4. The Life of John Wycliffe (1300s)

In the 1300s in England, a man was born… He live and he died. But 44 years after he died their were people so mad at him and what he stood for that a powerful man from another country ordered that his bones be dug up and burned.

John Wycliffe lived almost 200 years before the Reformation, but his beliefs and teachings closely match those of Luther, Calvin and other Reformers. As a man ahead of his time, historians have called Wycliffe the "Morning star of the Reformation."

What did he believe in?

1. Bible for the people
In 1382 he translated an English Bible--the first European translation done in over 1,000 years.
2. Believed that the Bible taught that Justification was based entirely on the life and death of Christ and was received by faith alone
“If a man believe in Christ, and make a point of his belief, then the promise that God hath made to come into the land of light shall be given by virtue of Christ, to all men that make this the chief matter.”

3. Belived that the Bible ought to be Preached
Wycliffe trained and sent out preachers – a group called the Lollards, who inspired a spiritual revolution.

The Church expelled Wycliffe from his teaching position at Oxford, and 44 years after he died, the Pope ordered his bones exhumed and burned. Intense persecution stamped out his followers and teachings, but we are still talking about him today and nobody really cares what the name of the Pope was who gave the order to do what was done to his bones.