Oxford
University town on the Thames. John Wycliffe taught Scripture here, and in 1377 the pope rebuked the university for letting his teaching spread.
Gregory XI addressed his bull of 1377 against John Wycliffe to the chancellor and university of Oxford. He reminded them of the privileges the apostolic see had granted them and of their learning in the Scriptures, and reproached them for allowing “tares” to grow among the wheat and ordering them to arrest him (Gregory XI, Bull to Oxford (1377)). The Council of Constance later noted that the masters of Oxford had themselves examined Wycliffe’s books and drawn 260 articles from them for condemnation (Council of Constance, session 15). See Wycliffe and the First English Bible.
What happened here
- about 1382, estimated dateWycliffe and the First English Bible
The teaching of the Oxford theologian John Wycliffe is condemned at London in 1382. A hostile chronicler says that he put the Gospel into English; the whole Bible is translated in those decades, and a constitution of 1409 forbids such versions without a bishop’s approval.
- 1555 to 1558, firm dateThe Burning of Protestants under Mary I
Under Mary I, Parliament returns England to obedience to Rome and revives the medieval heresy laws. From 1555 to 1558 Protestants who will not recant are burned, among them the bishops Latimer, Ridley and Cranmer. John Foxe’s book records them as martyrs.
- 14 July 1833, firm dateThe Oxford Movement
John Keble’s sermon on national apostasy and the Tracts for the Times call the Church of England back to its claim to be a catholic church with bishops in succession from the apostles. After Tract 90 is censured, Newman becomes a Roman Catholic.
Primary sources
Bull to the University of Oxford against John Wycliffe
- Gregory XI, Bull to Oxford (1377)sourcebooks.fordham.edu
Decrees of the Council of Constance
- Council of Constance, session 15papalencyclicals.net