WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.439 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are doing 00:00:03.439 --> 00:00:05.540 something a little different. We are setting 00:00:05.540 --> 00:00:08.759 the time machine back a good long way. We're 00:00:08.759 --> 00:00:11.699 heading to the 14th century. A fascinating and 00:00:11.699 --> 00:00:14.439 I would say an incredibly turbulent time. It's 00:00:14.439 --> 00:00:18.089 a period that feels almost alien to us now. Absolutely. 00:00:18.170 --> 00:00:20.510 It feels like a different planet. And we are 00:00:20.510 --> 00:00:24.070 focusing on a man who has this incredibly poetic, 00:00:24.230 --> 00:00:27.269 almost cinematic nickname. History remembers 00:00:27.269 --> 00:00:30.390 him as the morning star of the English Reformation. 00:00:30.649 --> 00:00:33.460 Stella Matutina. The Morning Star. Exactly. John 00:00:33.460 --> 00:00:36.200 Wycliffe. Now, usually when people think of the 00:00:36.200 --> 00:00:37.679 Reformation, you know, breaking away from the 00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:39.899 Pope, translating the Bible, shaking up the church 00:00:39.899 --> 00:00:42.159 hierarchy, they think of Martin Luther, right? 00:00:42.359 --> 00:00:44.539 Oh, absolutely. They think of the 1500s, the 00:00:44.539 --> 00:00:46.719 hammering on the door in Wittenberg. They do. 00:00:46.840 --> 00:00:49.020 Luther is the headline act for most people. He's 00:00:49.020 --> 00:00:51.179 the rock star of the movement. But our mission 00:00:51.179 --> 00:00:54.259 today is to unpack how this Oxford professor, 00:00:54.500 --> 00:00:57.640 nearly two centuries before Luther, was already 00:00:57.640 --> 00:01:00.100 doing all of that. He was the prototype. He really 00:01:00.100 --> 00:01:02.539 was. He was challenging the pope, was taking 00:01:02.539 --> 00:01:05.540 off the friars, and he was fundamentally redefining 00:01:05.540 --> 00:01:08.099 what authority meant in the Middle Ages. You 00:01:08.099 --> 00:01:11.040 can't really understand the explosion of the 00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:13.319 Protestant Reformation without understanding 00:01:13.319 --> 00:01:16.680 the fuse that Wycliffe lit in the 1300s. I mean, 00:01:16.680 --> 00:01:19.540 he built the intellectual scaffolding that everyone 00:01:19.540 --> 00:01:21.719 else climbed on later. And what I love about 00:01:21.719 --> 00:01:23.519 this deep dive is that we're going to separate 00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:25.879 the man from the myth because there is a lot 00:01:25.879 --> 00:01:27.640 of myth. I mean, the Wycliffe Bible is famous. 00:01:27.680 --> 00:01:30.560 It's iconic. But as we look through the source 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:33.840 material, there's this massive aha moment waiting 00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:36.980 for us regarding that book. It's a bit of a shock 00:01:36.980 --> 00:01:39.260 for people. Yeah. Modern scholarship suggests 00:01:39.260 --> 00:01:42.099 that while it bears his name, Wycliffe himself 00:01:42.099 --> 00:01:44.400 might not have translated much of it or perhaps 00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:47.299 any of it personally. Which is wild. It's like 00:01:47.299 --> 00:01:49.099 finding out Steve Jobs didn't actually solder 00:01:49.099 --> 00:01:51.379 the chips in the first iPhone. That is a very 00:01:51.379 --> 00:01:53.700 apt analogy. He was the architect, the driving 00:01:53.700 --> 00:01:56.659 force, the inspiration. But the hands on work. 00:01:57.049 --> 00:01:59.349 That's a much more complex story involving a 00:01:59.349 --> 00:02:02.129 team of people. So we have a stack of sources 00:02:02.129 --> 00:02:05.590 here. His biography, historical accounts, and 00:02:05.590 --> 00:02:07.870 his own heavy -hitting writings like De Civili 00:02:07.870 --> 00:02:11.389 Dominio and De Veritate Sacrae Scripturae. We 00:02:11.389 --> 00:02:14.110 are going to dig into the mind of this guy. Yeah, 00:02:14.110 --> 00:02:16.650 let's do it. But before we get to the man, we 00:02:16.650 --> 00:02:19.110 have to set the scene. Because the world Wycliffe 00:02:19.110 --> 00:02:22.849 lived in was, well, it was falling apart. Crisis 00:02:22.849 --> 00:02:25.770 is almost too late a word. If you look at the 00:02:25.770 --> 00:02:28.669 14th century in England, it is apocalyptic. You 00:02:28.669 --> 00:02:30.330 have to put yourself in the mindset of someone 00:02:30.330 --> 00:02:32.590 living then. We're talking about the Black Death, 00:02:32.710 --> 00:02:35.349 primarily. The Black Death. Wycliffe is at Oxford 00:02:35.349 --> 00:02:38.289 University around 1345. He's a young, promising 00:02:38.289 --> 00:02:41.849 scholar. Then the plague hits England in the 00:02:41.849 --> 00:02:44.610 summer of 1348. I can't even imagine being a 00:02:44.610 --> 00:02:46.810 student in that environment. Oxford is a tight 00:02:46.810 --> 00:02:49.069 -knit community, crowded halls, shared meals. 00:02:49.270 --> 00:02:51.189 It must have been a petri dish. It was devastating. 00:02:51.580 --> 00:02:54.139 We're talking about a mortality rate that wiped 00:02:54.139 --> 00:02:56.479 out perhaps a third to half of the population 00:02:56.479 --> 00:02:58.759 in some areas. That's almost impossible to comprehend. 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:00.860 So for Wycliffe, this isn't just an abstract 00:03:00.860 --> 00:03:03.159 problem. He's living through it. Oh, he's in 00:03:03.159 --> 00:03:05.719 the middle of it. And for him, it wasn't just 00:03:05.719 --> 00:03:07.740 a health crisis. It was a theological crisis. 00:03:08.020 --> 00:03:11.479 It shaped his entire worldview. Sources tell 00:03:11.479 --> 00:03:13.819 us he developed a very gloomy view of humanity 00:03:13.819 --> 00:03:16.819 in the future. Gloomy seems like an understatement. 00:03:17.060 --> 00:03:19.379 If half my neighborhood died in a year, I'd probably 00:03:19.379 --> 00:03:22.580 be a bit pessimistic, too. He actually believed 00:03:22.580 --> 00:03:24.439 the world was going to end at the close of the 00:03:24.439 --> 00:03:27.240 14th century. He thought he was living in the 00:03:27.240 --> 00:03:30.639 final days, the end times. Wow. And when you 00:03:30.639 --> 00:03:33.840 look around at what the plague did, you can understand 00:03:33.840 --> 00:03:37.460 why. It felt like judgment. It felt like God 00:03:37.460 --> 00:03:39.360 had turned his back on the world. And it wasn't 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:42.139 just that people were dying. It changed the church, 00:03:42.419 --> 00:03:44.960 right? The actual structure of the institution 00:03:44.960 --> 00:03:48.159 was damaged. Drastically. The mortality rate 00:03:48.159 --> 00:03:51.020 among the clergy was incredibly high. Think about 00:03:51.020 --> 00:03:53.280 it. Priests were the ones visiting the sick, 00:03:53.439 --> 00:03:56.080 doing last rites, leaning in to hear confessions 00:03:56.080 --> 00:03:58.360 of the dying. They were on the front lines. Absolutely. 