Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/121

1369] —form except that the dotted line is here introduced by way of conjecture:

Now if the date 1319 above given is that of the marriage of Roger, which is probable (since Catherine Wycliffe was still living in 1369), it is a noteworthy coincidence that the year 1320 has generally been accepted, on independent grounds, as the approximate date of John Wyclifs birth. But there is more substantial evidence than this for the belief that Roger and Catherine Wycliffe were the actual father and mother of the future divinity lecturer at Oxford. Another link in the chain is supplied by a close catalogue of rectors of Wycliffe, quoted in Torre's Archdeaconry of Richmond, from which the following entries are taken:

The significance of the "iidem" will be at once apparent. In 1362 Roger Wycliffe was dead, and the vacancy in the family living was supplied by his widow Catherine, who nominated Robert Wycliffe.