English Reformation was not, by itself, a Reformation. However, the political break with Rome was inseparable from the success of Protestantism. English Catholicism was strong and popular in the early 1500s, and while there were those who held Protestant sympathies, they would have remained a religious minority if political events had not intervened. An earlier reform movement that anticipated some Protestant teachings but remained outside the religious mainstream was Lollardy. Derived from the writings of John Wycliffe, a 14th-century theologian and Bible translator, Lollardy stressed the primacy of Scripture and emphasised the preaching of the word over the sacrament of the altar,
John Wycliffe Black John Wycliffe Black John Wycliffe Black (21 July 1862 – 18 June 1951) was an English shoe manufacturer and Liberal Party politician. John Wycliffe Black was born in London, the son of Robert Black, a successful Knightsbridge draper He was sent to Bishop's Stortford College in Essex for his schooling. In 1890 he married Eunice Marsden from Wigan in Lancashire and they had one son and a daughter. Their son Arthur Norman Black (1894–1973) was a celebrated motor cycle and racing car driver of the 1930s and 1940s. Adventurous activity runs in the Black family, John Wycliffe Black's nephew Tom