The teachings and dissent of John Wycliffe found greater support in Bohemia because it was joined to a strong national party led by John Hus. The Czech reformer came from peasant parents in southern Bohemia, a small town called Husinetz. When Hus was burned on 6 July 1415 the Bohemian rebellion, as it came to be called, refused to die with him. It developed a moderate and a militant wing. The moderates were called Utraquists, a term from Latin for "both" since their primary protest called for freedom to receive Communion in both the bread and the cup. The militants were called Taborites after the city in Bohemia that served as their chief stronghold. These followers of Hus struggled against the Roman Church and the German Empire until several wars reduced their number and influence. Yet despite the best efforts of the papacy to bring an end to the Bohemian

The Czech reformer from southern Bohemia (Husinetz). He studied theology at the University of Prague, earning both a B.A. (1394) and the M.A. (1396) before beginning his teaching in the faculty of arts and plunging into the reform cause. After his ordination and appointment as rector and preacher at Bethlehem Chapel he came upon Wycliffe's religious writings. He adopted at once the English reformer's view of the church and began to circulated Wycliffe's teachings, including his criticisms of the abuses of power in the papacy. Drawing heavily upon Wycliffe, he wrote his major work, On the Church. On his arrival at the Council of Constance he found himself a victim of the Inquisition. He lay imprisoned in Constance for eight months. On July 6, 1415 Hus was burned for heresy.

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When John Wycliffe gained support for his vision of the Latin Bible translated into the common language of English, he led a handful of Oxford scholars in the Bible's translation and copied the methods of St. Francis and the Friars. From Oxford Wycliffe sent out "poor priests" into the byways and village greens, sometimes even to churches, to win the souls of the neglected. Clad in russet robes of undressed wool, without sandals, purse, or scrip, a long staff in their hand, dependent for food and shelter on the good will of their neighbors, Wycliffe's "poor priests" soon became a power in the land. Their enemies dubbed them Lollards, meaning "mumblers". They carried a few pages of the reformer's Bible and his tracts and sermons as they went throughout the countryside preaching the Word of God. Wycliffe's followers were hunted down, were expelled from Oxford, or forced to renounce their

The great religious revolution called the Reformation broke out in 1517, but it is necessary to go back at least one hundred years to understand what caused it. The Reformation is often seen as a response to the corruption found in the Roman Catholic Church, and while this is true to a degree, the real roots of the Reformation are grounded the Church's official sanction of said corruption. Which is altogether an entirely different matter.

For all its ideals, piety, and art, Catholicism differed from the New Testament in doctrine, morals, and administration. Most men and women of conscience realized this, and called with increasing urgency for "reform in head and members". Some — such as Jan Hus, the Bohemian disciple of John Wycliffe — would not wait for Rome to reform herself, but separated from the unity of the Roman Catholic church for the honor of Christ and his gospel.

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Educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and possibly later at Cambridge. He became tutor to the family of Sir John Walsh. While living in Walsh's household, Tyndale saw at first hand the ignorance of the local clergy. The bishops had banned the English Bible since 1408 because they feared the Lollards, who had their own translation (the Wycliffe Bible). Because this translation had been made only from the Latin Vulgate and was inaccurate, Tyndale set out to make a translation from the Hebrew and the Greek. He hoped to win the support of the learned bishop of London, Cuthbert Tunstall. But the bishops were more concerned with preventing the spread of Lutheran ideas than promoting the study of Scripture. In due course Tyndale obtained financial support from a number of London merchants, especially Humphrey Monmouth.

Because England was no safe place to translate the Bible, Tyndale left for the Continent,

Though we are not sure of the date of his birth, he was reared in northern England and only emerges from the medieval mists as a student at Oxford. He secured his doctor's degree in 1372 and rose immediately to prominence as the leading professor at the university. He became involved in the contemporary debate over "dominion" or "lordship" over men. One side held that only the Pope, through divine right because of his innate state of grace, could rightfully have dominion over the affairs of men. Others held that lordship depended more upon the individual's own state of grace and not the mediator of the Church. Wycliffe added an important idea. He argued that the English government had the divine responsibility to correct the abuses of the church in its realm and to relieve of office those churchmen who persisted in sin. The state could even seize the property