John Wycliffe Quotes

It is not good for us to trust in our merits, in our virtues or our righteousness; but only in God's free pardon, as given us through faith in Jesus Christ.

— John Wycliffe

“The highest service that men may attain to on earth is to preach the word of God. This service falls peculiarly to priests, and therefore, God more directly demands it of them.”

— John Wycliffe

“Trust wholly in Christ; rely altogether on His sufferings; beware of seeking to be justified in any other way than by His righteousness. Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient for salvation. There must be atonement made for sin according to the righteousness of God. The person to make this atonement must be God and man.”

— John Wycliffe

“No man is to be credited for his mere authority's sake, unless he can show Scripture for the maintenance of his opinion.”

— John Wycliffe

“In order to the existence of such a ministry in the Church, there is requisite an authority received from God, and consequently power and knowledge imparted from God for the exercise of such ministry; and where a man possesses these, although the bishop has not laid hands upon him according to his traditions, God has Himself appointed him.”

— John Wycliffe

“The higher the hill, the stronger the wind: so the loftier the life, the stronger the enemy's temptations.”

— John Wycliffe

“Men mark the passion of Christ, and print it on their heart somewhat to follow it. It was the most voluntary passion that ever was suffered, and the most painful. It was most voluntary, and so most meritorious.”

— John Wycliffe

“Visit those who are sick, or who are in trouble, especially those whom God has made needy by age, or by other sickness, as the feeble, the blind, and the lame who are in poverty. These you shall relieve with your goods after your power and after their need, for thus biddeth the Gospel.”

— John Wycliffe

“Christ's fishermen should not meddle with men's law, for men' s law contains sharp stones and trees by which the net of God is broken, and the fish wend out of the world.”

— John Wycliffe

“We all are originally sinners as Adam and in Adam, his leprosy cleaving faster to us than Naaman's did to Gahazai, so that even the infant, before it has seen the light of the world, has this blemish inherent in its unborn members.”

— John Wycliffe

“I believe that in the end the truth will conquer.”

— John Wycliffe

“Do not let friars enter your wine cellars for fear they will bless every barrel and change the wine into blood.”

— John Wycliffe

“Two places are ordained for man to dwell in after this life. While he is here, he may choose, by God's mercy, which he will; but once he is gone from here, he may not do so. For whichever he first goes to, whether he like it well or ill, there he must dwell forevermore. He shall never after change his dwelling, though he hates it ever so badly.”

— John Wycliffe

“The laity ought to understand the faith, and since the doctrines of our faith are in the Scriptures, believers should have the Scriptures in a language familiar to the people, and to this end the Holy Ghost endued them with knowledge of all tongues.”

— John Wycliffe

“Englishmen learn Christ's law best in English. Moses heard God's law in his own tongue; so did Christ's apostles.”

— John Wycliffe

“By the law of Christ, every man is bound to love his neighbour as himself; but every servant is a neighbour of every civil lord; therefore every civil lord must love any of his servants as himself; but by natural instinct, every lord abhors slavery; therefore, by the law of charity, he is bound not to impose slavery on any brother in Christ.”

— John Wycliffe

The New Testament is of full authority and open to the understanding of simple men as to the points most needful to salvation.

— John Wycliffe

“It is certain that the truth of the Christian faith becomes more evident the more the faith itself is known. Therefore, the doctrine should not only be in Latin but also in the common tongue, and as the faith of the Church is contained in the Scriptures, the more these are known in the true sense, the better.”

— John Wycliffe

Private confession ... was not ordered by Christ and was not used by the apostles.

— John Wycliffe

“We are under God's power, and we can do nothing but by the power of God, and woe shall hereafter be to us if we abuse this power.”

— John Wycliffe

Belief fails when it works not well indeed but is idle as a sleeping man ... Each virtuous deed is strong when it is grounded upon the solidity of belief.

— John Wycliffe

“We should know that faith is a gift of God, and that it may not be given to men, except it be graciously. Thus, indeed, all the good which we have is of God; and accordingly, when God rewardeth a good work of man, he crowneth his own gift.”

— John Wycliffe

What cursed spirit of falsehood moveth priests to close themselves within stone walls for all their life, since Christ commanded all his apostles and priests to go into all the world, and to preach the Gospel?

— John Wycliffe

“It is plain to me that our prelates, in granting indulgences, do commonly blaspheme the wisdom of God.”

— John Wycliffe

The bread while becoming by virtue of Christ's words the body of Christ does not cease to be bread.

— John Wycliffe

God may not accept a person to forgive him his sins, without an atonement, else he must give free license to sin both in angels and men, and then sin were no sin, and our God were no God.

— John Wycliffe

“All Christian life is to be measured by Scripture; by every word thereof.”

— John Wycliffe

“Holy Scripture is the highest authority for every believer, the standard of faith and the foundation for reform ...”

— John Wycliffe

“The gospel alone is sufficient to rule the lives of Christians everywhere - any additional rules made to govern men's conduct added nothing to the perfection already found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

— John Wycliffe

“The highest service to which a man may obtain on earth is to preach the law of God.”

— John Wycliffe

Crown and cloth maken no priest, nor emperor's bishop with his words, but power that crist giveth; and thus by life have been priests known.

— John Wycliffe

“I am ready to defend my convictions even unto death. I have followed the Sacred Scriptures and the holy doctors.”

— John Wycliffe

“Ability is that sufficiency which cometh from God.”

— John Wycliffe

“I acknowledge that the sacrament of the altar is very God's body in form of bread, but it is in another manner God's body than it is in heaven.”

— John Wycliffe

“I shall not die, but live; and again declare the evil deeds of the friars.”

— John Wycliffe

“There was good reason for the silence of the Holy Spirit as to how,when, in what form Christ ordained the apostles, the reason being to show the indifferency of all forms of words”

— John Wycliffe