John Wyclif c. 1320 – 1384

John Wyclif was an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, and reformer, often called the morning star of the Reformation. Master of Balliol College and a doctor of theology at Oxford, he developed in his metaphysical writings a strongly realist theory of universals and a doctrine of dominion grounded in grace, on which lawful possession depends on righteousness. His later attacks on papal authority, ecclesiastical wealth, and the doctrine of transubstantiation, set out in De Civili Dominio, De Veritate Sacrae Scripturae, and De Eucharistia, shaped the Lollard movement in England and, through his disciple Jan Hus, the Hussite reform in Bohemia.