John Wycliffe

John Wycliffe was Oxford's leading philosopher when he began arguing that Scripture, not the papacy, is the final authority — and that ordinary English people should be able to read it. The Bible that bears his name, translated from the Latin Vulgate by Wycliffe and his circle, was copied by hand and smuggled across England by traveling preachers his enemies nicknamed Lollards. He died of a stroke at his parish in Lutterworth, still legally a priest in good standing.

Thirty-one years later the Council of Constance condemned him as a heretic; his bones were dug up, burned, and thrown into the River Swift. His followers said the river carried his ashes to the sea, and the sea to the whole world.