John Wycliffe (c 1320 - 1384) was an English theologian, Scholastic philosopher, translator and reformer. He was not a priest. His English translation was from the Latin Vulgate.

Wycliffe was an early dissident in the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century. He is considered the founder of the Lollard movement, a precursor to the Protestant Reformation (for this reason, he is sometimes called "The Morning Star of the Reformation"). He was one of the earliest opponents of papal encroachment on secular power. (The political storm that resulted from the Reformation.) He believed that the Bible was the only authoritative guide to faith and practice which led him to translate the Bible into English.

Wycliffe became deeply disillusioned both with Scholastic theology of his day and also with the state of the church, at least as represented by the clergy. In the final phase of his life he increasingly argued for Scriptures as the authoritative center of Christianity, that the claims of the papacy were unhistorical, that monasticism was irredeemably corrupt. He also thought that the moral unworthiness of priests invalidated their office and sacraments.

Although Wycliffe died of natural causes, he was later declared a heretic and his body exhumed and burned.

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