the monk Simon Langham, turned out the intruded seculars and filled their places with monks. The expelled warden and fellows appealed to Rome, and in 1371 judgment was given against the appellants (Wilkins, Concilia, iii. 52; Lewis, pp. 287 sq.; Literæ Cantuar. vol. ii. pp. xxv, 504; Rashdall, Universities in the Middle Ages, ii. 498–9). It was natural that Wycliffe's opponents should see in this incident an explanation of his hostility to monks; and the insinuation is made so early that it is impossible absolutely to disprove the identification. It has the authority of the contemporary monk of St. Albans, sub anno 1377 (Chron. Angliæ, Rolls Ser. p. 115), and of Wycliffe's opponent, William Woodford [q. v.] (Fasciculi Zizaniorum, Rolls Ser. p. 517), and it is accepted by Lewis, Vaughan, and Lechler (see also Church Quart. Rev. v. 126. On the other side see an article by W. J. Courthope in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1844, ii. 136, reprinted by Vaughan, Monograph, p. 547; Fasc. Ziz. l.c., pp. 513–28; Burrows, Wycliffe's Place in History, p. 51; Poole, Wycliffe and Movements for Reform, p. 68). Against the identification it may be urged (a) that had the reformer been placed in this position, we might have expected that incident to figure more largely than it does in the controversial literature of the time; (b) especially significant is the silence of Wycliffe's most systematic adversary, Walden [see Netter, Thomas]; (c) that the warden of Canterbury seems to be spoken of as a scholar of that house at the time of his appointment (document in Lewis, p. 14), an impossible position for the vicar of Fillingham; (d) that there was certainly another John Wyclyve or Whitclyve, who was collated to the rectory of Mayfield by Archbishop Islip in 1361 (Reg. Islip, f. 287 b; Vaughan, Monograph, p. 552). Mayfield being a manor and a frequent residence of the archbishop at the time, we get a personal connection between him and this John Wycliffe. The archbishop was at Mayfield when the warden was appointed, and was himself a Merton man, besides being ex-officio visitor of that college. Moreover, it appears that in 1366 the archbishop was taking steps to annex the rectory of Mayfield to the wardenship of Canterbury Hall, a very natural arrangement if it was actually held by the then warden (Gent. Mag. l.c.). The fact that the name of the Mayfield Wycliffe is sometimes written Whitclyve or Wyttlyve (there is a township known as Whitcliffe in the parish of Ripon) will not count for very much with any one acquainted with the vagaries of mediæval spelling; but, on the other hand, no one who knows how easily even at the present day ridiculous stories about theological opponents are circulated and believed will find it difficult to understand that the monk of St. Albans and the Franciscan friar Woodford should have accepted so welcome a scandal without elaborate investigation; (e) it should be added that the reformer dismisses the whole affair without the suggestion of a personal interest in the matter (the passage in De Ecclesia, cap. xvi. p. 371, was pointed out by Shirley, Fasc. Ziz. p. 526). As in this passage Wycliffe regards Islip's original impropriation as a sin (like all impropriations), he could hardly have failed to make some apology for his own participation in its benefits had he been warden of the house at the time.
On the whole, then, it seems most probable that the reformer was a fellow, and subsequently master, of Balliol, and that the warden of Canterbury Hall was another person, probably identical with the Wyclif of Merton, almost certainly with the rector of Mayfield. At all events Wycliffe's early life must have been passed at Oxford as a student and teacher, first in arts, then in theology. The normal time required from entrance to the university for attaining the D.D. degree was not less than sixteen years. Wycliffe's works show him to have been powerfully influenced by the writings of Richard FitzRalph [q. v.], archbishop of Armagh, once a fellow of Balliol College (Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. App. p. 443). There is no reason to believe that Wycliffe resided much at Fillingham, and he was probably only occasionally resident at Ludgershall, a benefice nearer Oxford, in the presentation of the prior of the hospital of St. John, for which he exchanged Fillingham in 1368 (Lincoln Reg. Buckingham, Institutions, f. 419). It must be remembered that the university teachers received no regular salary or endowments, and (if not fellows of colleges) had to depend upon ecclesiastical preferment. Being unable to obtain a prebend upon which he could live, he was compelled to become a more or less non-resident rector. He obtained a two years' licence of non-residence for study at Oxford from the bishop of Lincoln in 1368 (ib. Buckingham, Mem. f. 7), and may probably have required such a licence at other times.
Wycliffe's first appearance in the sphere of ecclesiastical politics is usually referred to the year 1366. A controversial tract written by him at a time when he could describe himself as the ‘peculiaris regis clericus’ has been supposed to refer to the refusal by the parliament of 1366 to pay the tribute
