John Wycliffe Influence

There were numerous reformers throughout the history of Christian churches, they had all come from within the Roman Catholic Heritage. John Wycliffe, from the fourteenth century, had not intended to form new denominations or seek to break from the Churches, instead he ‘passionately desired that the Church reform from within and correct abuses that had crept in over many generations’. (K, Curtis, 2017) Later, in the sixteenth century the necessity for correction of religious abuses and radical reform had ‘burst forth in full force with leaders,’ (K, Curtis, 2017) like Zwingli, Calvin and Luther, though a needed work had been done before them with sacrifice of others like Hus and John Wycliffe.

John Wycliffe background

John Wycliffe, being

He wanted his ideas to be heard, therefore he returned to his home and wrote down his thoughts which eventually in Wycliffe’s summary of theology, Summa Theologiae. Wycliffe had declared his disapproval of the clergy’s temporal rules, he then stated that the King should be higher than Pope and any indulgences the church receives was extortion. His view on how Governance was to be run had included ‘removal of church from temporal things.’ (UKessays, 2015) He also had argued that the ‘States’ business of changing the Avignon’s system of wasting the Church’s property.’ (UKessays, 2015) Later fourteen centuries, Wycliffe had produced three words as corrective to the Church’s corruption. The first one, aim at papal authority, On Divine Dominion (1373-1374). Wycliffe had struggled to find any biblical warrant for the papacy. He even argued that the papacy clashes with the true authority of the church, Scriptures. Second work was On Civil Dominion (1375-1376), Wycliffe had directly focussed the assertion of the Roman Catholic Church of authority over the English nobility, and had thought for no reason England to be obligated to have support for a corrupt Church. His third and last work, On the Truth of Sacred Scripture (1378), Wycliffe had continued to develop the doctrine of the authority of the Scripture. All the three works were important to setting