Imagine for a moment that you are a Christian in 1348. The Black Death is claiming lives throughout your community. And the Bible is in Latin, which neither you nor the priest understand.
Your priest is telling you the plague is a punishment from God, and if you give money to the Church you’ll gain access to heaven. You can’t read and you don’t understand Latin, so you give money you can’t afford because you fear the priest – and God.
John Wycliffe thought this was wrong, and thank goodness he did. This year we celebrate the 700th anniversary of his birth, and the extraordinary difference he made by translating the Bible into English so that ordinary people could meet with Jesus through His living word.
