Wiclif was born in 1324, four years before Chaucer.  The same abuses which called forth the satires of Langland and Chaucer upon monk and friar, and which, if unchecked, promised universal corruption, aroused the martyr-zeal of Wiclif; and similar reproofs are to be found in his work entitled “Objections to Friars,” and in numerous treatises from his pen against many of the doctrines and practices of the Church.

Noted for his learning and boldness, he was sent by Edward III. one of an embassy to Bruges, to negotiate with the Pope’s envoys concerning benefices held in England by foreigners.  There he met John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster.  This prince, whose immediate descendants were to play so prominent a part in later history, was the fourth son of Edward III.  By the death of the Black Prince, in 1376, and of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, in 1368, he became the oldest remaining child of the king, and the father of the man who usurped the throne of England and reigned as Henry IV.  The influence of Lancaster was equal to his station, and he extended his protection to Wiclif.  This, combined with the support of Lord Percy, the Marshal of England, saved the reformer from the stake when he was tried before the Bishop, of London on a charge of heresy, in 1377.  He was again brought before a synod of the clergy at Lambeth, in 1378, but such was the favor of the populace in his behalf, and such, too, the weakness of the papal party, on account of a schism which had resulted in the election of two popes, that, although his opinions were declared heretical, he was not proceeded against.

After this, although almost sick to death, he rose from what his enemies had hoped would be his death-bed, to “again declare the evil deeds of the friars.”  In 1381, he lectured openly at Oxford against the doctrine of transubstantiation; and for this, after a presentment by the Church—­and a partial recantation, or explaining away—­even the liberal king thought proper to command that he should retire from the university.  Thus, during his latter years, he lived in retirement at his little parish of Lutterworth, escaping the dangers of the troublous time, and dying—­struck with paralysis at his chancel—­in 1384, sixteen years before Chaucer.

TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE.—­The labors of Wiclif which produced the most important results, were not his violent lectures as a reformer, but the translation of the Bible into English, the very language of the common people, greatly to the wrath of the hierarchy and its political upholders.  This, too, is his chief glory:  as a reformer he went too fast and too far; he struck fiercely at the root of authority, imperilling what was good, in his attack upon what was evil.  In pulling up the tares he endangered the wheat, and from him, as a progenitor, came the Lollards, a fanatical, violent, and revolutionary sect.