After spending twenty years at Merton College, first as a scholar and then a fellow, Wycliffe was appointed Master of Balliol Colleg in Oxford. Ballion College had been established around 1266, initially as a college for underprivileged students.

By this time Wycliffe had acquired a reputation as both a teach and a writer. He was wifely know as the flower of Oxford and many of his contemporaries hauled him as the greatest cleric then living. Wycliffe had taken holy orders and held two rural parishes which he rarely visited but collected the revenues from. He loved his work as a teacher at the university often usinghis position to teach his growing faith in Christ and the mysteries of salvation by faith.