THE GREAT CONTROVERSY: Audio & Pull Quotes- Chapter 5

John Wycliffe

Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/FWZ367OJNSE?list=PLA5C7629D1527F981

In the fourteenth century arose in England the "morning star of the Reformation." John Wycliffe was the herald of reform, not for England alone, but for all Christendom. Wycliffe was a keen

detector of error, and he struck fearlessly against many of the abuses sanctioned by the authority of Rome.
Another evil against which the Reformer waged long and resolute battle was the institution of the orders of mendicant friars. These friars swarmed in England, casting a blight upon the greatness and prosperity of the nation. Industry, education, morals, all felt the withering influence. The monk's life of idleness and beggary was not only a heavy drain upon the resources of the people, but it brought useful labor into contempt.
The schism, with all the strife and corruption which it caused, prepared the way for the Reformation by enabling the people to see what the papacy really was.
Wycliffe lived to place in the hands of his countrymen the most powerful of all weapons against Rome--to give them the Bible.... His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: Matthew 25:21