The Morning Star:

John Wycliffe

Our chapter in the story of the Bible begins with the Vulgate, the version of the Scriptures that Jerome translated from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek languages into Latin in the late 4th and early 5th centuries. The Vulgate eventually came to dominate the Christian world, and interest in the ancient manuscripts began to fade, as Biblical studies no longer relied on them or the languages in which their authors wrote them. In time, the Latin text was the only version of scriptures in use throughout most of Europe.

John Wycliffe and his associates, the Lollards, translated Jerome’s Latin text into English in direct defiance of Papal commands. This work, the first complete translation of the Bible into the English language, appeared in 1382. Complete manuscripts sold for up to five marks (about $600 in modern value), and people are said to have given a load of hay for a few pages of one of the epistles.

Wycliffe made many enemies in the church because of his work and ultimately was denounced as a heretic. The Pope banned his works, and many of the Lollards were either imprisoned or executed. Wycliffe died on New Year’s Eve of 1384. After his death, he was condemned on 267 counts of heresy for his translation. In 1408, the Constitutions of Oxford prohibited making or reading a vernacular translation of Scripture on penalty of forfeit of life and goods.

In 1428, forty-four years after his death, Wycliffe’s remains were disinterred, burnt, and scattered on the River Swift.