Wycliffe And The Church

[Will_Pick]

In 1415, 21 years after the death of John Wycliffe (1320-84 AD), the Roman Catholic Religion had his body taken out of the grave and tried it for heresy.
WHAT CAN ANYONE TELL ME ABOUT THIS and why did the church do a thing like this

 

[Ted_CharlotteNC]

this iis a good start

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wycliffe

 

[Fidelis]

The anti-Catholics who love this version of events have it exactly backwards. At the the Council of Constance, held from from Nov, 1414, to April, 1418, Wycliff’s heretical writings, which were still doing great damage in the Church, were officially condemned. Wycliffe, who had spent his last days unmolested by the Church and died peacefully in bed, had been buried in a Catholic cemetary (i.e., consecrated ground). Being officially pronounced a notorius heretic, it was probably thought to be a scandal to have done so. AFTER the council his remains were exhumed and deposited in a river. In an age where people took their faith much more seriously, and heresy had social, political, and moral effects as well as religious, it seems to be a pretty understandable course of action.

Fron the Catholic Encyclopedia:

**Condemnation of Forty-five Wycliffite Propositions **

In the eighth session it was question of Wyclif, whose writings had already been condemned at the Council of Rome (1412-13) under John XXIII. In this session forty-five propositions of Wyclif, already condemned by the universities of Paris and Prague, were censured as heretical, and in a later session another long list of 260 errors. All his writings were ordered to be burned and his body was condemned to be dug up and cast out of consecrated ground (**this was not done until 1428 ** under Bishop Robert Fleming of Lincoln). In 1418 Martin V, by the aforesaid Bull “Inter Cunctas”, approved the action of the council (Mansi, op. cit., XXVII, 1210 sq.; see WYCLIFFITES).
newadvent.org/cathen/04288a.htm

 

[Eileen_T]

A heretical Catholic theologian?

Fidelis:

In an age where people took their faith much more seriously, and heresy had social, political, and moral effects as well as religious, it seems to be a pretty understandable course of action.

Maybe we should be taking our faith more seriously today as well. I can think of a few books written by Catholic ‘theologians’ today that could do with burning.

 

[genealogist]

Am I alone to think that a theology PhD or teaching theology at a university does not make one a theologian?

I think you must be dead 100 years and have people actually discussing your writings to merit that title. Calvin and Luther may be heretics but their theological writings are still discussed. Will Dr. Nut case of the Day, be able to make that claim 500 years after they wrote?

 

[tjmiller]

“Religions” don’t do anything.
People do.