Before his death, Wycliffe was summoned to appear before the papal tribunal in Rome. There he was to answer to the pope for the charge of heresy leveled against him. He would have obeyed the summons had not a second stroke made it impossible for him to make the journey. He did respond, however, in a letter. Among other things, he wrote the following, “No faithful man ought to follow either the pope himself or any [other so-called] holy men, but in such as [they have] followed the Lord Jesus Christ.”