Dr. Pothana's Teaching

1. History of Christianity-II
COACH Institute of Intercultural Studies
Hyderabad

2. CONTACT @ +91-8309511427
coachinterculturalstudies@gmail.com

3. 3
The Protestant Reformation
1300 – 1570 CE

4. Pre-reformation reformers and reform
movements
a. John Wycliffe
b. John Hus
c. Cathars
d. Petrobrusians
e.Waldensians

6. Jo
Wycliffe

7. John Wycliffe
• English theologian and reformer
• also called the Morning Star of the Reformation
• critical of the papacy
• felt that all Christians should have access to
the Bible in the vernacular
• his Bible becomes first complete, word-for-
word translation of Vulgate into English,
into a Midland dialect

8. John Wycliffe
• Two versions completed:
– first by Nicholas of Hereford up to Baruch
3:20
– remainder completed by an unknown
scholar
• A few years later a second version, revised
(less literal and less Latinate), completed by
John Purvey
• complete Wyclif Bible remained unprinted
until 1850

9. John Wycliffe
• Also known as the Lollard Bible, extant in 170 copies

10. Lollards
• Followers of Wyclif came
to be known as "Lollards"
• Name perhaps derived
from Dutch term lollaerd,
meaning mumbler
• Sect driven out of Oxford
in 1382
• Some devout members
circulated Wycliffe's
teachings and the "Lollard
Conclusions" (1394)

11. Lollards
• The Lollards translated the Bible into their
vernacular language, English.
• Most significant heretical group in England
before the Reformation

12. What is Lollardy?
• Political and religious mouvement
• Mid 14th century to Mid 16th
• No central belief or doctrine
• Basis : Translation of the Bible into
vernacular
• “Founder” : John Wycliffe
• Mostly criticize the western Church
• Wrote the “Twelve Conclusions”

13. • In red spread in the 15th c
• In blue before death of Richard II
(until 1400)

14. The twelve conclusions
• Written by group of lollards in 1395
• Examples of conclusions:
• Church leaders shouldn’t accumulate wealth => greed
• Should not deal with secular matters : power
• The Church is corrupt
• Priests Should be accountable by law
• Rejected pilgrimages
• Denounced war and violence

17. Wyclif’s End
• Wyclif died of paralysis on December 31,
1384.
• “In 1428 his body was disinterred and
burned, and the ashes cast into the Swift,
a tributary of the Avon” (McNeil, p. 163).
• However, his ideas were not so easily put
out of the way and many followed his path.