Hello everyone, and welcome to History England Episode 122, Whitcliffe and the University of

Oxford. Last week, we spent a bit of time talking about the church and religion in the

mid-14th century. Up to now, since the conversions of the 7th century, England has mind-large been a

good son of the church, with barely a hint of heresy. It took the Pope's side against the Irish

interpretation of the Catholic faith way back when? It's had nothing like the Cathars or the

Wildensians. Okay, it's been a bit chippy about paying papal taxation, but in matters of pure faith,

it's towed the party line. This week we're going to talk about how that changes however

briefly and how dissent creeps into our history in a way that looks spookily like a dry run for

the Reformation. We're going to talk about a chap called Whitcliffe, John Whitcliffe.

But that sounds all too easy, so I'm also going to use the opportunity in talking about

Whitcliffe's life to update us all on the universities, how they've developed over this time,

and what a university education looked like back then. Largely, I must confess it's going to be

the University of Oxford version. The thing about Whitcliffe is the variety of ways he's represented.

There's everything from a 19th century view that this is a man whose intelligence,

commitment and personal dedication led to a 14th century Reformation only to be

equaled by the rail thing 200 years later. He's been presented as a purely scholastic

philosopher, and in the more extreme view, he's been presented as a failed bitter academic,

a careerist whose writings represent a bitter kicking against the institution that failed to

give him the recognition and success he craved. His success, and inspiring others, is a little

surprising, although we don't know much about the man's personal characteristics, because

generally he comes across as a little dry and academic, and his influence long-term was probably

stronger in Bohemia through Jan Huss than it was in England. So in the words of krunk,

...