00:03:58.460 --> 00:04:01.000 So they were dying in droves. Yeah. And you have 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:03.180 all these vacant positions. The church needed 00:04:03.180 --> 00:04:05.860 to replace them and fast. You can't have empty 00:04:05.860 --> 00:04:08.280 pulpits. But you can't just conjure up a trained 00:04:08.280 --> 00:04:11.219 theologian. Exactly. But you can't train a theologian 00:04:11.219 --> 00:04:13.740 overnight. So they lowered the standards. They 00:04:13.740 --> 00:04:16.829 had to. Wycliffe saw these replacements. Men 00:04:16.829 --> 00:04:20.730 who are often uneducated, illiterate, or disreputable, 00:04:20.730 --> 00:04:23.269 as the sources say, taking over holy offices. 00:04:23.550 --> 00:04:26.149 So young Wycliffe looks around and sees the world 00:04:26.149 --> 00:04:28.470 ending and the people supposed to be saving souls 00:04:28.470 --> 00:04:31.430 are, well, they're the B team or the C team. 00:04:31.569 --> 00:04:34.290 Yeah, even the F team in some cases. He viewed 00:04:34.290 --> 00:04:37.009 the plague as an indictment. God was judging 00:04:37.009 --> 00:04:40.129 an unworthy clergy. That seed of resentment, 00:04:40.329 --> 00:04:42.720 or rather that... Critical eye toward the church 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:46.540 hierarchy starts right there. He's seeing incompetence 00:04:46.540 --> 00:04:48.379 where there should be holiness. And just to add 00:04:48.379 --> 00:04:51.240 fuel to the fire, you have the papal schism happening 00:04:51.240 --> 00:04:53.819 later on. It's not just the local priest who 00:04:53.819 --> 00:04:56.220 is incompetent. The head of the snake is confused. 00:04:56.480 --> 00:04:58.939 The chaos of rival popes. This is the Western 00:04:58.939 --> 00:05:00.699 schism. You eventually have one pope in Rome 00:05:00.699 --> 00:05:03.839 and another pope in Avignon in France. Both are 00:05:03.839 --> 00:05:05.980 claiming to be the vicar of Christ. The one and 00:05:05.980 --> 00:05:08.319 only. Both are holding the keys to the kingdom 00:05:08.319 --> 00:05:10.300 of heaven. And they aren't getting along. Not 00:05:10.300 --> 00:05:12.639 at all. They are excommunicating each other. 00:05:12.740 --> 00:05:15.620 They are calling each other the Antichrist. If 00:05:15.620 --> 00:05:18.360 you are a logical man like Wycliffe, looking 00:05:18.360 --> 00:05:20.819 at this chaos, you have to start asking questions 00:05:20.819 --> 00:05:23.720 about authority. Right. Who do I listen to? If 00:05:23.720 --> 00:05:26.180 Pope A says Pope B is a devil and Pope B says 00:05:26.180 --> 00:05:29.720 Pope A is a devil, well, maybe they're both right. 00:05:29.819 --> 00:05:31.860 That is a terrifying thought for a medieval Christian. 00:05:32.259 --> 00:05:34.699 But okay, so let's get to the man himself. He's 00:05:34.699 --> 00:05:37.620 at Oxford. What kind of reputation does he have? 00:05:37.720 --> 00:05:39.879 Is he a radical bomb thrower from the start? 00:05:40.019 --> 00:05:43.129 Not at all. That's the irony. He is the establishment. 00:05:43.329 --> 00:05:45.870 He is the ultimate insider. He becomes the master 00:05:45.870 --> 00:05:49.449 of Balliol College in 1361. Later, he's the warden 00:05:49.449 --> 00:05:51.790 of Canterbury Hall. So he's a big deal academic. 00:05:51.850 --> 00:05:54.709 He's not on the fringes. A massive deal. Henry 00:05:54.709 --> 00:05:56.769 Knighton, a chronicler of the time who actually 00:05:56.769 --> 00:06:00.129 really disliked Wycliffe's later theology, still 00:06:00.129 --> 00:06:02.810 had to admit that Wycliffe was second to none 00:06:02.810 --> 00:06:05.870 in philosophy and incomparable in scholastic 00:06:05.870 --> 00:06:08.310 discipline. So by all accounts, he was the smartest 00:06:08.310 --> 00:06:10.509 guy in the room. Unquestionably. I always find 00:06:10.509 --> 00:06:12.290 that fascinating. The biggest revolutionaries 00:06:12.290 --> 00:06:14.129 often come from the very top of the system they 00:06:14.129 --> 00:06:15.990 eventually try to tear down. They know where 00:06:15.990 --> 00:06:17.649 the bodies are buried because they helped build 00:06:17.649 --> 00:06:20.149 the cemetery. It gives them the tools to dismantle 00:06:20.149 --> 00:06:22.529 it. They know the logic. Yeah. And for Wycliffe, 00:06:22.649 --> 00:06:25.589 his tool was logic. He was a philosopher before 00:06:25.589 --> 00:06:28.569 he was a reformer. Specifically, he was a realist. 00:06:28.670 --> 00:06:30.730 OK, let's unpack this. We're not talking about 00:06:30.730 --> 00:06:33.230 realist in the modern sense of being pragmatic 00:06:33.230 --> 00:06:36.069 or down to earth. This is deep medieval philosophy. 00:06:36.509 --> 00:06:39.699 Right. This is the big debate of the age. Realism 00:06:39.699 --> 00:06:41.720 versus nominalism. We need to get this right 00:06:41.720 --> 00:06:43.800 because it explains everything he does later. 00:06:43.920 --> 00:06:46.240 So break it down for us. What's nominalism? Right. 00:06:46.319 --> 00:06:49.199 This is the heavy stuff, but it's crucial. The 00:06:49.199 --> 00:06:52.360 dominant trend at the time was nominalism, championed 00:06:52.360 --> 00:06:55.319 by people like William of Ockham. Nominalists 00:06:55.319 --> 00:06:58.019 argued that universal concepts like humanity 00:06:58.019 --> 00:07:02.189 or the church. don't really exist in some higher 00:07:02.189 --> 00:07:05.449 reality. They're just names nomina that we give 00:07:05.449 --> 00:07:07.990 to groups of individual things. So for anomalous, 00:07:08.170 --> 00:07:10.050 the church is just the collection of people, 00:07:10.209 --> 00:07:12.170 buildings, and laws that we see right now. What 00:07:12.170 --> 00:07:14.529 you see is what you get. Exactly. It's very practical, 00:07:14.589 --> 00:07:19.209 very earthly. But Wycliffe disagreed vehemently. 00:07:19.600 --> 00:07:22.439 Wycliffe was a realist. He believed that universals 00:07:22.439 --> 00:07:25.579 exist really. They're eternal ideas derived directly 00:07:25.579 --> 00:07:28.360 from God. They exist in God's mind before they 00:07:28.360 --> 00:07:30.579 exist in the world. So there is a divine blueprint. 00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:34.959 Yes. There is a perfect church in the mind of 00:07:34.959 --> 00:07:37.899 God, an ideal eternal reality. And the church 00:07:37.899 --> 00:07:39.680 we see on earth is supposed to be a reflection 00:07:39.680 --> 00:07:41.620 of that. Why does that matter to the average 00:07:41.620 --> 00:07:43.920 person in the pew? Or rather, why does it matter 00:07:43.920 --> 00:07:46.339 so much to Wycliffe? It matters because of how 00:07:46.339 --> 00:07:49.819 you view the institution. If you're a nominalist, 00:07:49.839 --> 00:07:52.519 the messy, corrupt church you see is the only 00:07:52.519 --> 00:07:54.379 church there is. You have to deal with it. You're 00:07:54.379 --> 00:07:57.040 stuck with it. Right. But if you are a realist 00:07:57.040 --> 00:07:59.560 like Wycliffe, you can look at the visible pope 00:07:59.560 --> 00:08:01.819 and the visible bishops and compare them to the 00:08:01.819 --> 00:08:05.079 ideal church in God's mind. I see where this 00:08:05.079 --> 00:08:07.040 is going. Gives you a standard to judge them 00:08:07.040 --> 00:08:09.819 by. Exactly. And if the pope or the bishops aren't 00:08:09.819 --> 00:08:12.199 living up to that divine ideal, then they aren't 00:08:12.199 --> 00:08:15.100 the real church. They are imposters. His philosophy 00:08:15.100 --> 00:08:18.019 gave him the license to judge the visible institution 00:08:18.019 --> 00:08:21.540 against an invisible divine standard. That is 00:08:21.540 --> 00:08:23.819 a powerful starting point. It transforms philosophy 00:08:23.819 --> 00:08:26.740 into a weapon. He believed human thoughts and 00:08:26.740 --> 00:08:31.160 logic. bore God's image. So studying logic wasn't 00:08:31.160 --> 00:08:33.679 just an academic exercise. For him, it was a 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:36.019 way to understand the mind of God. And that leads 00:08:36.019 --> 00:08:38.120 us to his big idea, the one that really started 00:08:38.120 --> 00:08:41.440 getting him in trouble. Dominium. Lordship. Right. 