 Wycliffe had the Bible translated directly from the official Latin. His translation was quite literal, which made it somewhat ironic that he was later accused of being a heretic, and his Bible banned by church and English authorities. Apparently his crime was to make the wisdom of the Bible more accessible to the common people, or as he said, it helpeth Christian men to study the gospel in that tongue in which they know best, Christ's sentence. However, his Bible was indeed taken up by church and social reformers, an association which didn't help his case.