Wickliffe, Wycliffe, Wicliff, Wyklyf, &c., John, was born about 1320 at Hipswell, near Richmond, in Yorkshire.

		He was educated at Oxford; was elected master of Balliol College, and in 1361 was appointed rector of Fylingham, or Fillingham, in Lincolnshire. He afterwards became doctor of theology and teacher of divinity in the university; and for some time held the living of Ludgershall, in Buckinghamshire. Disputes existed at this period between Edward III. and the papal court relative to the homage and tribute exacted from King John, and the English parliament had resolved to support the sovereign in his refusal to submit to the vassalage. Wickliffe came forward on behalf of the patriotic view and wrote several tracts, which procured him the patronage of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster. In 1374 he was one of the commissioners sent by the king to Bruges to confer with the nuncio of Gregory XI. respecting the statutes of provisors and praemunire.
JOHN WYCLIFFE a contemporary of Chaucer		Shortly before, Edward gave him the valuable rectory of Lutterworth, in Leicestershire, which he held till his death.

		Here he laboured zealously as a preacher and pastor, though he lived at times also in Oxford or London, In some of his utterances he is said to have styled the pope Antichrist, charging him with simony, covetousness, ambition, and tyranny. His opinions began to spread, and the church grew alarmed. Courtenay, bishop of London, summoned him to appear before a convocation at St. Paul's Wickliffe appeared there on 19th February, 1377, attended by his friends, John of Gaunt (then the virtual ruler of England), Lord Percy, the earl-marshal, and others.
The leader of the LOLLARDS He was not a Protestant as he became known but an Englishman who claimed that every man should have the right to read the bible . " I believe that in the end truth will conquer "		Hot words passed between the bishop and the duke; blows followed; and the meeting broke up in confusion. in May following the pope addressed three bulls to the king, the primate, and the University of Oxford, commanding them to take proceedings against Wickliffe, who in answer to the prelate's summons appeared in the chapel of Lambeth.

Proceedings were, however, stopped by order of the queen-mother, and Wickliffe was dismissed with simply an injunction to refrain from preaching the obnoxious doctrines. About this time he was engaged in translating the Bible from the Vulgate with the assistance of some of his friends.   In 1381 he publicly challenged the doctrines of transubstantiation, and his heresies were condemned by the theologians of Oxford, as well as by a provincial council called by Archbisop Courtenay and held at thr Blackfriars, London, in 1382. Wickliffe was proclaimed a heretic, his works were condemned to be burned, and some of his followers were imprisoned; but he was allowed to retire unmolested to his rectory of Lutterworth . A stroke terminated his life on the 31st of December, 1384. Thirty years after his death at Lutterworth his doctrines were condemned by the Council of Constance, and in 1428 his remains were dug up burned, and the ashes cast into the Swift.

The influence of his doctrines spread widely on the Continent, and may easily be traced in the history of the Reformation.

Wickliffe was the author of an enormous number of writings in Latin and English, and he ranks undoubtedly as the father of English prose. Many of his writings still remain in MS. The whole of his Bible did not appear untill 1850. It was an English, version which was not taken from the original language, but from the latin.