Blogging the Reformers: John Wickliffe

Wickliffe at work

John Wickliffe was born in 1324 in Yorkshire, England. He was saved after reading the Bible when he was frightened at the thought of death when the Black Death, which killed half the human race, arrived in London. He began to proclaim his faith to others, and he was an eloquent preacher and teacher. He became popular when he was preaching against the pope who claimed to rule England. In 1379 he became sick and four priests came to attempt to make him recant. He told them, “I shall not die, but live; and again declare the evil deeds of the friars.”¹ His ministry began with attacking the pope and turned to preaching the gospel to everyone and then he permanently gave the people the word of God with his translation of the Bible. He translated it from Latin because he did not know Hebrew or Greek. It had a great effect even though it had to be copied by hand because the printing press had not yet been invented.

After translating the Bible he continued to teach the people. The church was angered because he disagreed with the doctrine transubstantiation - that Christ was killed whenever they did the mass. He was not punished because there were two people who claimed to be pope and they were too busy fighting each other. In 1384 he was paralyzed as he was administering the Lord’s Supper and he died two days later on December 31st, 1384. He was the first Reformer and a great leader of the English Reformation. D’Aubigne said, “If Luther and Calvin are the fathers of the Reformation, Wickliffe is its grandfather.”²

Wickliffe preaching

1. J. H. Merle D’Aubigne, History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, (Harrisonburg, Virginia: Sprinkle Publications, 2003) vol 5, p 93
2. Ibid, p. 104

Blogging the Reformers: Thomas Cranmer

Thomas Cranmer was born in England in 1489. He attended Jesus College in Cambridge, and later taught there. He assisted King Henry VIII in 1527 to make a theological argument for why he could divorce the queen. In 1532 Henry appointed him Archbishop of Canterbury to assist him in reforming the church. The king was not a Christian, but to increase his own power he broke from the Pope and appointed himself as head of the church. At some points he would lean toward the Reformation, and at others toward the Catholics. During his 22 years as Archbishop, Cranmer worked to advance the Reformation, but he was timid and at times went along with the king against the Reformation. In 1553 he was arrested by the Catholic Queen “Bloody” Mary and was tried for heresy. He was convicted to be burnt, but eventually recanted all Lutheran doctrine and acknowledged the pope as head of the church. Instead of absolving him, Mary commanded him to be burnt anyway. Before his execution, he was given the opportunity to preach. He wrote a sermon in which he again recanted, but instead of giving the sermon he renounced the recantations and said that he would rather be burnt than recant. He was pulled from the pulpit and taken to be burnt. As he was burning, he stuck his right hand into the fire because it was the one which he used to sign the recantation. He died March 21, 1556.

D'Aubigne on Cranmer

“Cranmer moved forward slowly: he modified an evangelical movement by a clerical concession. When he had taken a step forward, he stopped suddenly, and apparently drew back; not from cowardice, but because his extreme prudence so urged him. The boldness of a Farel or a Knox is in our opinion far more noble; and yet this extreme moderation saved Cranmer and protestantism with him. ... God gives to every people and to every epoch the man necessary to it. Cranmer was this man for England, at the time of her separation from the papacy.” 1

Cranmer's Last Sermon

“And now forasmuch as I am come to the last end of my life, whereupon hangeth all my life past, and all my life to come, either to live with my master Christ for ever in joy, or else to be in pain for ever with the wicked in hell, and I see before mine eyes presently, either heaven ready to receive me, or else hell ready to swallow me up; I shall therefore declare unto you my very faith how I believe, without any color of dissimulation: for now is no time to dissemble, whatsoever I have said or written in times past.

First, I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, etc. And I believe every article of the Catholic faith, every word and sentence taught by our Savior Jesus Christ, His apostles and prophets, in the New and Old Testament.
And now I come to the great thing which so much troubleth my conscience, more than any thing that ever I did or said in my whole life, and that is the setting abroad of a writing contrary to the truth, which now here I renounce and refuse, as things written with my hand contrary to the truth which I thought in my heart, and written for fear of death, and to save my life, if it might be; and that is, all such bills or papers which I have written or signed with my hand since my degradation, wherein I have written many things untrue. And forasmuch as my hand hath offended, writing contrary to my heart, therefore my hand shall first be punished; for when I come to the fire it shall first be burned.

And as for the pope, I refuse him as Christ's enemy, and Antichrist, with all his false doctrine."2

1 J. H. Merle D'Aubigne, History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin (Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 2000) volume 5, book viii, p. 54

2 Foxe, John Foxe's Book of Martyrs (New York: Eaton and Mains, 1911) Google Books. p. 384-385

Blogging the Reformers - Hugh Latimer

Hugh Latimer was born in a poor family in England somewhere between 1480 and 1494. He attended Cambridge University and became a priest. At some point in his life he accepted the Reformed doctrine and became one of the leaders of the movement in England. King Henry VII made him one of his chaplains. He preached boldly before the king and his court, and even rebuked the king in his sermons. He said to the king, “Would you have me preach nothing concerning a king in the king's sermon?”1 Eventually after a time there he decided to leave the court and go to his parish, which he did. He was a great preacher, a powerful orator, and he effected many people through his preaching. He was appointed bishop of Worcester by the king, but he resigned years later after he opposed the king's Catholic false doctrine. The king threw him into prison until he died, and then his son Edward released him and he continued to preach. However when Bloody Mary came to the throne, she tried him for his beliefs and he was burned on October 16th, 1555 along with two other leaders of the English Reformation, Thomas Cranmer and Nicholas Ridley. As he was about to be burnt, he said to Nicholas Ridley, “Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.”2

1 J. H. Merle D'Aubigne, History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin (Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 2000) vol. 3, book vi, p. 51
2 John Foxe. Foxe's Book of Martyrs (New York: Eaton & Mains, 1911) p. 309

Blogging the Reformers: Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex

Thomas Cromwell was the servant of Henry VIII, king of England. He was born in lowly estate in 1485, and was raised by the king to be one of the principle men of the kingdom. He was a Protestant, and worked to establish the true religion in England. He was the king's chief minister for eight years, and served him faithfully. His main mistake was to be to faithful to Henry even when he turned against the gospel. Henry was very inconsistent and variable throughout his reign. At one point Henry would incline towards the Protestants, and at another toward the Catholics. In 1540 the Catholics convinced him to arrest Cromwell because he was one of the best proponents of the gospel. The charges presented against him were clearly falsehoods, so the Catholics decided to proceed without trial. Even though Cromwell had always been faithful to him, Henry ordered him to be beheaded. As his hour of death drew near, Cromwell wrote, “Lord! Into thy hands I commend my soul; Lord Jesu! Receive my Spirit! Amen.”1 He was beheaded on July 28th, 1540. Henry later realized that he had executed his most faithful servant, and regretted it until his death.

1 J. H. Merle D'Aubigne, History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin (Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 2000) volume 4, book XV, p. 224