00:08:41.620 --> 00:08:44.299 De civili dominio. Civil dominion. Break this 00:08:44.299 --> 00:08:47.360 down for us. What is Wycliffe arguing here? He's 00:08:47.360 --> 00:08:50.179 asking a fundamental question. Who has the right 00:08:50.179 --> 00:08:53.860 to rule? Who has the right to own property? And 00:08:53.860 --> 00:08:57.350 his answer is radical. He argues that all dominium, 00:08:57.350 --> 00:09:00.509 all authority is conferred directly by God. Okay, 00:09:00.549 --> 00:09:02.490 that sounds like the standard divine right of 00:09:02.490 --> 00:09:05.009 kings. God picks the king, so we have to listen 00:09:05.009 --> 00:09:06.690 to the king. It starts that way. It sounds very 00:09:06.690 --> 00:09:09.070 orthodox. But then he adds the condition, the 00:09:09.070 --> 00:09:10.909 catch. There's always a catch with Wycliffe. 00:09:10.970 --> 00:09:13.789 There is. He argues that this authority is conditional 00:09:13.789 --> 00:09:16.769 on being in a state of grace. A state of grace, 00:09:16.970 --> 00:09:20.750 meaning you're not in sin. Specifically, mortal 00:09:20.750 --> 00:09:24.490 sin. Wycliffe argued that dominion is founded 00:09:24.490 --> 00:09:27.789 in grace. If a leader, whether it's a king, a 00:09:27.789 --> 00:09:30.509 duke, or a pope, is in a state of mortal sin, 00:09:30.769 --> 00:09:33.870 they forfeit their divine right to rule. Forfeit 00:09:33.870 --> 00:09:35.669 it. They forfeit their right to own property. 00:09:35.970 --> 00:09:38.350 In God's eyes, they are stripped of their authority. 00:09:38.710 --> 00:09:42.230 Wow. That is, that's a loaded gun. It's a nuclear 00:09:42.230 --> 00:09:44.370 weapon in the 14th century. Because everyone 00:09:44.370 --> 00:09:47.399 sins. If I'm a peasant and I think my lord is 00:09:47.399 --> 00:09:48.799 a greedy glutton, does that mean I don't have 00:09:48.799 --> 00:09:52.460 to pay my taxes? Theoretically, yes. But Wycliffe 00:09:52.460 --> 00:09:54.519 was careful. He applied this primarily to the 00:09:54.519 --> 00:09:56.840 church. He looked at the wealth of the church, 00:09:56.980 --> 00:09:59.820 the massive estates, the gold, the palaces, and 00:09:59.820 --> 00:10:03.419 he said, this is sin. The church has fallen into 00:10:03.419 --> 00:10:06.580 sin through wealth. Therefore. Therefore, they 00:10:06.580 --> 00:10:08.480 don't really own it? They have forfeited their 00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:10.759 right to it. Wycliffe argued the clergy should 00:10:10.759 --> 00:10:13.559 live in radical poverty. like the apostles he 00:10:13.559 --> 00:10:15.419 thought the church should look like jesus not 00:10:15.419 --> 00:10:18.039 like caesar i can imagine the bishops in their 00:10:18.039 --> 00:10:20.220 palaces hearing this and choking on their wine 00:10:20.220 --> 00:10:22.919 but here's the kicker he didn't just say the 00:10:22.919 --> 00:10:24.519 church should give it up he said someone had 00:10:24.519 --> 00:10:28.480 the right to take it yes state intervention he 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:30.840 argued that if the church wouldn't divest itself 00:10:30.840 --> 00:10:33.820 of this ill -gotten wealth the state meaning 00:10:33.820 --> 00:10:36.679 the king and the nobility had not just the right 00:10:36.679 --> 00:10:40.389 but the duty to seize it and suddenly I understand 00:10:40.389 --> 00:10:43.909 why he had powerful friends. Precisely. That 00:10:43.909 --> 00:10:46.649 is the key to his survival for so long. This 00:10:46.649 --> 00:10:48.529 wasn't just theology. This was a fundraising 00:10:48.529 --> 00:10:51.350 opportunity for the government. The English government 00:10:51.350 --> 00:10:53.809 was broke. You have to remember that this is 00:10:53.809 --> 00:10:55.450 the time of the Hundred Years' War. They were 00:10:55.450 --> 00:10:57.809 fighting expensive campaigns in France. Right. 00:10:58.029 --> 00:11:00.809 Wars are not cheap. And they were tired of sending 00:11:00.809 --> 00:11:03.610 tax money to Rome. especially when the Pope was 00:11:03.610 --> 00:11:05.450 sitting in Avignon under the thumb of the French 00:11:05.450 --> 00:11:07.990 king, their enemy. And here comes the smartest 00:11:07.990 --> 00:11:10.710 man at Oxford saying, hey, you know all that 00:11:10.710 --> 00:11:12.870 land the church owns? God wants you to take it 00:11:12.870 --> 00:11:15.809 back. Talk about music to their ears. It's the 00:11:15.809 --> 00:11:18.169 perfect justification for a cash grab. And this 00:11:18.169 --> 00:11:20.649 brings us to John of Gaunt. The Duke of Lancaster. 00:11:21.230 --> 00:11:24.309 King Edward III's son. Essentially the most powerful 00:11:24.309 --> 00:11:26.330 man in England at the time because the king was 00:11:26.330 --> 00:11:28.570 old and senile and the heir, the Black Prince, 00:11:28.690 --> 00:11:32.460 was dying. Gaunt ran the show. He becomes Wycliffe's 00:11:32.460 --> 00:11:35.720 protector. Patron and protector. He saw Wycliffe 00:11:35.720 --> 00:11:37.899 as a weapon. He could use Wycliffe's theology 00:11:37.899 --> 00:11:41.259 to justify seizing church wealth to fund the 00:11:41.259 --> 00:11:43.340 military and the government. It was a perfect 00:11:43.340 --> 00:11:45.679 political alliance. It's so cynical, though, 00:11:45.740 --> 00:11:48.159 isn't it? I mean, Wycliffe is this pious scholar 00:11:48.159 --> 00:11:51.259 wanting a pure church, and Gaunt is just this 00:11:51.259 --> 00:11:54.080 power -hungry duke who wants cash. History is 00:11:54.080 --> 00:11:57.059 full of strange bedfellows. I doubt Gaunt cared 00:11:57.059 --> 00:12:00.159 one bit about realism or universals, but the 00:12:00.159 --> 00:12:02.679 argument worked for him, and it elevated Wycliffe. 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:06.320 In 1374, Wycliffe was actually sent to Bruges 00:12:06.320 --> 00:12:09.299 as a diplomat to negotiate with the Pope's envoys. 00:12:09.419 --> 00:12:11.440 Wow, so he's on the national stage now. He's 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:13.840 not just a professor anymore. He's a player on 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:15.980 the international stage. Imagine Wycliffe at 00:12:15.980 --> 00:12:19.360 that table. The austere academic versus the slick 00:12:19.360 --> 00:12:21.580 papal lawyers. It must have been a clash of cultures. 