WYCLIFFE
1043
WYNNE
formal paper ; but the proceedings were again abruptly, although not violently, ended by the interference of the populace in mass and the command of the king's moth- er; the prelatical judges retired in confusion with a pusillanimous injunction of silence upon Wycliflfe, to which, of course, he paid no respect. The prosecution shortly expired with the death of Gregory, and a schism occurred by the election of two popes as his rival suc- cessors. This gave Wycliffe fresh opportunity of ex- posing the corruption of the papacy, and, at the same time, a season of quiet for the prosecution of his cher- ished design of translating tlie Scriptures, somewhat like that of Luther at the castle in the heart of the Thuringian Forest.
We rapidly pass over the residue of Wycliffe's life. Early in 1379 he had a severe fit of sickness, during which he was visited by the papal emissaries, who urged him to recant; but he soon recovered to denounce them more vigorously than ever. In 1382 a court con- stituted by the pope, with the aid of the new archbish- op of Canterbury, controverted certain propositions of W^'cliffe, who had begun to question the doctrine of transubstantiation ; and as his patron, the duke of Lan- caster, withheld his support, now that the Reformer ventured upon doctrinal ground, Wycliffe's position was eventually condemned, and the king was induced to re- move him from the university. It is probable that the odium of Wat Tyler's insurrection in 1381 fell upon Wycliffe, as it was supposed by his enemies to have been fomented by the " poor priests," whom he sent out as itinerants to propagate his own views. The Wyc- liffites, as his numerous followers were called, were sub- jected to much persecution ; but Wyclifte himself con- tinued, unmolested, to preach at Lutterworth. On Dec. 29, 1384, he was seized with a second fit of paralysis, while (as some say) in the act of celebrating the Lord's supper, and died on the last day of that year. The Council of Constance (May 5, 1415) condemned his doc- trines, and in 1428 his remains were dug up and burned ; the ashes were cast into the adjoining Swift, which, as Fuller prosaically, and Wordsworth poeticallj', remark, convej'ed them through the Avon and the Severn into the sea, and thus disseminated them over the world. His doctrines, carried into Bohemia by the members of queen Anne's retinue, originated the Hussite movement. The celibacy of the clergy being then a universal cus- tom, Wycliffe died unmarried ; his flock was his family, and the English Bible his heirloom to posterity.
III. Writings. — Wycliffe's literary productions are very numerous (Shirley [List of the Original Works of John Wycliffe (Oxf. 1865)] enumerates more than two hun- dred, chiefly tracts, many of them still unpublished) ; some of them are in Latin, others in English, and nearly all are on the religious questions of the day. ]\Iany of them still remain in MS. The most important, by far, is his New Testament, which appears to have been pub- lished about 1378, and again in 1380 ; the first printed edition was by John Lewis (Lond. 1731, fol.), the next by Henry H. Baber (ibid. 1810, 4to), and the latest at the Clarendon Press (Oxf. 1879, r2mo) ; it is also contained in Bagster's Hexapla (ibid. 1841, 4to), and, in part, in Bos- worth's Anglo-Saxon Gospels (ibid. 1808, 8vo). It was likewise printed from a considerably different MS. by Pickering (ibid. 1848, 4to). Wycliffe also translated, either in person or by assistants, the entire Old Testa- ment, including the Apocrypha, which seems to have been completed shortly before his death. His whole Bi- ble has been accurately printed from a collection of 170 MSS., with valuable dissertations, etc., by Forshall and Madden (Oxf. 1850, 4 vols. 4to). Wycliffe f ranslated di- rectly from the Latin Vulgate, not deeming himself com- petent to use the Hebrew and Greek originals as a basis. His version is quite literal and plain, but stiff and Latin- ized ; yet less so than many of Wycliffe's other writings. Ithas, of course, little critical value ; but its influence, at the time, was immense, and has since been incalculable. It can hardly be considered the foundation of our pres-
ent English Bible, but rather its precursor; and, no doubt, Tyndale largely used it in his translation from the original tongues. Wyclift'e's Bible was revised about 1388 by John Purvey, who had been his curate ; and it is Purvey's edition, rather than Wycliffe's own, that has generally passed as Wycliffe's Bible (so in Lewis's, Baber's, the Clarendon, and Bagster's text). Both are printed in parallel columns by Forshall and Madden. See Authorized Version.
See Lechler's ed. of Wycliffe's Trialogus (Oxf. 1869) ; also id. De Officio Pastorali ( Leips. 1863 ), and Wyc- liffe's Wicket (Oxf. 1612) ; Arnold, Select English Wo'rks of Wycliffe (Lond. 1869-71, 3 vols.) ; Vaughan, Tracts and Treatises of John Wycliffe (ibid. 1854); Lives of Wycliffe, by Lewis (Oxf. 1820), Tvtler (Edinb. 1826), Murray (Lond. 1829), Vaughan (ibid. 1828, 1831, 1853), Le Bas (ibid. 1832), Lechler (Leips. 1873; transl. by Lorimer, Lond. 1878).
"Wylie, AndreAW, D.D., a Protestant Episcopal clergyman and professor, was born at Washington in 1789. He was educated in the Presbyterian Church, and passed A.B. at Jefferson College, Canonsburgh, Pa., in 1810. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Ohio in 1812, and soon after installed pastor of Miller's Run Church. He was subsequently chosen president of Jef- ferson and Washington colleges, and extended his ser- vices as a preacher to Ten Mile and West Liberty, till his removal to Pigeon Creek, where his memory is still cherished. In 1828 he was elected president of Indiana College, and removed to Bloomington, where he joined the Episcopal Church. Twice he represented the dio- cese in General Convention, and was president of the Standing Committee in 1851. He died Nov. 11, 1851. Dr. Wylie was regarded as one of the ablest teachers in the West. He published an English Grammar (11^2) : — A Eulogy on Lafayette (1834) :— a pamphlet entitled Sectarianism is Heresy, etc. (1840) -.—The Individual: a Baccalaureate (1851): — Sermons and Addresses:— a work on rhetoric : — and an A dvice to Young Men (left ready for publication). See Sprague, yl wwa/s of the A mer. Pulpit, V, 779 ; Amer. Qua?: Church Rev. 1852, p. 640.