Historical Figure John Wycliffe was one of the medieval forerunners of the Protestant Reformation. Wycliffe was born c.1330, Yorkshire, England. He died December 31, 1384 Lutterworth, England. Wycliffe received education at the University of Oxford. Where Wycliffe’s name has been associated with three colleges, Queen’s, Merton, and Balliol. When he returned to Lutterworth and, from the seclusion of his study, he began a systematic attack on the beliefs and practices of the church. Wycliffe was not persecuted but had suffered from his first stroke at Lutterworth. After his first stroke he continued to write prolifically until he died from a further stroke in December 1384. John Wycliffe had made a translation of the Bible for the Poor Preachers who would take the Bible’s truth to the people. (https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Wycliffe/Translation-of-the-Bible) William Tyndale was an English Scholar. Born c.1490, near Gloucestershire, England. He died October 6, 1536, Belgium. Tyndale was educated at the University of Oxford and became an instructor at the University of Cambridge. Where in 1521 he fell in with a group of humanist scholars meeting at the White Horse Inn. He thought that the Bible alone should determine the practices and doctrines of the church. He also wanted all believers should be able to read the Bible in their own languages. Tyndale began working on a New Testament translation directly from Greek in 1523. His New Testament translation was completed in July 1525. When the New Testament was finished, Tyndale began work on the Old Testament. Which was finished in 1530. Tyndale was executed by strangulation (the action or state of strangling or being strangled) and then burned at the stake at Vilvoorde in 1536. (https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Tyndale) Cotton Mather was an American religious leader. Born February 12, 1663, Boston, Massachusetts. Died February 13, 1728, Boston, Massachusetts. Mather earned a master’s degree from Harvard College and he was ordained by a Congregational minister in 1685. Mather helped work for the unpopular British governor of Massachusetts, Edmund Andros. Mathers best-known writings included the Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), which is a church history of New England. Also, his Diary (1711–1712). Curiosa Americana (1712–24) was his third best-known writing. Which won him membership in the Royal Society of London. Following all this was Cotton Mather’s death by being hanged. (https://www.britannica.com/summary/Cotton-Mather)