00:12:22.139 --> 00:12:24.320 But it solidified his position as the king's 00:12:24.320 --> 00:12:26.440 man. But being a player means you make enemies. 00:12:26.700 --> 00:12:28.679 And Wycliffe made some big ones. The bishops 00:12:28.679 --> 00:12:30.259 weren't just going to roll over and give up their 00:12:30.259 --> 00:12:32.919 estates. He certainly did make enemies. The church 00:12:32.919 --> 00:12:35.259 hierarchy decided they had to shut him up. Let's 00:12:35.259 --> 00:12:39.120 talk about the trial at St. Paul's. 1377. This 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:41.259 scene is incredible. It plays out like a movie 00:12:41.259 --> 00:12:44.860 script. It is high drama. Wycliffe is summoned 00:12:44.860 --> 00:12:48.000 by the Bishop of London, William Courtenay. Now, 00:12:48.019 --> 00:12:50.379 Courtney is a powerful figure, an aristocrat. 00:12:50.480 --> 00:12:54.379 He wants to crush this upstart priest who is 00:12:54.379 --> 00:12:57.519 threatening his property and his power. So Wycliffe 00:12:57.519 --> 00:13:00.259 goes to St. Paul's Cathedral. But he doesn't 00:13:00.259 --> 00:13:02.580 go alone. He doesn't go like a humble penitent. 00:13:02.700 --> 00:13:05.879 No. He rolls up with John of Gaunt, the Duke 00:13:05.879 --> 00:13:08.179 of Lancaster, and the Earl Marshal Henry Percy. 00:13:08.649 --> 00:13:10.909 and they bring armed supporters. They force their 00:13:10.909 --> 00:13:13.049 way through the crowd. It's like a mob boss walking 00:13:13.049 --> 00:13:14.990 into a courtroom with his muscle. It really was. 00:13:15.169 --> 00:13:17.250 Yeah, and the cathedral is packed. There's a 00:13:17.250 --> 00:13:19.309 hostile crowd because Londoners generally hated 00:13:19.309 --> 00:13:20.850 John of Gaunt. They thought he was a tyrant. 00:13:21.230 --> 00:13:24.769 Tensions are sky high, and the trial, well, it 00:13:24.769 --> 00:13:26.350 never actually happened. Why not? Because they 00:13:26.350 --> 00:13:28.470 got into an argument about a chair. A chair. 00:13:28.929 --> 00:13:32.350 You're kidding. Yes, a chair. Wycliffe walks 00:13:32.350 --> 00:13:34.870 in into the Lady Chapel, and Lord Percy, the 00:13:34.870 --> 00:13:37.029 Earl Marshal, tells Wycliffe to sit down. He 00:13:37.029 --> 00:13:38.750 says something like, You have much to answer 00:13:38.750 --> 00:13:41.309 for. You need a soft seat. Okay, that sounds 00:13:41.309 --> 00:13:43.929 polite, but in that context, that's a power move. 00:13:44.070 --> 00:13:46.950 It's a massive insult to the bishop. In a church 00:13:46.950 --> 00:13:51.029 court, the accused stands. The judge sits. By 00:13:51.029 --> 00:13:53.669 telling him to sit, Percy is saying, you are 00:13:53.669 --> 00:13:56.429 equal to the bishop. This court has no authority 00:13:56.429 --> 00:13:59.269 over you. And Bishop Courtney explodes. He goes 00:13:59.269 --> 00:14:02.549 ballistic. He says, no. Criminals stand before 00:14:02.549 --> 00:14:05.129 their judges. He refuses to let him sit. And 00:14:05.129 --> 00:14:08.389 then? And then John of Gaunt jumps in. He starts 00:14:08.389 --> 00:14:10.950 shouting at the bishop. Sources say he threatened 00:14:10.950 --> 00:14:14.210 to humble the pride of the bishop. He even reportedly 00:14:14.210 --> 00:14:16.250 mumbled that he would drag the bishop out of 00:14:16.250 --> 00:14:18.610 the church by his hair. That is distinctively 00:14:18.610 --> 00:14:20.870 undiplomatic. It turned into a shouting match 00:14:20.870 --> 00:14:23.610 between the most powerful secular lord and the 00:14:23.610 --> 00:14:25.850 powerful bishop. It completely devolved. That's 00:14:25.850 --> 00:14:27.889 where Wycliffe. He's just standing there. He 00:14:27.889 --> 00:14:29.649 barely got a word in. He's the eye of the hurricane. 00:14:30.009 --> 00:14:32.690 The whole assembly broke up in a riot. The London 00:14:32.690 --> 00:14:35.129 crowd heard Gaunt threatening their bishop, and 00:14:35.129 --> 00:14:37.570 they rushed the stage. So they had to flee. Gaunt 00:14:37.570 --> 00:14:39.730 and Wycliffe had to flee for their lives. No 00:14:39.730 --> 00:14:42.230 formal charges were stuck that day. But it shows 00:14:42.230 --> 00:14:44.769 how political this had become. It wasn't about 00:14:44.769 --> 00:14:47.649 theology anymore. It was about power. It was 00:14:47.649 --> 00:14:49.570 state versus church played out in a shouting 00:14:49.570 --> 00:14:53.370 match. Exactly. But the church wasn't done. Pope 00:14:53.370 --> 00:14:58.190 Gregory XI strikes back in May 1377. He issues 00:14:58.190 --> 00:15:00.759 a papal bull. Actually, he sends five copies 00:15:00.759 --> 00:15:02.980 of it. Covering his bases. He sends them to the 00:15:02.980 --> 00:15:05.120 king, the archbishop, the University of Oxford. 00:15:05.259 --> 00:15:07.899 He wants everyone to know. And he condemns 19 00:15:07.899 --> 00:15:11.320 of Wycliffe's theses. What was the core of the 00:15:11.320 --> 00:15:14.200 condemnation? Was it the church shouldn't own 00:15:14.200 --> 00:15:17.500 property thing? That was the main thrust. They 00:15:17.500 --> 00:15:20.620 cited de civili dominio. They were furious about 00:15:20.620 --> 00:15:22.559 the idea that the church shouldn't own property. 00:15:23.500 --> 00:15:25.679 this is interesting, that excommunication shouldn't 00:15:25.679 --> 00:15:27.620 include imprisonment. Wait, explain that. That 00:15:27.620 --> 00:15:29.740 sounds like a civil rights issue. It kind of 00:15:29.740 --> 00:15:32.440 was. Wycliffe argued that excommunication was 00:15:32.440 --> 00:15:34.360 a spiritual penalty. Right. It meant you were 00:15:34.360 --> 00:15:36.500 cut off from the sacraments. That's bad enough. 00:15:36.740 --> 00:15:39.059 Right. But the church was using it as a legal 00:15:39.059 --> 00:15:42.259 weapon. If you were excommunicated, after 40 00:15:42.259 --> 00:15:45.019 days, the church could signal the state and you 00:15:45.019 --> 00:15:47.320 could be thrown in prison. Wycliffe said, no. 00:15:47.759 --> 00:15:49.799 That's an abuse of power. The Pope can't use 00:15:49.799 --> 00:15:52.100 the king's jails to enforce his spiritual will. 00:15:52.259 --> 00:15:55.340 So the Pope condemns him. Erroneous and dangerous. 00:15:56.360 --> 00:15:59.220 Does Wycliffe back down? Does he apologize? Not 00:15:59.220 --> 00:16:01.820 even a little bit. In fact, he gets lucky. The 00:16:01.820 --> 00:16:05.259 bull arrives late in December. By that time, 00:16:05.279 --> 00:16:08.299 King Edward III has died. The political landscape 00:16:08.299 --> 00:16:10.919 is shifting. So there's a power vacuum. A bit, 00:16:11.019 --> 00:16:13.759 yes. The new king, Richard II, is just a boy. 00:16:14.139 --> 00:16:17.080 The government is in flux. And Wycliffe advises 00:16:17.080 --> 00:16:19.679 the king's council that legally they can just 00:16:19.679 --> 00:16:22.259 ignore the pope's demand for money. He's doubling 00:16:22.259 --> 00:16:24.700 down. He's telling them the pope is wrong. Keep 00:16:24.700 --> 00:16:27.039 the cash. He is. And this is where his rhetoric 00:16:27.039 --> 00:16:29.120 starts to get really heated. He starts defining 00:16:29.120 --> 00:16:31.840 his enemies clearly. The friars and the pope. 