Wycliffe and Heresy

Abstract

On December 31st, 1384, a priest died. No loud fanfare sounded, no one paraded through the streets; a stranger in town might not even realize that this man died holding heretical beliefs. Over forty years later his bones would be removed from the church graveyard, burned, and cast into the River Swift. However on that New Year's Eve, John Wycliffe, called by some the "Morning Star of the Reformation," quietly passed away as a baptized church member and Catholic in good standing.¹