ABSTRACT
As the Renaissance slowly swept northward through Europe, universi-- ties continued to blossom and thrive, fed by the increasing popularity of learning, interest in classical culture, and their own local power. Although educational systems developed unevenly, throughout Europe universities for the most part enjoyed unprecedented growth and power as the clerical influence on European societies began gradually to wane, and the power of secular rulers grew1 As more secular studies devel-- oped, the halls of academe became sites of political tension: articulate university professors publicly debated questions regarding theological and national politics. The medieval theologian John Wyclif (1320-84), an outspoken scholar at Oxford and an academic who openly advocated church reforms, took an antagonistic stance toward the papacy that would prove influential in England and Bohemia, helping to set the stage for Martin Luther and the Reformation.2
