John Wycliffe and his followers were key players in the history of the Bible, taking on the monumental mission of translating the sacred word from Latin to English. What they did was one of the earliest attempts that sought to provide Scriptures to English common people. During the 14th century, Latin was used by the clergy and the Church, and therefore it was practically impossible for ordinary men and women, particularly those who were not formally educated, to read and understand the teachings of the Bible. Wycliffe and his followers firmly believed that the Word of God must not be limited to the upper levels of the Church but must be made available to everyone, ranging from scholars to peasants and laborers.
Most of this translation work is purported to have been carried out at Oxford, where Wycliffe had been a theologian and scholar. A dedicated group of individuals, with Wycliffe's passion, did the painstaking task of translating the Latin Vulgate Bible into English. They were inspired by a genuine desire to get the Christian religion rooted among common people and thus enable men and women to establish a personal relationship with the Scriptures without clergy members acting as intermediaries. They believed that individual study of the Word of God would equip individuals to pursue spiritual wisdom and truth independently.
Wycliffe's adamant belief that the Bible could be translated into the vernacular language of the common people was new but also insurgent. It directly defied the official church position that only clergy possessed the adequate wisdom and ability to interpret the Bible accurately. Church doctrine taught that if the common folk were allowed to read and interpret the Bible on their own, then there was a chance for misinterpretations, misunderstandings, and even heresy. Church officials believed that if individuals could interpret the Scriptures themselves, then it would reduce the authority of the clergy and take away the control of the Church over religious doctrine.
Despite the stern resistance, Wycliffe and his followers went on working, convinced that God's truth should not be pushed into a corner by some privileged faction but be freely available to all. They translated the Bible into English hoping to annihilate obstacles that intervened between priests and laity and allowing the believers to develop a closer and immediate relationship with their religion. They believed that everyone, regardless of education level or social standing, should have the right to read and understand the Bible in their own tongue.
Wycliffe's Bible was eventually made publicly available. Since it was the first complete English translation of the Bible, it was tediously copied by hand into vellum or calf skin pages. Since the printing press hadn't yet been discovered, it took diligent labor for every duplicate, rendering it very slow and time-consuming. In spite of all these adversities, Wycliffe's Bible caught up with the populace, and they were able to read the Scripture in their vernacular language for the very first time. His translation laid down the path to subsequent English Bibles and was a stimulus for generations of reformers.
As would be anticipated, these efforts were met with intense ferocity by the Church. Wycliffe's work and his translation project were branded as heretical, and the Church sought to stifle his influence. Even in death, his followers, the Lollards, carried on spreading copies of the English Bible, so that his work went on unabated. The Church's hostility to Wycliffe's work reached a peak years later with the 1415 Council of Constance's condemnation as a heretic and the requirement that his works be burned. In 1428, he was exhumed and posthumously cremated, his ashes cast into the River Swift as a ceremonial act of denunciation.
Wycliffe fully understood the perils that he was undertaking and had expected to die a martyr for his cause. He famously replied, "Why do you talk of seeking the crown of martyrdom far away? Preach the gospel of Christ to haughty prelates, and martyrdom will not fail you. What! I should live and be silent? Never! Let the blow fall, I await its coming." His insistence that he would not give up on making the Scriptures accessible to all ensured that his legacy would hold, even amid the dangers with which he surrounded himself.
The impact of Wycliffe's work was great, preparing the way for future translations and eventually bringing the Bible into English to the general populace. His belief in access to Scripture would be a motivator for reformers like William Tyndale and Martin Luther later on, determining the trajectory of Christian history for centuries. Through his relentless efforts to translate the Bible into the common tongue, Wycliffe became a leader of the Protestant Reformation and a permanent symbol of religious reform and freedom.