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:33.879 The friars. These are the wandering monks, right? 00:16:34.360 --> 00:16:36.259 Franciscans, Dominicans. They were supposed to 00:16:36.259 --> 00:16:39.139 be the good guys, the poor ones. Right. Originally, 00:16:39.220 --> 00:16:41.480 Wycliffe admired them. He wanted to reform them. 00:16:41.580 --> 00:16:44.299 But by this point, his language changes. He wants 00:16:44.299 --> 00:16:47.399 their extinction. Extinction. That's harsh. He 00:16:47.399 --> 00:16:50.879 called them pests of society, enemies of religion. 00:16:51.100 --> 00:16:53.620 Why the change of heart? He felt they were hypocrites. 00:16:53.740 --> 00:16:56.259 They took vows of poverty but were obsessed with 00:16:56.259 --> 00:16:58.620 temporal gain. They were preaching for money, 00:16:58.740 --> 00:17:00.919 telling entertaining stories to get donations 00:17:00.919 --> 00:17:03.779 rather than teaching scripture. He saw them as 00:17:03.779 --> 00:17:06.539 peddlers of fake religion. And the Pope. This 00:17:06.539 --> 00:17:09.509 is the biggest shift. Early in his career, Wycliffe 00:17:09.509 --> 00:17:12.190 respected the office of the Pope. But as the 00:17:12.190 --> 00:17:14.930 schism dragged on, with two Popes fighting and 00:17:14.930 --> 00:17:17.349 the attacks on him increased, he came to view 00:17:17.349 --> 00:17:20.210 the Pope not just as wrong, but as the Antichrist. 00:17:20.309 --> 00:17:22.529 That's the Antichrist. That is a point of no 00:17:22.529 --> 00:17:25.009 return. You can't really negotiate with the Antichrist. 00:17:25.210 --> 00:17:27.609 It is. He argued that the claims of the papacy 00:17:27.609 --> 00:17:30.289 were unhistorical. He looked at the Bible and 00:17:30.289 --> 00:17:32.789 said, I don't see a Pope here. I don't see cardinals. 00:17:32.910 --> 00:17:35.430 I don't see this hierarchy. I see Peter. I see 00:17:35.430 --> 00:17:37.269 Paul. But I don't see a prince of the church 00:17:37.269 --> 00:17:39.940 living in a palace. So up until now, Wycliffe 00:17:39.940 --> 00:17:42.460 has survived because he's useful to the state. 00:17:42.599 --> 00:17:44.759 He's attacking the church's money, which the 00:17:44.759 --> 00:17:48.720 state likes. But then he pivots. He moves from 00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:52.420 politics to pure theology. And that's where he 00:17:52.420 --> 00:17:55.240 loses his safety net. This is part three of our 00:17:55.240 --> 00:17:58.759 story. The theological pivot. This is where he 00:17:58.759 --> 00:18:00.880 decides to go after the Eucharist. The doctrine 00:18:00.880 --> 00:18:03.539 of transubstantiation. The central miracle of 00:18:03.539 --> 00:18:06.680 the medieval mass. The belief that when the priest 00:18:06.680 --> 00:18:09.480 blesses the bread and wine, They literally substantially 00:18:09.480 --> 00:18:11.819 transform into the body and blood of Christ. 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:14.259 So they might look like bread, taste like bread. 00:18:14.480 --> 00:18:16.380 But they are flesh and blood. That was the doctrine. 00:18:16.579 --> 00:18:19.539 And Wycliffe says no. He says no. Starting around 00:18:19.539 --> 00:18:22.740 1380, he attacks this. He argues for what we 00:18:22.740 --> 00:18:26.140 might call consubstantiation or remnants. Remnants. 00:18:26.279 --> 00:18:28.319 That's a good word. Meaning the bread remains. 00:18:28.700 --> 00:18:31.720 Correct. He argued the bread is very God in form 00:18:31.720 --> 00:18:33.980 of bread, but it remains bread substantially. 00:18:34.650 --> 00:18:37.130 It keeps its earthly nature while gaining a spiritual 00:18:37.130 --> 00:18:39.369 dignity. Why did he care so much? This seems 00:18:39.369 --> 00:18:41.990 like such a fine theological point. Why not just 00:18:41.990 --> 00:18:44.190 let people believe the miracle? Because of his 00:18:44.190 --> 00:18:47.630 realist philosophy? It offended his logic. He 00:18:47.630 --> 00:18:49.630 thought it was a logical impossibility for an 00:18:49.630 --> 00:18:52.430 accident, the appearance of bread, to exist without 00:18:52.430 --> 00:18:55.109 the substance of bread. So for him, it was a 00:18:55.109 --> 00:18:57.690 philosophical error. And worse, he thought it 00:18:57.690 --> 00:19:00.200 was idolatry. He said people were worshiping 00:19:00.200 --> 00:19:02.359 a piece of baked dough. He thought it was a lie 00:19:02.359 --> 00:19:04.920 invented by priests to increase their own power. 00:19:05.119 --> 00:19:07.680 OK, so why is this the line in the sand? Why 00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:10.000 did this make John of Gaunt say, OK, I'm out? 00:19:10.140 --> 00:19:13.880 Because denying transubstantiation was heresy. 00:19:14.539 --> 00:19:17.140 Pure and simple. Attacking the church's wealth. 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:19.680 That's politics. That's business. Kings do that 00:19:19.680 --> 00:19:21.599 all the time. Right. But attacking the mass, 00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:24.240 that's attacking the very mechanism of salvation 00:19:24.240 --> 00:19:26.539 that the church controlled. It's attacking the 00:19:26.539 --> 00:19:29.160 magic. It's touching the third rail. Precisely. 00:19:29.180 --> 00:19:31.700 And for the nobility, this was too much. They 00:19:31.700 --> 00:19:33.720 didn't want a heretic. They wanted a tax break. 00:19:34.059 --> 00:19:36.900 John of Gaunt actually traveled to Oxford specifically 00:19:36.900 --> 00:19:39.640 to tell Wycliffe to shut up about it. Did he? 00:19:39.819 --> 00:19:42.380 He refused. Wycliffe was isolated. He lost his 00:19:42.380 --> 00:19:45.400 powerful friends. But he wouldn't stop. He was 00:19:45.400 --> 00:19:48.720 committed to the truth as he saw it, regardless 00:19:48.720 --> 00:19:51.420 of the cost. And that leaves to the earthquake 00:19:51.420 --> 00:19:55.150 synod of 1382. I love the name of this event. 00:19:55.190 --> 00:19:56.930 It sounds like a wrestling match. It's one of 00:19:56.930 --> 00:19:59.069 those moments where history writes the script 00:19:59.069 --> 00:20:01.910 a little too perfectly. Archbishop Courtney, 00:20:02.089 --> 00:20:04.490 his old enemy from the shouting match at St. 00:20:04.589 --> 00:20:07.089 Paul's, is now the Archbishop of Canterbury. 00:20:07.210 --> 00:20:09.789 So he's got more power now. He calls a meeting 00:20:09.789 --> 00:20:12.990 to finally crush Wycliffe. They gather at Blackstriers 00:20:12.990 --> 00:20:15.829 in London. And just as they're sitting down to 00:20:15.829 --> 00:20:18.839 deliberate... The ground shakes. A massive earthquake 00:20:18.839 --> 00:20:22.119 hits London. Walls crack. Stones fall. People 00:20:22.119 --> 00:20:24.720 are terrified. I assume Wycliffe's side had something 00:20:24.720 --> 00:20:26.519 to say about that. Oh, absolutely. They said, 00:20:26.579 --> 00:20:29.119 look, God is angry at you for judging his servant, 00:20:29.240 --> 00:20:31.579 Wycliffe. The earth is trembling at your injustice. 