Everything about Lollard totally explained
Lollardy was the political and religious movement of the Lollards from the mid-
14th century to the
English Reformation. Lollardy was supposed to have evolved from the teachings of
John Wycliffe, a prominent
theologian at the
University of Oxford beginning in the
1350s - however, it's possible that the Lollards actually predated Wycliffe. Its demands were primarily for reform of the
Roman Catholic Church. It taught that
piety was a requirement for a
priest to be a "true" priest or to perform the
sacraments, and that a pious layman had power to perform those same rites, believing that religious power and authority came through piety and not through the Church hierarchy. Similarly, Lollardy emphasized the authority of the Scriptures over the authority of priests. It taught the concept of the "Church of the Saved", meaning that Christ's true Church was the community of the faithful, which overlapped with but wasn't the same as the official Church of Rome. It taught a form of
predestination. It advocated apostolic poverty and taxation of Church properties. It also denied
transubstantiation in favour of
consubstantiation.
Etymology
Lollard,
Lollardi or
Loller was the popular derogatory nickname given to those without an academic background, educated if at all only in English, who were reputed to follow the teachings of
John Wycliffe in particular, and were certainly considerably energised by the translation of the Bible into the English language. By the mid-
15th century the term
lollard had come to mean a 'heretic' in general. The alternative,
Wycliffite, is generally accepted to be a more neutral term covering those of similar opinions, but having an academic background.
The term was coined by the
Anglo-Irish cleric,
Henry Crumpe, but the origin of the term is uncertain. Four possibilities suggest themselves:
- the Dutch word, lollaerd, meaning someone who mutters, a mumbler. This is also related to the Dutch word, lull or lollen, as in "a mother lulls her child to sleep", or "to sing or chant";
- the Latin lolium, tares (as a noxious weed mingled with the good Catholic wheat);
- after the Franciscan, Lolhard, who converted to the Waldensian way, becoming eminent as a preacher in Guienne. That part of France was then under English domination, influencing lay English piety. He was burned at Cologne in the 1370s;
- the Middle-English loller, "a lazy vagabond, an idler, a fraudulent beggar", likely a later usage.
The Dutch derivation is the most likely, due to the influence on Lollardy of the informal lay communities, originating in
Deventer in
Overijssel around the teaching of
Gerhard Groote, in the last two decades of the fourteenth century; but the Latin
lolium (tares) is an interesting alternative.
Beliefs
Although Lollardy can be said to have originated from interest in the writings of
John Wycliffe, the Lollards had no central belief system and no official doctrine. Likewise, being a decentralized movement, Lollardy neither had nor proposed any singular authority. The movement associated itself with many different ideas, but individual Lollards didn't necessarily have to agree with every tenet.
Fundamentally, Lollards were anticlerical, meaning that they disapproved of the allegedly corrupt nature of the Catholic Church and the belief in divine appointment of Church leaders. Believing the
Roman Catholic Church to be perverted in many ways, the Lollards looked to
Scripture as the basis for their religious ideas. To provide an authority for religion outside of the Church, Lollards began the movement towards a translation of the bible into the
vernacular which enabled more of the English peasantry to read the Bible. Wycliffe himself translated many passages until his death in 1384.
One group of Lollards petitioned Parliament with
The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards by posting them on the doors of Westminster Hall in February 1395. While by no means a central authority of the Lollards, the
Twelve Conclusions reveal certain basic Lollard ideas.
The first
Conclusion rejects the acquisition of temporal wealth by Church leaders as accumulating wealth leads them away from religious concerns and toward greed.
The fourth
Conclusion deals with the Lollard view that the
Sacrament of eucharist is a contradictory topic that isn't clearly defined in the Bible. Whether the bread remains bread or becomes the literal body of Christ isn't specified uniformly in the gospels.
The sixth
Conclusion states that officials of the Catholic Church shouldn't concern themselves with secular matters when they hold a position of power within the Church because this constitutes a conflict of interest between matters of the spirit and matters of the State.
In the eighth
Conclusion points out the ludicrousness, in the minds of Lollards, of the reverence that's directed toward images in the Catholic Church. As Anne Hudson states in her
Reformation Ideology, "if the cross of Christ, the nails, spear, and crown of thorns are to be honoured, then why not honour Judas's lips, if only they could be found?" (306).
The Lollards stated that the Catholic Church had been corrupted by temporal matters and that its claim to be the true church wasn't justified by its heredity. Part of this corruption involved prayers for the dead and
chantries. These were seen as corrupt since they distracted
priests from other work and that all should be prayed for equally. Lollards also had a tendency toward
iconoclasm. Lavish church fixtures were seen as an excess; they believed effort should be placed on helping the needy and preaching rather than working on lavish decoration.
Icons were also seen as dangerous since many seemed to worship the icon rather than God, leading to
idolatry.
Believing in a
lay priesthood, the Lollards challenged the Church’s ability to invest or deny the divine authority to make a man a priest. Denying any special authority to the priesthood, Lollards thought
confession unnecessary since a priest didn't have any special power to forgive
sins. Lollards challenged the practice of
clerical celibacy and believed priests shouldn't hold political positions since temporal matters shouldn't interfere with the priests’ spiritual mission.
Believing that more attention should be given to the message in the scriptures rather than to
ceremony and
worship, the Lollards denounced the ritualistic aspects of the Church such as
transubstantiation,
exorcism,
pilgrimages, and
blessings. These focused too much on powers the Church supposedly didn't have and led to a focus on temporal ritual over God and his message.
