P020 A Short History of the English Bible.
P020 A Short History of the English Bible. By reason of his frequent attacks on the pretensions of the papacy he was, in February, 1377, tried for heresy before a convocation of the clergy called by Archbishop Courtney, in St. Paul’s, London, where he was defended by John of Gaunt and Henry Percy. In May, of the same year, Pope Gregory XL issued four bulls, by which he was cited to appear before a synod in Lambeth, in 1378. He escaped condemnation, however, by the intervention of the queen-mother, and by the distractions resulting from the great papal schism.
He became very influential, and sent his disciples all over the country, preaching his doctrines.
He had for a long time advocated the translation of the Scriptures into English, and, after the labor of years,(1) in 1380 he completed his translation of the New Testament, and copies were soon multiplied and circulated. A version of the Old Testament followed about two years later. In 1381 he lectured in Oxford against transubstantiation. For this he was condemned by a synod of twelve doctors, and forbidden by the king, Richard II., to lecture any further in Oxford.
He retired to his living at Lutterworth, where he preached and wrote until the close of 1384, when he was struck with paralysis while performing divine service, and after two days’ illness he died.
Wycliffe’s Bible was the first translation of the entire Bible into English.
It was rendered from the Latin Vulgate, and prepared for the common people, and not for the educated few.
He began with the Apocalypse, then took the Gospels, and afterward the remaining books of the New Testament. The Old Testament was not entirely his work. It was begun by an intimate friend, Nicholas de Hereford, who proceeded as far as the middle of Baruch,(2) and then stopped, as is supposed, because he was cited to appear before Archbishop Arundel to answer a charge of heresy.
Wycliffe probably began the work where his friend left off, and completed it.
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(FN1)There are said to be indications of his having worked at this translation thirty years before his death. See Geike, "The English Reformation," p. 44.
(FN2)This apocryphal book was, in Wycliffe’s Bible, immediately before Ezekiel.
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