September 27, 2021

I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your precepts. I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed. And I will delight myself in Your commandments, which I love. Psalm 119:45-47

While serving as chaplain for King Edward III, Wycliffe spoke against the forced payment of tribute claimed by the pope from the English monarch (and all monarchs). He clearly and eloquently showed this assumption of authority over secular rulers to be contrary to the principles of both Scripture and sound reasoning.

Another issue he addressed was the order of mendicant friars who, regardless of the “vow of poverty” were gaining vast riches and proved a heavy drain on the English economy. By their influence, many young people off the streets and in the institutions of higher learning were induced to join the orders of the friars without the knowledge or consent of their parents. Cries of agony were heard throughout the land, not only from bereft parents, but from the young people themselves who regretted the sorrow they had inflicted. Sadly, once in the sinister snare it was all but impossible to regain their freedom. Multiple facets of evil grew in this culture of anti-Biblical traps. To name only one, the pope had endowed the friars with power of absolution (for a price of course). Criminals of every description resorted to them, and the result was the multiplication of vices too sordid to even mention. “The monks and priests of Rome are eating us away like a cancer. God must deliver us, or the people will perish!” was the outcry of many in England.

Wycliffe produced tracts designed to call the minds of the people to the teachings of God’s Word and the character of its Author! The papal thunders hurled against him were numerous and life-threatening. He carried on in the strength of the promise made to Abraham, and by extension to his spiritual descendants:

“Do not be afraid….I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Genesis 15:1