00:20:32.059 --> 00:20:34.460 But the archbishop had a different spin. Courtney 00:20:34.460 --> 00:20:37.059 was clever. He calmed the assembly down. He said, 00:20:37.099 --> 00:20:39.660 no, no, this is a good sign. The earth is purifying 00:20:39.660 --> 00:20:42.700 itself. Just as the earth is expelling wind and 00:20:42.700 --> 00:20:45.559 fumes during a quake, the church must expel this 00:20:45.559 --> 00:20:47.900 erroneous doctrine. He compared the earthquake 00:20:47.900 --> 00:20:50.619 to the earth farting out heresy. Essentially, 00:20:50.680 --> 00:20:53.740 yes. He turned a terrifying omen into a confirmation 00:20:53.740 --> 00:20:57.470 of his mission. That is incredible spin doctoring. 00:20:57.529 --> 00:21:00.109 You have to admire the quick thinking. It worked. 00:21:00.250 --> 00:21:03.849 The earthquake synod condemned 24 of Wycliffe's 00:21:03.849 --> 00:21:07.329 propositions. 10 were declared heresy. 14 were 00:21:07.329 --> 00:21:09.650 declared erroneous. So what happens to Wycliffe? 00:21:09.769 --> 00:21:12.049 Is he burned at the stake right then and there? 00:21:12.170 --> 00:21:14.250 That's usually how these stories end. Surprisingly, 00:21:14.269 --> 00:21:17.890 no. He is expelled from Oxford. He's banned from 00:21:17.890 --> 00:21:21.279 teaching. But he isn't executed. He retires to 00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:23.519 his parish in Letterworth. Why wasn't he killed? 00:21:23.880 --> 00:21:26.339 He still had enough residual support. And perhaps 00:21:26.339 --> 00:21:28.119 the church didn't want to create a martyr just 00:21:28.119 --> 00:21:30.680 yet. And remember, the schism was still happening. 00:21:30.839 --> 00:21:33.539 The church was distracted. And Wycliffe wasn't 00:21:33.539 --> 00:21:36.779 leading an army. He was just a very loud, very 00:21:36.779 --> 00:21:39.400 annoying professor. So he's in Letterworth. He's 00:21:39.400 --> 00:21:40.920 kicked out of the university. This should be 00:21:40.920 --> 00:21:43.079 the end of his career. But in a way, this is 00:21:43.079 --> 00:21:45.259 where he becomes the morning star. Because now 00:21:45.259 --> 00:21:48.359 he turns his attention to one thing. The Bible. 00:21:49.019 --> 00:21:52.160 De Veritate Sacre Scripture, on the truth of 00:21:52.160 --> 00:21:53.900 Holy Scripture. This is where he lays down the 00:21:53.900 --> 00:21:56.359 foundation for the Reformation. Sola Scriptura. 00:21:56.519 --> 00:21:59.140 Scripture alone. Wycliffe argued that the Bible 00:21:59.140 --> 00:22:01.319 is the only authoritative guide for the Christian. 00:22:01.740 --> 00:22:03.940 If it's not in the Bible, like the papacy or 00:22:03.940 --> 00:22:07.160 monks or the complex mass, it's not valid. It's 00:22:07.160 --> 00:22:09.660 a human invention. Now, you mentioned earlier 00:22:09.660 --> 00:22:12.460 that Wycliffe was a realist philosopher. How 00:22:12.460 --> 00:22:15.400 does that connect to his view of the Bible? This 00:22:15.400 --> 00:22:18.160 is fascinating. Yeah. He believed the Bible was 00:22:18.160 --> 00:22:21.279 one unified word of God, and because it was from 00:22:21.279 --> 00:22:25.000 God, who was truth itself, it had to be literally 00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:28.079 true. Literally true, like every single word. 00:22:28.259 --> 00:22:31.099 Yes, even the parables. He believed that when 00:22:31.099 --> 00:22:33.119 Jesus spoke in parables, he was reporting actual 00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:35.140 events that had happened. He couldn't accept 00:22:35.140 --> 00:22:37.099 that Jesus would use fiction to teach truth. 00:22:37.380 --> 00:22:39.660 That is extreme. It led him to some very strange 00:22:39.660 --> 00:22:41.779 places. There's the famous worm example. Please 00:22:41.779 --> 00:22:43.099 tell me about the worm. I need to hear this. 00:22:43.279 --> 00:22:45.519 So in Psalm 22, verse 6, there's a line that 00:22:45.519 --> 00:22:48.859 says, I am a worm and no man. Christians have 00:22:48.859 --> 00:22:51.079 always interpreted this as a prophecy of Christ's 00:22:51.079 --> 00:22:53.079 suffering and humiliation on the cross. Right. 00:22:53.609 --> 00:22:56.250 It's metaphorical. But Wycliffe read this literally. 00:22:56.569 --> 00:22:59.309 He asked, why would Christ call himself a worm? 00:23:00.069 --> 00:23:02.730 He went to his medieval biology books. Now, in 00:23:02.730 --> 00:23:05.009 the 14th century, people believed worms were 00:23:05.009 --> 00:23:07.710 generated spontaneously from the earth. They 00:23:07.710 --> 00:23:09.670 thought they appeared without sexual contact, 00:23:09.890 --> 00:23:12.609 without parents. Okay. I think I see where this 00:23:12.609 --> 00:23:14.789 is going. So Wycliffe argued that this verse 00:23:14.789 --> 00:23:18.349 was proof of the virgin birth. Christ calls himself 00:23:18.349 --> 00:23:21.019 a worm because, like a worm, According to medieval 00:23:21.019 --> 00:23:24.039 science, he was born without sexual union. That 00:23:24.039 --> 00:23:26.619 is a level of literalism I have never heard before. 00:23:27.000 --> 00:23:29.319 It's taking bad science and applying it to theology 00:23:29.319 --> 00:23:31.619 to prove a point. It shows how his mind worked. 00:23:31.819 --> 00:23:33.960 He tried to harmonize everything in scripture 00:23:33.960 --> 00:23:37.279 with science and logic as he understood it. He 00:23:37.279 --> 00:23:40.339 needed everything to fit into one perfect system. 00:23:40.920 --> 00:23:43.680 But the biggest barrier to the Bible wasn't interpretation. 00:23:43.799 --> 00:23:46.619 It was language. It was in Latin, and normal 00:23:46.619 --> 00:23:49.079 people spoke English. Exactly. And this is Wycliffe's 00:23:49.079 --> 00:23:51.779 most famous legacy, the Wycliffe Bible. He believed 00:23:51.779 --> 00:23:53.920 the laity, the common people, should have access 00:23:53.920 --> 00:23:57.119 to God's law in their own tongue. He said, Christ 00:23:57.119 --> 00:23:58.940 taught the people in the language they understood. 00:23:59.059 --> 00:24:01.519 Why shouldn't we? But we established in the intro 00:24:01.519 --> 00:24:04.259 that he might not have written it himself. The 00:24:04.259 --> 00:24:06.640 Wycliffe Bible refers to two distinct versions, 00:24:06.940 --> 00:24:10.180 the early version and the late version. The tradition 00:24:10.180 --> 00:24:13.500 says Wycliffe did the translation, but modern 00:24:13.500 --> 00:24:16.079 analysis of the writing style suggests it was 00:24:16.079 --> 00:24:18.859 a team effort. Who was on the team? Nicholas 00:24:18.859 --> 00:24:21.180 of Hereford is a big name associated with the 00:24:21.180 --> 00:24:23.980 early version. We actually have manuscripts where 00:24:23.980 --> 00:24:26.279 the handwriting changes mid -sentence, suggesting 00:24:26.279 --> 00:24:28.880 someone else took over, possibly because Hereford 00:24:28.880 --> 00:24:31.220 was summoned to Rome to stand trial. What was 00:24:31.220 --> 00:24:34.519 the early version like? It was. Rough. It was 00:24:34.519 --> 00:24:37.299 a very literal, word -for -word translation from 00:24:37.299 --> 00:24:39.660 the Latin Vulgate. So it was clunky. You couldn't 00:24:39.660 --> 00:24:41.920 just read it like a story. Incredibly clunky. 