John Wyclif, Reformer
31 December -- Commemoration
If celebrated as a Lesser Festival,
Common of any Saint, page 531
John was a member of the Wyclif family of Richmond in
Yorkshire and was born in about the year 1330. He was a
fellow of Merton College Oxford, and Master of
Balliol, but his expulsion from the
Wardenship of Canterbury Hall (later incorporated into
Christ
Church) in favour of a monastic foundation led to a
lawsuit and a life-long hatred of things monastic. He was
much in favour with members of the royal family and, when
disputes arose owing to his attacks on the clergy of the
day, he was protected by them from the otherwise inevitable
consequence of deprivation of his posts. However, he went
on to deny the Church's teaching of the presence of Christ
at the eucharist, the doctrine known as transubstantiation,
and it was this that lost him his royal protection. His
opinions were formally condemned in 1381 and he was forced
out of office by the university the following year. John
had already moved to Lutterworth in 1380 and from there he
gave his support to such projects as the translation of the
Bible into contemporary English. He died on this day in
1384, whilst at Mass.