Image Details

Egerton Ms. 618, F. 297/British Library

Banned in Britain. The Middle English translation of the Latin Bible produced by John Wycliffe and his followers in the late 14th century aroused the ire of the church establishment, partly because it was rendered in the language of common folk (the aristocracy spoke French) and partly because the introduction condemned priests as vainglorious and ignorant. In 1407, the archbishop of London forbade the production of translations and condemned to death anyone caught reading a Wycliffe Bible.