In 1382 AD, the dissident English theologian and Oxford professor John Wycliffe spearheaded the first complete translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into Middle English. Operating out of Lutterworth, England, Wycliffe and his followers, known as Lollards, believed that scriptures should be directly accessible to every literate person in their native language, openly defying church prohibitions against unauthorized vernacular translations. The church condemned these English Bibles, banning them under penalty of death, yet copies continued to circulate widely in secret.

Wycliffe's vernacular translation injected raw Anglo-Saxon vocabulary and idiomatic expressions into religious discourse, laying the foundational groundwork for early English prose. It proved that the English language was fully capable of expressing complex theological nuances, profoundly influencing subsequent devotional lyricists.