Purvey, John

PURVEY, JOHN: Reviser of the Wyclif translation of the Bible; b. about 1354; d. about 1428. He was from Lathbury (5 m. s. of Olney); was probably educated at Oxford; associated with John Wyclif at Lutterworth for some time before 1384, and after Wyclif's death became a leader of the Lollard party; he preached at Bristol, but was silenced in Aug., 1387, by the Bishop of Worcester. In 1390 he was in prison, and while there compiled from Wyclif's writings a commentary on Revelation. In 1400 he recanted his Lollardy at St. Paul's Cross, London; was by the archdeacon of Canterbury admitted to the vicarage of West Hythe, Kent, but resigned Oct. 8, 1403, and was again in prison in 1421. He is chiefly remembered for his revision of Wyclif's and Nicholas Hereford's translation of the Bible, which he completed in 1388 (see Bible Versions, B, IV., § 2). To this revision he wrote a prologue of great length and interest. He was also the author of Remonstrances against Romish Corruptions in the Church, Addressed to the People and Parliament of England in 1396 (ed. J. Forshall, London, 1851).

Bibliography: T. Netter, Fasciculi zizaniorum, ed. W. H. Shirley, pp. lxviii., 383, 400–407, London, 1858; Wyclif's New Testament in English, ed. J. Forshall and F. Madden, vol. i., Oxford, 1850, new ed., 1879; J. I. Mombert, Hand-Book of the English Versions of the Bible, pp. 45, 55–57, New York, 1883; G. V. Lechler, John Wycliffe and his English Precursors, pp. 220, 407, 452–453, new ed., London, 1884; W. W. Capes, The English Church in the 14th and 15th Centuries, passim, ib. 1900; G. M. Trevelyan, England in the Age of Wyclife, pp. 224–225, Philadelphia, 1907; J. Gairdner, Lollardy and the Reformation in England, i. 52, 59, 116, 195, London, 1908; DNB, xlvii. 51–52.