In 13G0 Wycliffe became known as a public opponent of the mendicant friars who infested England, interfer- ing with the school discipline as well as with domestic relations; and to this date his tracts on that subject are accordingly assigned. This was an effort in be- half no less of the people, who were weary with the ob- trusive sanctimony and beggarly squalor of these church Jied.", than of the university authorities, who were equal- ly sick of their impertinent ignorance and proselyting usurpation. It won him such popularity that in 1361 he was made warden (or master) of Balliol Hall (after- wards Balliol College), an office for which he was well qualitiod by his eminent diligence and reputation as a student of civil and canon law, and especially by his skill in philosophical and theological dialectics. Tliis preferment gave both a wider scope to his scholastic abilities, and greater prestige to his popular discussions. In the same year he was made rector of Fillingham, in Lincolnshire, a position which he exchanged in 1308 for that of Ludgershall in the same diocese. These livings did not require his removal from Oxford, yet afforded him a clerical function and a pastoral oppor- tunity to come still more closely than before into com- miuiion with the common people, and that in a rustic neigliborhood.
In 1305 archbishop Islip of Canterbury appointed Wycliffe master of his new college of Canterbury Hall (afterwards merged in that of Christ Church) at Ox- ford, but soon after the accession of Langham to the see in 1300 the monks, who formed a majority of the mem- bers of the college, induced that prelate to eject Wycliffe, on the ground of some informality in the appointment,
and the pope (Urban V) being ap- pealed to, sided of course against Wycliffe by a special bull issued in 1370, of which the monks purchased the royal confirmation in 137'2. How little heed Wycliffe, although still professing to be a faithful son of the Eomish Church, paid to the papal order of silence accompanying the bull — since it was not only gratui- tous, but illegal under the Parlia- mentary statutes above mentioned — we may judge from his tract in de- fence of the national policy against the pope, published about tliis time. This production doubtless contains the substance of his argument be- fore the court, in reply to the same pontiff's summons to the king to pay the homage due from the time of John to the see of Rome — a de- mand which, as we have seen, Ed- ward had refused to acknowledge, and now openly resisted. Thus in- troduced to tlie royal favor, Wyc- liffe acted as the king's chaplain, and was presented (Nov. 0, 137.5) to the prebend of Aust, in the dio- cese of Worcester; and through the duke of Lancaster he was compen- sated (about 1370) for the loss of his college mastership by being made rector of Lutterworth where he had full scope for the reformatory principles which he now began to avow more pointedly. He had already (in 1372) been created " doctor in theology" by the Uni- versity of Oxford, then not a mere honorary title, but an official one, authorizing him to lecture publicly be- fore the students; and he used the privilege to expose the venality and superstitions of the monkish orders with a vigor of reasoning and a keenness of satire which are conspicuous in his published tracts on the subject. These abuses had come to be such a public burden, es- pecially the occupancy of benefices by aliens, that in 1373 the king appointed a commission, and next year renewed it, with Wycliffe as a prominent member, to confer with the papal authorities for the abrogation of the evil. An arrangement was finally made, but the pope soon violated the compact, and Parliament again took action against the Roman usurpations. These de- velopments more fully opened Wycliffe's eyes to the intolerant corruption of the Romish see, and he hence- forth began to argue and preach, and teach and write, boldlv and without reserve. As with Luther in a later age, the hierarchy was alarmed and exasperated; by a formal convocation the}' summoned him to answer, Feb. 19, 1377 (Lewis erroneously says 1378), to accusations of erroneous doctrine. The trial opened regularly in St. Paul's on the day appointed; but an unfortunate al- tercation of a personal nature, arising between the bish- op of London and the duke of Lancaster, threw the as- sembly into an uproar, and even led to a popular tumult outside. In the melee, Wycliffe was carried oft' in safety by his friends. The pope (Gregorj' XI) was now in- duced to take up the matter. Formal articles were prepared against Wycliffe, and in five papal bulls, three of them dated simultaneously (Maj'' 22, 1377), he was cited to answer to the charges of insubordination and heres}'. Before these summonses arrived, Edward III died, and Richard II was crowned ; and the new Par- liament was slow to surrender Wycliffe for a trial at Rome, or even to suffer his imprisonment at home. However, in February of the following year (1378), the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of London, to whom one or more of the bulls had been addressed, or- dered a second trial, which was accordingly held in Lambeth Palace in April. Wycliffe responded by a