indeed, for ages, been regarded as an axiom, by all these nations. Nor was this idea left to pass merely as a received opinion. Not to mention other proofs, more than a hundred and fifty years before Wycliffe had finished his determined purpose, or in the year 1229, at the Council of Toulouse, when forty -- five canons were passed and issued for the extinction of heresy and the reestablishment of peace, what were two of those canons? One involved the first court of inquisition, and another the first canon, which forbade the Scriptures to the laity, or the translation of any portion of them into the vulgar tongue. The latter was expressed in very pointed terms: “We also forbid the laity to possess any of the books of the Old or New Testament, except, perhaps, the Psalter or Breviary for the Divine Offices, or the Hours of the Blessed Virgin, which some, out of devotion, wish to have; but having any of these books translated into the vulgar tongue, we strictly forbid.’’

In the face of all this, and far more than can now be explained, must Wycliffe commence his heartfelt task; and so he did, with his eyes open to the prejudices of a world. His translation, which was finished in the year 1380, is supposed to have occupied him, amidst various interruptions, for many years. Some have imagined that this great work employed the translator for ten years only, but Mr. Baber, with far greater probability, has said, “From an early period of his life, he had devoted his various learning, and all the powerful energies of his mind, to effect this, and, at length, by intense application on his own part, and with some assistance from a few of the most learned of his followers, he had the glory to complete a book, which, alone, would have been sufficient (or at least ought) to have procured him the veneration of his own age, and the commendations of posterity.”

In accounting for such a movement as this, it has been but too common to inquire after something similar which had happened in the earth, and loosely supposing some connection between them, as cause and effect, thus leave the extraordinary event, without the slightest reference to the finger of God. Any influential connection, however, between the Waldenses or Vaudois and Wycliffe has never been clearly proved, and probably never will. At all events, before he could be stimulated by their example, he seems to have taken his ground, as it is only in his latest compositions that a few slight references to them are to be found, as to a people with whose sufferings he sympathised. He was on the Continent, at Bruges, it is true, from 1374 to 1376, but he had commenced, and must have been far advanced in his undertaking, long before then. In short, as far as the term can be applied to any human being, the claims of Wycliffe to originality have now come to be better understood, and every Christian will recognize the “Secret Mover” [i.e., the sovereign hand of God]. 

Down to the period of about two years before Wycliffe had completed his translation, the only ideas or incidents which had any powerful influence upon mankind generally, were such as stood connected with the Pontiff, and his peculiar system of rule or government; but, in reference to this subject, by the year 1378, among the European nations, there had sprung up a marked difference of opinion. One question engrossed them all, and it was nothing less than this: Who was Pontiff? In the year 1305, through the influence of France, the Court of Rome had been translated into that Kingdom, and there it remained for seventy -- four years, to the great damage of Rome as a city, but without any rent or division in the system. 

Edward the Third had expired on the 21st of June, 1377, after a reign of above half a century, and about that very moment Gregory XI had ordered Wycliffe to be seized and imprisoned, till further orders. Early in the following year, although our translator of the Scriptures had not only stood high in favour with the late King, but still did so with many in Parliament, and was powerfully protected by John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, he was summoned by the Bishops to answer for himself at St. Paul’s. Thus did this body of men first come out, appearing as a distinct interest in the, kingdom, and thus they will remain for above five generations to come; proving ever and anon, upon all occasions of alarm, that they were the determined opponents of Divine Truth. As a body, they will oppose its being conveyed to the people, and at every successive step of progress. Their malice at this time, however, was overruled, as it will so often and conspicuously be, a century and a half later; but, in the meanwhile, nothing must prevent Wycliffe from finishing his translation. 

The year 1378 was in truth an important one as it regarded our translator’s design. On the 27th of March the reigning Pontiff had died; an event which not only put an end to the bulls against Wycliffe, but gave rise to what was called “the Great Schism;” so that soon after there were two Pontiffs: one beyond the mountains, as the Italians said, and one at Rome -- consigning each other to perdition. Of this state of things Wycliffe did not fail to avail himself. “He saw the head of the body cloven in twain, and the two parts made to fight with each other;” and he immediately sent forth two tracts, one upon “the schism” itself, and the other upon “the truth of Scripture.”

Every city and state became agitated, and as the question soon divided the nations throughout, it so happened that England and Scotland were of opposite opinions: the former holding fast by Urban VI of Rome, who had been first chosen; the latter followed Clement VII of Avignon. England and France indeed became the most ardent supporters of the opposite parties, while such was the extent to which the controversy had gone, that some men of the University of Paris had begun to think of a plurality of Pontiffs, and the appointment of one to every kingdom. The idea of one power exercising authority over all nations had seemed to them untenable, if not injurious. 

