Heresy
Wyclif in Exile
For much of his career, Wyclif was fortunate and protected, but the publication of his views on transubstantiation in May 1381 was a piece of amazingly bad timing. For the very next month, the Peasant Rebellion rocked England and its leaders were heavily identified with Wyclif's views (known as Lollardy).
John of Gaunt backed away from him. Commons backed away from him. And Wyclif was at last vulnerable to his enemies within the Church, particularly the Franciscans. Why the friars? Because Wyclif had argued strongly that the mendicant orders should have all their property taken away. The Franciscans in England were rich and powerful. One reason why Gaunt liked Wyclif was because the Oxford don gave the government a justification for seizing monastic properties, an attractive way to help finance the war with France.
But neither Gaunt nor many other Englishmen were willing to jeopardize the Mass. Moreover, the claims of the critics that Lollard ideas promoted social anarchy seemed now to have confirmation, and no English noble would tolerate that. Faced with a Church panel of inquiry, Wyclif chose to retire to Lutterworth, where he was technically a cleric. Already ill, he wrote steadily until his death in 1384.