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Wycliffe

John Wycliffe advances liberty by denying that power sanctifies itself, arguing that authority—ecclesiastical or civil—loses legitimacy when it abandons justice and moral responsibility. By insisting that law, conscience, and accountability stand above office and wealth, he presses a defining claim for free societies: power forfeits its rights when it violates the moral law it claims to serve. His view that the Church had strayed from the supreme authority of Scripture laid the groundwork for the Protestant Reformation.