Who was John Wyclif? John Wyclif, was an English priest and professor at Oxford, who spoke against the church and had many unorthodox ideas during the fourteenth century. Wyclif undermined many institutions of hierarchy in the church teaching that any Christian could talk to God without the need for a priest and even that oral confession to a priest was illegitimate. Indulgences, Wyclif believed, were a waste of time, because he thought that there was nothing you could do to change or reduce God's judgment. State supremacy was brought forth by Wyclif. He believed that the church should not be able to own any land and if it did, it should be taken away by the state. So we have the state held above the church. John Wyclif was crucial to the later, sixteenth century protestant reformation. …show more content…
Various succession conflicts had been culminating between the French and English kingdoms since the early thirteen hundreds. The English king, Edward the third, had tried to claim the French kingdom through his mother's lineage. The French, not wanting an English king, refuted his claim on the grounds that he couldn't inherit through a woman. In 1337 Edward invades France beginning the Hundred Years' war. The war lasted one hundred and sixteen years with several truces. Since the war's beginning, England had many decisive and surprising victories. This was mainly due to turmoil occurring in the French kingdom since France had every asset to crush England. Eventually, at the battle of Agincourt, the war turned in favor of the French and they had driven the English out by of France