Burning Wyclif (Walt McDonald First-Book Series in Poetry)

"Most of us recognize the name John Wyclif and associate it with the translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible into English. Admirers will add that Wyclif was one of the most prominent philosophers and theologians of the second half of the fourteenth century. Others will call him heretic for his condemnation of what he saw as corruption in the Catholic Church and especially for his attack on the Church's doctrine of transubstantiation. If we want to know the facts of Wyclif's life, we can consult an encyclopedia or biography. If we want to know John Wyclif, and maybe ourselves, we should read Thom Satterlee's poetry collection Burning Wyclif."--Robert A. Fink, from the Introduction


"Burning Wyclif"


Sometimes you have to raise the body up
to burn it down. So it was with Wyclif,
who rested forty-two years under chancel stone
condemned by the Papacy, protected by the Crown.
Finally, a bishop came with a few men,
spades, shovels, a horse and cart. By then,
not much was left of Wyclif--hair and skin gone,
his bones slipped out of place inside the simple alb
they'd buried him in. The bishop gathered what he could.
Beside the River Swift, he lit a pile of wood
and tossed the bones on one at a time,
cursing the heretic from limb to limb.
Afterwards, they shoveled ash into the water
and no one even thought the word martyr.