war upon the other , enforcing his demands by terrible anathemas against his adversaries , and promises of rewards in heaven to his supporters .
This occurrence greatly weakened the power of the papacy . The rival factions had all they could do to attack each other , and Wycliffe for a time had rest . Anathemas and recriminations were flying from pope to pope , and torrents of blood were poured out to support their conflicting claims . Crimes and scandals flooded the church . Meanwhile the Reformer , in the quiet retirement of his parish of Lutterworth , was laboring diligently to point men from the contending popes to Jesus , the Prince of Peace . The schism , with all the strife and corruption which it caused , prepared the way for the Reformation by enabling the people to see what the papacy really was . In a tract which he published , On the Schism of the Popes , Wycliffe called upon the people to consider whether these two priests were not speaking the truth in condemning each other as the anti-christ . " God ," said he , " would no longer suffer the fiend to reign in only one such priest , but . . . made division among two , so that men , in Christ ' s name , may the more easily overcome them both ." --R. Vaughan , Life and Opinions of John de Wycliffe , vol . 2 , p . 6 .
Wycliffe , like his Master , preached the gospel to the poor . Not content with spreading the light in their humble homes in his own parish of Lutterworth , he determined that it should be carried to every part of England . To accomplish this he organized a body of preachers , simple , devout men , who loved the truth and desired nothing so much as to extend it . These men went everywhere , teaching in the market places , in the streets of the great cities , and in the country lanes . They sought out the aged , the sick , and the poor , and opened to them the glad tidings of the grace of God . As a professor of theology at Oxford , Wycliffe preached the word of God in the halls of the university . So faithfully did he present the truth to the students under his instruction , that he received the title of " the gospel doctor ." But the greatest work of his life was to be the translation of the Scriptures into the English language . In a work , On the Truth and Meaning of Scripture , he expressed his intention to translate the Bible , so that every man in England might read , in the language in which he was born , the wonderful works of God .
But suddenly his labors were stopped . Though not yet sixty years of age , unceasing toil , study , and the assaults of his enemies had told upon his strength and made him prematurely old . He was attacked by a dangerous illness . The tidings brought great joy to the friars . Now they thought he would bitterly repent the evil he had done the church , and they hurried to his chamber to listen to his confession . Representatives from the four religious orders , with four civil officers , gathered about the supposed dying man . " You have death on your lips ," they
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