Soon after this, in the year 1379, Wycliffe, as divinity professor, had gone to fulfill his accustomed annual duty at Oxford, but there he was seized with an alarming illness. The friars, imagining that his course was now near an end, contrived to visit him. Four of their ablest men had been selected, or a friar from each of the mendicant orders, and they were admitted to a patient hearing. After reminding him of the great injury he had done to their order -- for Wycliffe was a determined enemy to all idleness and all Extortion -- they exhorted him, as one near to death, that he would now, as a true penitent, bewail and revoke in their presence, whatever he had said to their disparagement. As soon as they had done, Wycliffe calling for his servant, desired to be raised up on his pillow; when collecting all his strength, with a severe and expressive countenance, and in a tone of voice not to be misunderstood, he exclaimed, “I shall not die, but live, to declare the evil deeds of the friars.” Confused, if not confounded,  little expecting such a reply, they immediately left him; and Wycliffe recovered, to finish in the year following his translation of the entire Bible.

Extraordinary, however, as the character of Wycliffe was,  a man confessedly far above all his contemporaries, it may still be inquired, whether he was qualified for the task of translating the Sacred Volume? The Scriptures had been originally given in Hebrew and Greek; but so far from the nations of the West furnishing men sufficiently acquainted with either, England at least had sunk into greater ignorance even since the days of Grossteste; nay, a hundred and fifty years later, when Tyndale had translated from the original tongues, some of the priests of the day were trying to persuade the people that Greek and Hebrew were languages newly invented.  Here, it is true, was Wycliffe, an able and acute, a zealous and determined man, and withal an excellent Latin scholar, but of Greek or Hebrew he knew nothing. Nor was it at all necessary that he should possess such erudition, since a translation from either Greek or Hebrew would not have harmonized with the first, or the present, intention of Divine Providence. 

A reason there was, and one worthy of infinite wisdom, why not only the English translation, but most of the first European versions must be made from the Latin. These nations, including our own [i.e. England], had nothing in common with the Greek community, but for ages they had been overrun with the Latin. This language, long since dead, even in Italy, had been the refuge and stronghold of their oppressor, from generation to generation; and upon looking back, no spectacle presented to the eye is so remarkable, as that of so many different nations, equally spell -- bound by the same expedient. There was a Latin service, and there was a Latin Bible, professedly received, but the possession of even this had been forbidden to the people at large; very much in  the same spirit as the Shasters of India are forbidden by the Brahmins to be looked upon, or even heard , by the people. It was the Latin Bible, therefore, long buried in cloisters, or covered with the dust of ages, which must now be brought forth to view.

Confessedly imperfect, it was of importance first to prove that; it had all along contained enough for mortal man to know, in order to his eternal salvation; and once translated into any native tongue, not only will the language touch the heart, but the people at last know what that mysterious book was, from which they had been  debarred, so wickedly and so long. Although, therefore, the nation was yet a hundred and fifty years distant from the English Bible, properly so called, the present should be regarded as the first preliminary step. An all-disposing foresight, far above that of any  human agent, is now distinctly visible in drawing first upon that very language which had been employed for ages as the instrument of mental bondage. It shall now be made to contribute to the emancipation of the human mind. 

Latin, it is true, had been the conventional language of the priests and students of different countries; but still, so long as this language remained untouched by a translation of the Scriptures into any vernacular tongue, it is a historical canon that no nation was ever greatly moved. This holds true of our own country, in the  age of manuscript, but it will become far more emphatically so, even seventy years after the invention of printing, when the Scriptures, once translated from the original tongues, come to be printed in the language then spoken, and spoken still.

At such a period as this the translation of Wycliffe could only be diffused, of course, by the laborious process of transcription; but transcribed it was diligently, both entire and in parts, and as eagerly read. There were those who, at every hazard, sought wisdom from the Book of God, and their number could not be few. A contemporary writer has affirmed that “a man could not meet two people on the road, but one of them was a disciple of Wycliffe.” This was the testimony of an enemy, and not improbably the language of hatred and fear combined, uttered with a wish to damage the cause; it was the testimony of an ecclesiastic, a Canon of Leicester, in reference to an era hailed by the people; and although the Word of Truth had not “free course,” there can be no question that it was glorified in the reception given to it by many. “The soldiers,” he says, “with the dukes and earls, were the chief adherents of this sect  --  they were their most strenuous promoters and boldest combatants  --  their most powerful defenders and their invincible protectors.” 