00:24:41.980 --> 00:24:44.460 It kept the Latin word order. So instead of saying, 00:24:44.559 --> 00:24:46.279 the boy hit the ball, it might say, the ball 00:24:46.279 --> 00:24:48.579 hit the boy, if that was the Latin order. It's 00:24:48.579 --> 00:24:50.420 very difficult to read. And the late version? 00:24:50.720 --> 00:24:53.759 That appeared around 1388, after Wycliffe died, 00:24:53.880 --> 00:24:56.720 actually. It was likely revised by John Purvey, 00:24:56.859 --> 00:24:59.480 Wycliffe's secretary. This one flowed much better. 00:24:59.559 --> 00:25:02.420 It was good, idiomatic English. It was made to 00:25:02.420 --> 00:25:05.000 be read aloud. So Wycliffe was like the project 00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:07.160 manager, the visionary. He was the inspiration. 00:25:07.359 --> 00:25:09.140 He created the environment where this could happen. 00:25:09.400 --> 00:25:12.480 He provided the intellectual cover. And despite 00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:14.359 the church banning these translations later, 00:25:14.519 --> 00:25:17.259 making it a capital offense to own one, they 00:25:17.259 --> 00:25:20.779 were hugely popular. How popular? Over 200 manuscripts 00:25:20.779 --> 00:25:23.180 still exist today. That's amazing for a banned 00:25:23.180 --> 00:25:26.059 book in the days before the printing press. Every 00:25:26.059 --> 00:25:28.579 single one had to be handwritten. That's incredibly 00:25:28.579 --> 00:25:31.079 expensive and time consuming. It shows the hunger 00:25:31.079 --> 00:25:32.980 people had. They wanted to know what the book 00:25:32.980 --> 00:25:34.819 actually said. They were risking their lives 00:25:34.819 --> 00:25:38.640 to read it. So Wycliffe is in Letterworth translating 00:25:38.640 --> 00:25:41.859 or supervising translations and writing tracts. 00:25:41.960 --> 00:25:44.720 But he's not just writing. He's organizing. Let's 00:25:44.720 --> 00:25:48.119 talk about the Lollards. The poor priests. Wycliffe 00:25:48.119 --> 00:25:49.960 realized that if the friars were corrupt, he 00:25:49.960 --> 00:25:52.759 needed an alternative army. So he sent out itinerant 00:25:52.759 --> 00:25:55.710 preachers, often laymen. not ordained priests. 00:25:56.210 --> 00:25:58.589 They walked from village to village, barefoot, 00:25:58.690 --> 00:26:01.630 clad in simple russet robes, preaching God's 00:26:01.630 --> 00:26:03.509 law. And they're called lollards. Where does 00:26:03.509 --> 00:26:05.670 that name come from? It started as an insult. 00:26:05.809 --> 00:26:08.450 It likely comes from a Dutch word, lollen, meaning 00:26:08.450 --> 00:26:11.369 to mumble. The idea was that they were just mumbling 00:26:11.369 --> 00:26:14.210 prayers or nonsense. But like many insults in 00:26:14.210 --> 00:26:17.130 history, like Methodist or Quaker, they wore 00:26:17.130 --> 00:26:20.089 it as a badge of honor. They did. And the lollards 00:26:20.089 --> 00:26:22.630 became a genuine movement. They spread Wycliffe's 00:26:22.630 --> 00:26:24.549 ideas into the countryside. They preached in 00:26:24.549 --> 00:26:27.029 churchyards, in markets, anywhere people would 00:26:27.029 --> 00:26:29.930 listen. But ideas have consequences, and sometimes 00:26:29.930 --> 00:26:32.329 those consequences are violent. We have to talk 00:26:32.329 --> 00:26:36.029 about 1381, the Peasants' Revolt. A massive social 00:26:36.029 --> 00:26:38.950 upheaval. The peasants of England rose up against 00:26:38.950 --> 00:26:41.589 their lords. They demanded an end to serfdom, 00:26:41.730 --> 00:26:44.230 lower taxes, and the redistribution of wealth. 00:26:44.470 --> 00:26:46.990 Was Wycliffe responsible for this? It's the million 00:26:46.990 --> 00:26:49.309 -dollar question. Wycliffe disapproved of the 00:26:49.309 --> 00:26:51.640 revolt itself. He was a scholar. He believed 00:26:51.640 --> 00:26:54.339 in order. He didn't want anarchy, but. But. But 00:26:54.339 --> 00:26:57.440 he had spent years telling everyone that unrighteous 00:26:57.440 --> 00:27:00.039 lords forfeited their right to rule. He had spent 00:27:00.039 --> 00:27:02.240 years railing against the wealth of the mighty. 00:27:02.480 --> 00:27:05.019 You can see how a peasant hearing a Lollard preacher 00:27:05.019 --> 00:27:09.079 say, God hates rich, sinful masters, might pick 00:27:09.079 --> 00:27:11.660 up a pitchfork and say, okay, let's fix it. Right. 00:27:11.839 --> 00:27:14.660 The bishop is in sin, so his property isn't really 00:27:14.660 --> 00:27:17.750 his. Okay, I'll take it. Exactly. His preaching 00:27:17.750 --> 00:27:20.450 against wealth and nobility was blamed for sparking 00:27:20.450 --> 00:27:24.130 the fire. In fact, during the revolt, the Archbishop 00:27:24.130 --> 00:27:26.890 of Canterbury, Simon Sudbury, was dragged out 00:27:26.890 --> 00:27:29.529 of the Tower of London and beheaded by the mob 00:27:29.529 --> 00:27:33.150 on Tower Hill. Beheaded? Yes. And some of Wycliffe's 00:27:33.150 --> 00:27:35.829 more radical followers justified it. They said 00:27:35.829 --> 00:27:38.890 Sudbury was a sinner and an oppressor and got 00:27:38.890 --> 00:27:41.390 what he deserved. That must have horrified Wycliffe. 00:27:41.470 --> 00:27:44.170 It likely did. But it also terrified the establishment. 00:27:44.390 --> 00:27:46.990 It confirmed their worst fears. Wycliffe's theology 00:27:46.990 --> 00:27:50.329 leads to anarchy. It leads to dead archbishops. 00:27:50.390 --> 00:27:52.490 So we're nearing the end of his life. He's in 00:27:52.490 --> 00:27:54.470 Letterworth. He's managed to stay out of prison, 00:27:54.549 --> 00:27:57.170 but his name is Mud in high society. Yes, and 00:27:57.170 --> 00:27:59.890 his health is failing. On New Year's Eve, 1384, 00:28:00.130 --> 00:28:02.950 he's attending Mass, which is ironic given his 00:28:02.950 --> 00:28:06.019 views on it, and he suffers a fatal stroke. He 00:28:06.019 --> 00:28:08.400 loses his speech. He dies a few days later. And 00:28:08.400 --> 00:28:10.660 he's buried in consecrated ground, so he died 00:28:10.660 --> 00:28:13.460 inside the church. Technically, yes. He was never 00:28:13.460 --> 00:28:15.599 excommunicated while he was alive. He died a 00:28:15.599 --> 00:28:18.000 priest. But the church has a long memory. They 00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:20.119 don't forgive and forget. A very long memory. 00:28:21.059 --> 00:28:24.240 Fast forward to 1415, the Council of Constance. 00:28:24.720 --> 00:28:27.000 This is over the 30 years after his death. This 00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:28.680 is the same council that dealt with Jan Hus, 00:28:28.819 --> 00:28:32.079 right? Yes. Jan Hus was a Czech reformer who 00:28:32.079 --> 00:28:34.200 was deeply influenced by Wycliffe's writings. 00:28:35.289 --> 00:28:37.170 Wycliffe's Latin works had traveled all the way 00:28:37.170 --> 00:28:39.970 to Bohemia. Hus was essentially a Wycliffeite. 