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 WYOLIFFE 747 dramatic works of Congreve, Farquhar, and Vanbrugh, with biographical notices by Leigh Hunt (1840). WYCLIFFE, Wickliffe, or Wiellf, John de, an Eng- lish reformer, born probably in a village which bears his name, near Richmond, Yorkshire, about 1324, died at Lutterworth, Dec. 31, 1384. He was educated at Queen's and Merton col- leges, Oxford. The earliest publication attrib- uted to him, though on slight evidence, is a tract entitled " The Last Age of the Church " (1356), first printed under the editorial care of J. H. Todd, D. D. (Dublin, 1840). The " black death " had recently desolated Europe, and the design of this tract was to prove that the day of judgment was impending. In a controversy with the mendicant orders about 1360, he upheld the authority of the parochial clergy against the friars. About the same time he became master of Balliol college, Oxford, and was preferred to the living of Fillingham. In 1365 he exchanged his office for the warden- ship of Canterbury hall, under a new arrange- ment by which monks were excluded from it. The monks protested, its founder Archbishop Simon de Islip soon died, and his successor pronounced Wycliffe's appointment void. He in turn protested, but after a litigation of seven years both the pope and the king decided against him. "While this suit was pending, Pope Urban V. demanded the annual tribute promised by King John as an acknowledgment of the pon- tiff's feudal superiority. Wycliffe, now a royal chaplain, declared against the papal claim. In 1368 he exchanged the living of Fillingham for that of Ludgershall, which was nearer to Ox- ford. In 1372 he took the degree of doctor of theology, and, availing himself of the right then conferred by that title, began to lecture in the university as a professor of theology, frequently assailing the corruptions of the beg- ging friars. Two years later he was one of an embassy sent by Edward III. to negotiate at Bruges with the delegates of Gregory XL, chiefly concerning the papal reservation of benefices in England, which, being held by foreigners, diverted the revenues to Rome or Avignon. During an absence of nearly two years he was presented by the king to the pre- bend of Aust, in the collegiate church of West- bury, and to the rectory of Lutterworth. The part which he took in the embassy made him obnoxious to the pope, who in 1377 sent letters to Oxford and Canterbury, the bishop of Lon- don, and the king, demanding inquiry concern- ing the doctrines imputed to him, and that he should be immediately put in custody until further instructions. "Wycliffe had already been summoned on a charge of heresy before the English convocation in St. Paul's, Feb. 19. When he made his appearance, it was with John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, on one side, and Lord Percy, earl marshal of Eng- land, on the other. Between these noblemen and Courtney, bishop of London, the presi- ding churchman, a violent altercation at once ensued; the throng broke into tumult; tho meeting was dissolved, and the reformer with- drew under the protection of his powerful friends. The populace favored tho clergy and attacked the magnificent palace of John of Gaunt, the Savoy, which was saved by the influence of the bishop of London. At tho request of parliament Wycliffe drew up a pn- per against the right of the pope to divert the ecclesiastical revenues abroad. The papal bull was treated by the university with cold re- spect; but early in 1378, in obedience to a summons of the archbishop of Canterbury, Wycliffe appeared before a synod of the clergy in Lambeth. The populace were now disposed to take his part, and a messenger also arrived prohibiting the synod in the name of the queen mother from proceeding to any conclusions in- jurious to him. He was released with an ad- monition, and resumed his pulpit discourses, academic lectures, and various writings, his opinions becoming more and more adverse to those upheld by the clergy. The most important of his writings was an English version of the whole Bible from the Latin Vulgate, finished about 1383, in which he was probably assisted by pupils and learned friends, and of which he multiplied copies by the help of transcribers. Editions of his New Testament were printed by Lewis in 1731, by Baber in 1810, and in Bagster's "English Hexapla" in 1841. The complete translation was first published by the university of Oxford, under the editorial care of the Rev. Josiah Forshall and Sir Frederick Madden (4 vols., 1850). Wycliffe's disciples, under the name of poor priests, disseminated his doctrines by open-air preaching. In 1381 he took his boldest step and gave the great- est offence by lecturing at Oxford against the doctrine of transubstantiation. The chancellor summoned an assembly of twelve doctors, who condemned his conclusions; Courtney, who had been raised to the see of Canterbury, called another synod, which declared ten opinions that had been publicly preached to be heretical, and enjoined the most vigorous measures for their suppression ; and the crown, on petition of the lords spiritual in parliament, empowered the sheriffs of counties to arrest all preachers of heresy. Wycliffe remained unmolested till 1382, when an appeal which he addressed to the king and parliament caused him to be sum- moned before the convocation of the clergy at Oxford. He appeared, and gave two confes- sions or defences, one in Latin and one in English, in which he maintained a real pres- ence while denying transmutation. No sen- tence was pronounced, but a letter was ob- tained from the king which debarred him from teaching in the university. He spent his later life at Lutterworth, where he continued to preach and write constantly. The council of Constance, May 5, 1415, after condemning 41 articles which he had maintained, ordered his bones to be taken from consecrated ground and cast upon a dunghill. But this was not