A very remarkable admission, as it accounts for the great progress made, in spite of opposition. All this and much more is uttered in the tone of lamentation; and what was the occasion, as expressed by the Canon himself? “This Master John Wycliffe,” says he, “hath translated the Gospel out of Latin into English, which Christ had entrusted with the clergy and doctors of the Church, that they might minister it to the laity and weaker sort, according to the state of the times and the wants of men. So that by this means the Gospel is made vulgar, and laid more open to the laity, and even to women who can read, than it used to be to the most learned of the clergy and those of the best understanding! And what was before the chief gift of the clergy and doctors of the Church, is made for ever common to the laity!”

It was in the same spirit that another contemporary writer urged that “the prelates ought not to suffer that every one at his pleasure should read the Scripture, translated even into Latin; because, as is plain from experience, this has been many ways the occasion of falling into heresies and errors. It is not, therefore, politic that any one, wheresoever and whensoever he will, should give himself to the frequent study of the Scriptures.”

These men specially referred to a period which lasted for about twenty years, or from 1380 to 1400, and it was one, though but too short, which distinguished this country from every other in Europe. However transient, or but like a handful of corn for all England. in any sketch of the times it should never pass unnoticed. While the nations generally were discussing the respective claims of two rival Pontiffs, amidst all the confusion of the times, and although  there were many adversaries, for the last twenty years of the fourteenth century, in England, no authoritative stop must be put to the perusal of the Divine record. 

The Bishops, it is true, with the Primate of Canterbury at their head, may rage and remonstrate, may write to Rome and receive replies, but in vain. The entire Sacred Volume had been translated, the people were transcribing and reading, and the translator [i.e., Wycliffe] had frequently expressed himself in the boldest terms. “The authority of the Holy Scriptures,” said he, “infinitely surpasses any writing, how authentic so ever it may appear, because the authority of Jesus Christ is infinitely above  that of all mankind.”  “The authority of the Scriptures is independent of any other authority, and is preferable to every other writing, but especially to the books of the Church of Rome.”  “I am certain, indeed, from the Scriptures, that neither Antichrist, nor all his disciples, nay, nor all fiends, may really impugn any part of  that volume as it regards the excellence of its doctrine. But in all these things it appears to me that the believing man should use this rule -- If he soundly understands the Sacred Scripture, let him bless God; if he be deficient, let him labour for soundness of mind. Let him also dwell as a grammarian upon the letter, but be fully aware of imposing a sense upon Scripture which he doubts the Holy Spirit does not demand.”

Many other passages, in terms as strong, might be quoted from his writings; and “among his latest acts,” says Vaughan, “was a defence in Parliament of the translation of the Scriptures into English. These he declared to be the property of the people, and one which no party should be allowed to wrest from them.” Now that the cause of such a man, as well as that he himself,  should have been so befriended, was one of the distinguishing features of the present period. The Duke of Lancaster continued to be his shield for years; and although, when Wycliffe, in addition to grievances felt, went on to Christian doctrines, the Duke faltered in his support, yet nearly six years after the translator was in his grave, the same voice was heard in favour of the translation. 

In the thirteenth of Richard II [1390] a bill was proposed to be brought into the House of Lords for suppressing it, when Lancaster, in boldly opposing this, told them, “That he would maintain our having this law in our own tongue, whoever they should be that brought in the bill;” and once introduced, it was immediately thrown out. But Lancaster was not the only friend: to his brother, the Duke of Gloucester, Wycliffe dedicated at least one of his pieces; and on one important occasion, when the former gave way, the Queen Mother [widow of the Black Prince] put a stop to persecution. Lord Percy, Earl Marshal, was also friendly; but perhaps, above all, much was owing to the reigning Queen, and that for ten years after Wycliffe’s death. 

Ann of Luxemburg, the sister of the Emperor Wenceslaus, and of the King of Bohemia, as consort of Richard II. had arrived in this country in December 1381; an event of great importance in connection with Wycliffe’s exertions. If he had so far enlightened England, his writings were also to electrify Bohemia, so that Ann had “come to the kingdom for such a time as this.” This lady, already acquainted with three languages, Bohemian, German, and Latin, soon acquired that of this country, and for years was distinguished for her diligent perusal of the Scriptures in English. 

This much was testified of her by a very notable witness -- the Lord Chancellor Arundel, then Archbishop of York, when he came to preach at her interment. “Although she was a stranger,” he said, “yet she constantly studied the four Gospels in English; and in the study of these, and reading of godly books, she was more diligent than the prelates, though their office and business require this of them.” The Gospels in English, he added, the Queen had sent to himself to peruse, and he had replied that they were “good and true.” Queen Ann’s course of reading was even well known to Wycliffe, before he expired in 1384, so that she must have served as a powerful example to others, for at least ten years. The translator had thus early inquired, whether “to hereticate” her on account of her practice, “would not be Luciferian folly.” 

