A celebrated doctor, professor of divinity at Oxford, and deservedly considered as the forerunner of Luther in the reformation. He was born at Wickliffe, in Yorkshire, about 1324, and educated at Queen's College, and afterwards at Merton, and in 1361 raised to the mastership of Baliol College. In 1365, he was made, by the scholars, head of Canterbury Hall, just founded at Oxford by Archbishop Islip; but his elevation was opposed by the monks, and Langham, the next primate; and the pope, to whom the dispute was referred, displaced him and his secular associates. Thus disgraced by violence, he retired to his living at Lutterworth, in Leicestershire, meditating revenge against the authors of his unjust privation. In the works of Marsilius of Padua, and other bold writers, he found ample room to indulge his opposition; and, well aware of the popularity of attacking a foreign power, which overawed the throne, and submitted the industry and the revenues of the kingdom to its own avaricious views, he loudly inveighed against the errors and the encroachments of the Romish church. His writings alarmed the clergy, and a council was assembled at Lambeth, by Archbishop Sudbury, 1377, and Wickliffe summoned to give an account of his doctrines. He appeared before it, accompanied by the duke of Lancaster, then in power; and he made so able a defence, that he was dismissed without condemnation. His acquittal, however, displeased the pope, Gregory XI., who directed his emissaries to seize the offending heretic, or, if he were protected by the great and powerful of the kingdom, to cite him to Rome, to answer in person before the sovereign pontiff. In consequence of this, a second council assembled at Lambeth, and the nineteen propositions, which the pope had declared heretical, were so ably vindicated by the eloquence of the undaunted reformer, that his judges, afraid of offending the nobles, or of exciting a commotion among the people, who loudly supported the cause of their champion, permitted him to depart in safety, and enjoined on him silence in matters of religion and of controversy. Undismayed by the power of his enemies, Wickliffe continued to preach his doctrines, which were now more universally spread; and a third council, therefore, assembled, under Courtnay, the primate, 1382, and twenty-four propositions of the reformer were condemned as heretical, and fourteen as erroneous. The severity of the church was, at the suggestion of the pope, and the concurrence of the weak Richard II., directed with effect against the supporters of the new heresy; but, while some of his followers suffered punishment for their adherence to his principles, Wickliffe unhappily died at Lutterworth, 1384, at a time when nothing was wanting to emancipate the English nation from the tyranny of Rome, but the boldness, perseverance, and eloquence, of a popular leader. Of the several works which he wrote, his Trialogus is almost the only one which has been printed. The noble struggle which Wickliffe had made against the gigantic power of Rome was almost forgotten after his death, till Martin Luther arose to follow his steps, and to establish his doctrines on a foundation which will last till Christianity is no more. The memory of Wickliffe was branded with ignominy by the impotent Papists, and by the order of the council of Constance, whose cruelties towards John Huss and Jerome of Prague are so well known, the illustrious reformer was declared to have died an obstinate heretic; and his bones were therefore dug up from holy ground, and contemptuously burnt.