00:28:40.089 --> 00:28:43.109 The council condemned Hus and burned him at the 00:28:43.109 --> 00:28:45.210 stake. And they decided they weren't done with 00:28:45.210 --> 00:28:47.130 Wycliffe either, even though he was already dead. 00:28:47.289 --> 00:28:50.410 No. They declared Wycliffe a heretic, they banned 00:28:50.410 --> 00:28:53.549 his writings, and then they ordered a gruesome 00:28:53.549 --> 00:28:57.049 finale, a damnatio memoria, a condemnation of 00:28:57.049 --> 00:29:00.210 his memory. 1428. Bishop Richard Fleming is ordered 00:29:00.210 --> 00:29:03.049 to exhume Wycliffe's body. They went to the churchyard 00:29:03.049 --> 00:29:05.960 in Letterworth. They dug up his bones. After 00:29:05.960 --> 00:29:07.940 more than 40 years in the ground, they burned 00:29:07.940 --> 00:29:10.619 them to ash. Why? What is the point of burning 00:29:10.619 --> 00:29:13.059 a skeleton? It was to deny him a Christian burial, 00:29:13.180 --> 00:29:15.880 to remove him from consecrated ground, to say, 00:29:15.960 --> 00:29:18.480 this man is erased. He does not belong with the 00:29:18.480 --> 00:29:21.250 faithful. It was a symbolic act of ultimate rejection. 00:29:21.309 --> 00:29:23.829 And they threw the ashes into the river. The 00:29:23.829 --> 00:29:26.190 River Swift, which flows through Letterworth. 00:29:26.309 --> 00:29:28.950 It's such a visceral image, trying to wash him 00:29:28.950 --> 00:29:31.369 away. But as many historians have noted, the 00:29:31.369 --> 00:29:33.849 symbolism backfired. How so? There's a famous 00:29:33.849 --> 00:29:35.589 observation that comes from the church historian 00:29:35.589 --> 00:29:38.730 Thomas Fuller that captures it perfectly. He 00:29:38.730 --> 00:29:41.069 wrote that the River Swift bore his ashes into 00:29:41.069 --> 00:29:44.990 the Avon, the Avon into the Severn, the Severn 00:29:44.990 --> 00:29:48.089 into the narrow seas, and the seas into the main 00:29:48.089 --> 00:29:51.750 ocean. So by trying to disperse him, they essentially 00:29:51.750 --> 00:29:54.569 symbolized the spread of his doctrine to the 00:29:54.569 --> 00:29:57.190 whole world. Exactly. You can burn the bones, 00:29:57.289 --> 00:29:59.890 but you can't burn the idea. By the time they 00:29:59.890 --> 00:30:02.789 burned him, the Reformation was already unstoppable. 00:30:03.210 --> 00:30:05.670 Before we wrap up, I want to do a quick doctrine 00:30:05.670 --> 00:30:08.410 check. We've covered a lot, but let's crystallize 00:30:08.410 --> 00:30:10.390 what he actually believed at the end. Because 00:30:10.390 --> 00:30:12.490 some of it is very Protestant, but some of it 00:30:12.490 --> 00:30:14.900 is still very medieval. True. Let's break it 00:30:14.900 --> 00:30:17.640 down. First, predestination. He believed in double 00:30:17.640 --> 00:30:20.400 predestination. God authors everything. The elect 00:30:20.400 --> 00:30:23.140 are predestined to be saved, and the others are 00:30:23.140 --> 00:30:25.960 predestined to be lost. It's very strict. Very 00:30:25.960 --> 00:30:28.460 Calvinist before Calvin. Second, the church. 00:30:28.859 --> 00:30:32.400 He believed the true church is invisible. It's 00:30:32.400 --> 00:30:35.220 the body of the elect, known only to God, the 00:30:35.220 --> 00:30:38.039 visible Catholic institution. That's just a shell. 00:30:38.299 --> 00:30:40.839 It might contain the true church, but it isn't 00:30:40.839 --> 00:30:43.420 identical to it. And third? Papal fallibility. 00:30:44.109 --> 00:30:46.329 The Pope could be wrong. In fact, the Pope might 00:30:46.329 --> 00:30:49.130 not even be one of the elect. He could be predestined 00:30:49.130 --> 00:30:51.769 for damnation. That's the heavy one. The idea 00:30:51.769 --> 00:30:53.670 that the Pope might be one of the damned. It 00:30:53.670 --> 00:30:56.029 completely undermines the hierarchy. If the Pope 00:30:56.029 --> 00:30:58.369 isn't one of the elect, then he has no spiritual 00:30:58.369 --> 00:31:00.630 authority whatsoever. He's just a man in a funny 00:31:00.630 --> 00:31:03.109 hat. So what does this all mean? When we look 00:31:03.109 --> 00:31:05.309 back at the Morning Star, what do we see? We 00:31:05.309 --> 00:31:07.950 see a man of contradictions. He was a high -ranking 00:31:07.950 --> 00:31:10.710 academic who championed the poor. He was a man 00:31:10.710 --> 00:31:13.109 who sought the king's help, a political operator. 00:31:13.579 --> 00:31:15.900 but eventually alienated the entire nobility. 00:31:16.059 --> 00:31:18.220 He wanted to save the church by stripping it 00:31:18.220 --> 00:31:20.660 of everything it owned. He was a medieval scholastic, 00:31:20.779 --> 00:31:23.359 using medieval logic to dismantle the medieval 00:31:23.359 --> 00:31:26.119 world. He didn't set out to start a new religion, 00:31:26.259 --> 00:31:29.599 he wanted to purify the old one. But his logic 00:31:29.599 --> 00:31:32.279 was a battering ram that eventually broke the 00:31:32.279 --> 00:31:34.500 whole thing open. It's fascinating that he died 00:31:34.500 --> 00:31:37.920 naturally, in his bed, while his spiritual successor, 00:31:38.279 --> 00:31:41.200 Jan Hus, burned, and later Tyndale and others 00:31:41.200 --> 00:31:43.920 would burn. He was the lucky one who got away 00:31:43.920 --> 00:31:46.579 with it. He was the first. The crack in the dam. 00:31:46.819 --> 00:31:49.160 Everyone who came after him owed him something. 00:31:49.319 --> 00:31:51.460 Here is a final provocative thought for you to 00:31:51.460 --> 00:31:54.799 take with you. Wycliffe's concept of the invisible 00:31:54.799 --> 00:31:57.359 church is really unsettling if you think about 00:31:57.359 --> 00:32:00.819 it. How so? Well, Wycliffe argued that since 00:32:00.819 --> 00:32:03.400 we don't know who is pre -Justin for salvation, 00:32:03.599 --> 00:32:06.380 only God knows the list, we can never really 00:32:06.380 --> 00:32:09.039 know if the pope or the bishop or your pastor 00:32:09.039 --> 00:32:12.440 is actually a member of the church. Right. They 00:32:12.440 --> 00:32:14.700 could be an imposter. They could be a wolf in 00:32:14.700 --> 00:32:16.740 sheep's clothing in the most spiritual sense. 00:32:16.920 --> 00:32:19.140 It creates a profound uncertainty. You can't 00:32:19.140 --> 00:32:21.339 trust the robes. You can't trust the title. Right. 00:32:21.480 --> 00:32:24.440 It forces you to stop looking at the person and 00:32:24.440 --> 00:32:26.619 start looking at the text. It shifts the burden 00:32:26.619 --> 00:32:28.759 of discernment onto you, the individual believer. 00:32:28.900 --> 00:32:30.819 You have to check the work. Which is the essence 00:32:30.819 --> 00:32:34.000 of the modern age. Skepticism of authority. Individual 00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:36.740 responsibility. Exactly. So the next time you 00:32:36.740 --> 00:32:40.349 see a leader, political or religious. Just remember 00:32:40.349 --> 00:32:43.990 Wycliffe and ask yourself, are they real or are 00:32:43.990 --> 00:32:46.210 they just wearing the hat? And maybe think about 00:32:46.210 --> 00:32:49.190 the worm in Psalm 22 differently, too. Yes, the 00:32:49.190 --> 00:32:51.849 worm in the virgin birth. Never forget the worm. 00:32:52.410 --> 00:32:54.230 Thanks for listening to The Deep Dive. We'll 00:32:54.230 --> 00:32:55.250 catch you in the next century.