The Queen, says Rapin, was a great favourer of Wycliffe’s doctrine, and had she lived longer would have saved his followers; but the illustrious foreigner once interred, and thus so remarkably eulogized, a different scene immediately opened to view. After his Queen’s death, Richard II., the grandchild of Edward III., had gone to Ireland, there to prolong the misgovernment of that country; and only four months had elapsed, when this very man, Arundel, who afterwards was the main instrument in dethroning the King, and one of the bitterest enemies of Divine Truth in the next century, was in great alarm. In deep hypocrisy, at  Westminster, he might choose to twit the prelates with their ignorance of Scripture, in comparison with a Queen who had to acquire the language, and thus please the ear of his Majesty, as well as seem to lament his loss; but he had no intention that the peop1e should take the hint, or advance, and show him, as well as his brethren, the way. 

The remarkable though transient period, however, to which we now refer, was as distinguished for boldness of sentiment, as for the protection providentially afforded to those who were searching the Scriptures for themselves. On the 29th of January, 1395, a Parliament was held at Westminster, and the time had come to speak out. The sentiments were not those of a feeble band, whispered in secret. They were expressed in the shape of a remonstrance, and presented to the House of Commons. They were posted at St. Paul’s, and also at Westminster. This, let it be observed, was above a hundred and twenty years before Luther’s voice was heard; and, taken all in all, the argument throughout may be compared to an arrow, shot from a bow as strong as the intrepid German afterwards ever bent.

Richard, still in Ireland, was preparing to take the field again, when Arundel, our preacher at Westminster in August last, had reached him in May, and accompanied by Braybrook, the Bishop of London. Six or seven years before this the disciples of Wycliffe had been congregating in different places, and actually appointing ministers among themselves to perform Divine service, after their own sentiments: while his “poor priests,” as they were styled, had been travelling and preaching, barefooted, through the country; but this pointed and posted remonstrance had filled Arundel, Braybrook, and their brethren with dread. They entreated the King, in name of the clergy, to return, intimating that the least delay might occasion irreparable damage. The followers of Wycliffe, they said, had made instance to set on foot a reformation  -- they had many friends in the kingdom, nay, in the Parliament itself, and the clergy were afraid they would proceed to action. Richard listened, immediately left the management of his war to the Earl of March, and returned. He took certain measures, it is true, to check the rising tide of sentiment, but still the Scriptures were not suppressed, nor was there one drop of blood shed for what “they called heresy,” till the commencement of the next century, under Henry the Fourth.

At the conclusion, therefore, of the fourteenth century, we concede to Petrarch, or Boccaccio and his fellows, all that is demanded as to the revival of learning in Italy; nor has England any occasion to be ashamed of the contrast or distinction between the two countries. The pursuits of both were but in their infancy. In the former, “imagining that all knowledge was to be found in the ancient Masters,” they were beginning to seek after Mount Parnassus and their old Romans; but in the latter they were in search of Mount Zion and the fishermen of Galilee. The Italian had become eager after the wisdom of Greece, and the nervous oratory of his forefathers; the Englishman, after the wisdom of God, and the course pursued by the first planters of Christianity. If any of  our countrymen were looking to Greece at all, it might be only to such as had proved to “be the first -- fruits of Achaia unto God;” and if to Rome, it was only to those in the imperial city, once so beloved, “whose faith was spoken of throughout the whole world.”

The manuscripts of Wycliffe’s version complete, are numerous still; and perhaps not much less so than those of the New Testament separately, not to mention different pieces, or entire hooks of the translation. In examining some of these, whether in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, in the British Museum, or in private collections, we have been struck with their legibility and  beauty. They have all, indiscriminately, been called Wycliffe’s version, but variations of expression are to be found in a few; and  it is not so generally known that we possess two distinct versions, one under Wycliffe’s own eye, and another a revision of the entire sacred text [by Wycliffe’s own assistants].

By the time that Tyndale was born, indeed, it would not have been intelligible to the people at large; moreover, it was from the Latin Vulgate, and the period had arrived when the translation must be drawn from the original tongues. Thus then, whatever darkness reigned, or enmity was shown in this country, throughout the whole of the next century, these precious volumes were preserved, and the surviving copies remain, like so many veritable torch bearers for the time being. They may, and indeed must have shared often in secret, or at the midnight hour, and certainly not without effects, to be disclosed another day: but at all events, here is one palpable existing distinction between this country, and every other, at the moment. It is one which stands in the finest keeping with all that took place in the days of Tyndale. The favour of God, even at this early period, had already begun to place England in that conspicuous position which it was afterwards to occupy among the nations of Europe, with regard to the possession and the diffusion of His blessed Word.