Editing John Wycliffe (section)

=== Early life ===

Wycliffe was born in the village of [[Hipswell]], near [[Richmond, North Yorkshire|Richmond]] in the [[North Riding of Yorkshire]], England, around the 1320s. He has conventionally been given a birth date of 1324 but Hudson and Kenny state only records "suggest he was born in the mid-1320s".<ref>{{ citation |title=Dictionary of National Biography |publisher=Oxford }}</ref> Conti states that he was born "before 1331".<ref name="Conti">{{ cite web |last=Conti |first=Alessandro |title=John Wyclif |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wyclif/ |access-date=3 June 2019 |website=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] }}</ref>

Wycliffe received his early education close to his home.<ref>{{ citation |last=Dallmann |first=William |title=John Wiclif |url=https://media.ctsfw.edu/Text/ViewDetails/15845 |journal=Concordia Theological Quarterly |volume=XI |page=41 |year=1907}}</ref> It is unknown when he first came to [[University of Oxford|Oxford]], with which he was so closely connected until the end of his life, but he is known to have been at Oxford around 1345. [[Thomas Bradwardine]] was the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] and his book ''On the Cause of God against the [[Pelagianism|Pelagians]]'', a bold recovery of the Pauline–Augustinian doctrine of grace, greatly shaped young Wycliffe's views,<ref>{{ cite web |last=Calhoun |first=David B. |title=The Morning Star of the Reformation |url=http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/John_Wycliffe_page1 |publisher=CS Lewis institute}}.</ref> as did the [[Black Death]], which reached England in the summer of 1348.<ref name="Murray">{{ cite web |last=Murray |first=Thomas |date=26 October 1829 |title=The Life of John Wycliffe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FsIEAAAAYAAJ&q=john+wycliffe |access-date=26 October 2019 |publisher=John Boyd |via=Google Books }}</ref> From his frequent references to it in later life it appears to have made a deep and abiding impression upon him. According to Robert Vaughn, the effect was to give Wycliffe "very gloomy views in regard to the condition and prospects of the human race".<ref name="Vaughn">{{ cite book |last=Vaughan |first=Robert |date=26 October 1845 |title=Tracts and Treatises of John de Wycliffe: With Selections and Translations from His Manuscripts and Latin Works |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hxi_RhgjHU8C&q=john+wycliffe |access-date=26 October 2019 |publisher=Society |isbn=978-0790561592 |via=Google Books }}</ref> In September 1351, Wycliffe became a priest.{{sfn|Lahey|2009|p=5}} Wycliffe would have been at Oxford during the [[St Scholastica Day riot]], in which sixty-three students and a number of townspeople were killed. Around the year 1354, Wycliffe encountered two [[Waldensian]] men who had travelled from Piedmont to England to spread what they believed to be the true Gospel in Britain. Through them, he gained valuable insight into the Waldensian faith and the teachings of [[Peter Waldo]], which would later influence many of his theological views. <ref>{{ citation |last=Dallmann |first=William |title=John Wiclif |url=https://museeprotestant.org/en/notice/a-history-of-the-waldensians/|access-date=8 June 2024 |website=[[Muse Protestant]] }}</ref>