John Wycliffe: A Fruitful Tree

Though John Wycliffe (c.1329-84) died some 130 years prior to Martin Luther's nailing of his ninety-five theses to the church door in Wittenberg, he is rightly described as "The Morning Star of the Reformation." The sixteenth century Reformation did not arise in Europe as something entirely new and unconnected with the past, but it had a lengthy gestation period, arguably beginning with Wycliffe. Luther is often credited with igniting the Reformation, but many of the views that he espoused had...