John Wyclif deserves a place in a volume of Old and Middle English writers and writing not because of any works in English that may be ascribed to him with certainty. He should be included, rather, because of the influence of his Latin writings both in England, where they inspired adherents to write in the vernacular, and on the Continent, particularly in Bohemia. There they engaged the interest of the reformer Jan Hus, among many others, because of Wyclif's philosophical realism and his harsh criticisms of the institutional church. As a doctor of theology at Oxford University, Wyclif taught and wrote on problems of logic, the Bible, and theological issues. His rejection of current explanations of transubstantiation in the Eucharist, as well as his ultimate antisacerdotalism, which undermined the necessity of the priestly and papal offices in the life of the Christian, was the leading point in the...