The other
Conclusions deal with gospel teachings against killing as punishment for a crime (capital punishment), rejection of religious celibacy, and belief that members of the Clergy be accountable to civil laws. The
Conclusions also rejected pilgrimages, ornamentation of churches, and religious images because these were said to take away from the true nature of worship: focus on God. Also denounced in the
Conclusions were
war,
violence, and even
abortion.
Outside of the
Twelve Conclusions, the Lollards had many beliefs and traditions. Their scriptural focus led Lollards to refuse the taking of
oaths. Lollards also had a tradition of
millenarianism. Some criticized the Church for not focusing enough on
Revelation. Many Lollards believed they were near the
end of days, and several Lollard writings claim the
Pope to be the
antichrist. In actuality, Lollards didn't believe that any one Pope, as a human being, was the antichrist. They believed that the papal system was, however (citation needed).
History
Immediately upon going public, Lollardy was attacked as
heresy. At first, Wycliffe and Lollardy were protected by
John of Gaunt and anti-clerical nobility, who may have been interested in using Lollard-advocated clerical reform to create a new source of revenue from England’s
monasteries, as
Henry VIII would finally succeed in doing. The
University of Oxford also protected Wycliffe and allowed him to hold his position at the university in spite of his views on the grounds of
academic freedom, which also gave some protection to the academics who supported it within that institution. Lollardy first faced serious persecution after the
Peasant’s Revolt in
1381. While Wycliffe and other Lollards opposed the revolt, one of the peasants’ leaders,
John Ball, preached Lollardy. The
royalty and
nobility then found Lollardy to be a threat not just to the Church, but to all the English social order. The Lollards' small measure of protection evaporated. This change in status was also affected by the removal of John of Gaunt from the scene, when he left England in pursuit of the throne of
Castile, which he claimed through his second wife.
Lollardy was strongly resisted by both the religious and secular authorities. Among those opposing it was
Thomas Arundel,
Archbishop of Canterbury.
King Henry IV (despite being John of Gaunt's son) passed the
De heretico comburendo in
1401, not specifically against the Lollards, but prohibiting the translating or owning of the Bible and authorising the burning of heretics
at the stake.
In the early
15th century, Lollardy went underground after more extreme measures were taken by the Church and State. One measure was the burning at the stake of
John Badby, a layman and artisan who refused to renounce his Lollard views. His was the first
execution of a layman in England for the crime of heresy.
The Lollard Knights were a group of gentry active during the reign of
Richard II, known either during their lives or after for an inclination to the religious reforms of
John Wycliffe.
Henry Knighton, in his Chronicle, identifes the principal Knights as Sir Thomas Latimer, Sir John Trussel, Sir Lewis Clifford, Sir John Peachey, Sir Richard Storey, and Sir Reginald Hilton.
Thomas Walsingham's Chronicle adds William Nevil and John Clanvowe to the list, and other potential members of this circle have been identified by their wills, which contain Lollard-inspired language about how their bodies are to be plainly buried and permitted to return to the soil from whence they came. There is little indication that the Lollard Knights were specifically known as such during their lifetimes; they were men of discretion, and unlike Sir
John Oldcastle years later, rarely gave any hint of open rebellion. What is remarkable about them is how long they managed to hold important positions without falling victim to any of the several prosecutions of the followers of
Wycliffe during their lifetimes. Unfortunately,
Henry IV turned out to be a very enthusiastic opponent of the
Lollards, and through legislation such as the Act
De haeretico comburendo of 1401, showed himself virulently opposed to any such sentiments.
Sir John Oldcastle, a close friend of
King Henry V (and the basis for
Falstaff in the
Shakespearean history Henry IV) was brought to trial in
1413 after evidence of his Lollard beliefs was uncovered. Oldcastle escaped from the
Tower of London and organized an insurrection, which included an attempted kidnapping of the
king. The rebellion failed, and Oldcastle was executed.
Oldcastle's revolt made Lollardy seem even more threatening to the state, and the persecution of Lollards became more severe. A variety of other
martyrs for the Lollard cause were executed over the following century, including
Thomas Harding who died at White Hill,
Chesham, in
1532, one of the last Lollards to be persecuted. A gruesome reminder of this persecution is the 'Lollards Pit' in Thorpe Wood, Norfolk,
where men are customablie burnt.
Lollards were effectively absorbed into
Protestantism during the
English Reformation, in which Lollardy played a role. Since Lollardy had been underground for more than a hundred years, the extent of Lollardy and its ideas at the time of the Reformation is uncertain and a point of debate. However, many critics of the Reformation, including
Thomas More, associated Protestants with Lollards. Leaders of the
English Reformation, including Archbishop
Thomas Cranmer, referred to Lollardy as well, and
Bishop Cuthbert of London called Lutheranism as the "foster-child" of the Wycliffite heresy. Whether Protestants actually drew influence from Lollardy or whether they referred to it to create a sense of tradition is debated by scholars. The extent of Lollardy in the general populace at this time is also unknown, but the prevalence of Protestant
iconoclasm in England suggests Lollard ideas may still have had some popular influence if
Zwingli wasn't the source, as
Lutherans didn't advocate iconoclasm. The similarity between Lollards and later English Protestant groups such as the
Baptists,
Puritans and
Quakers also suggests some continuation of Lollard ideas through the Reformation.
Further Information
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