"Lollardy Lollardy (Lollardism, Lollard movement) was a pre-Protestant Christian religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century to the English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Roman Catholic theologian who was dismissed from the University of Oxford in 1381 for criticism of the Roman Catholic Church. The Lollards' demands were primarily for reform of Western Christianity. They formulated their beliefs in the Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards. ""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"
"resulting from the teachings of John Wycliffe, a member of Oxford University. Wycliffe argued that scripture was the best guide to understanding God's intentions, and that the superficial nature of the liturgy, combined with the abuses of wealth within the Church and the role of senior churchmen in government, distracted from that study. A loose movement that included many members of the gentry pursued these ideas after Wycliffe's death in 1384 and attempted to pass a Parliamentary bill in 1395: the movement was rapidly condemned by the authorities and was termed ""Lollardy"". The English bishops were charged to control and"
"these ideas after Wycliffe's death in 1384 and attempted to pass a Parliamentary bill in 1395: the movement was rapidly condemned by the authorities and was termed ""Lollardy"". The English bishops were charged to control and counter this trend, disrupting Lollard preachers and to enforcing the teaching of suitable sermons in local churches. By the early 15th century, combating Lollard teachings had become a key political issue, championed by Henry IV and his Lancastrian followers, who used the powers of both the church and state to combat the heresy. Pilgrimages were a popular religious practice throughout the Middle Ages in"
"scripture was the best guide to understanding God's intentions, and that the superficial nature of the liturgy, combined with the abuses of wealth within the Church and the role of senior churchmen in government, distracted from that study. A loose movement that included many members of the gentry pursued these ideas after Wycliffe's death in 1384 and attempted to pass a Parliamentary bill in 1395: the movement was rapidly condemned by the authorities and was termed ""Lollardy"". The English bishops were charged with controlling and countering this trend, disrupting Lollard preachers and to enforcing the teaching of suitable sermons in"
"the major grievances of the Reformation. Heresy, in the form of Lollardry, began to reach Scotland from England and Bohemia in the early fifteenth century. Lollards were followers of John Wycliffe (c. 1330 –84) and later Jan Hus (c. 1369 –1415), who called for reform of the Church and rejected its doctrine on the Eucharist. Despite evidence of the burning of heretics and some popular support for its anti-sacramental elements, it probably remained a small movement. From the fifteenth century, Renaissance humanism encouraged critical theological reflection and calls for ecclesiastical renewal in Scotland. As early as 1495 some Scots were"
"transubstantiation, monasticism, and the very existence of the Papacy. Beginning in the 16th century, the Lollard movement was regarded as the precursor to the Protestant Reformation. Wycliffe was accordingly characterised as the evening star of scholasticism and as the morning star of the English Reformation. Wycliffe's writings in Latin greatly influenced the philosophy and teaching of the Czech reformer Jan Hus ( 1369–1415), whose execution in 1415 sparked a revolt and led to the Hussite Wars of 1419–1434. Wycliffe was born in the village of Hipswell near Richmond in the North Riding of Yorkshire, England, in the mid-1320s. His family"
"and unjust"". A major reform movement or heresy of the 14th century was Lollardy, led by John Wycliffe, who translated the Bible into English. Posthumously condemned, his body was exhumed and burnt and its ashes thrown into the River Swift. Even before the Conquest, Edward the Confessor had returned from Normandy with masons who constructed Westminster Abbey (1042) in the Romanesque style. The cruciform churches of Norman architecture often had deep chancels and a square crossing tower, which has remained a feature of English ecclesiastical architecture. England has many early cathedrals, most notably York Minster (1080), Durham Cathedral (1093), and"
"place of pilgrimage Canterbury was, in the 13th century, second only to Santiago de Compostela. John Wycliffe (about 1320 – 31 December 1384) was an English theologian and an early dissident against the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century. He founded the Lollard movement, which opposed a number of practices of the Church. He was also against papal encroachments on secular power. Wycliffe was associated with statements indicating that the Church in Rome is not the head of all churches, nor did St Peter have any more powers given to him than other disciples. These statements were related to"
"from the lower and less educated ranks of the profession, leading to frequent complaints about their standards of education or ability. Although there is little clear evidence that standards were declining, this would be one of the major grievances of the Reformation. Heresy, in the form of Lollardry, began to reach Scotland from England and Bohemia in the early fifteenth century. Lollards were followers of John Wycliffe (c. 1330–84) and later Jan Hus (c. 1369–1415), who called for reform of the Church and rejected its doctrine on the Eucharist. Despite evidence of a number of burnings of heretics and limited"
"particularly after the Black Death, meant that in the fifteenth century the problem intensified. As a result, parish clergy were largely drawn from the lower and less educated ranks of the profession, leading to frequent complaints about their standards of education or ability. Although there is little clear evidence that standards were declining, this would be one of the major grievances of the Reformation. Heresy, in the form of Lollardry, began to reach Scotland from England and Bohemia in the early fifteenth century. Lollards were followers of John Wycliffe (c. 1330–84) and later Jan Hus (c. 1369–1415), who called for"
"in the early fifteenth century. Lollards were followers of John Wycliffe (c. 1330–84) and later Jan Hus (c. 1369–1415), who called for reform of the Church and rejected its doctrine on the Eucharist. Despite evidence of a number of burnings of heretics and limited popular support for its anti-sacramental elements, it probably remained a small movement. There were also further attempts to differentiate Scottish liturgical practice from that in England, with a printing press established under royal patent in 1507 in order to replace the English Sarum Use for services. The Reformation, carried out in Scotland in the mid-sixteenth century"
"course from the Reformation in continental Europe. There had long been a strong strain of anti-clericalism. England had already given rise to the Lollard movement of John Wycliffe, which played an important part in inspiring the Hussites in Bohemia. Lollardy was suppressed and became an underground movement, so the extent of its influence in the 1520s is difficult to assess. The different character of the English Reformation came rather from the fact that it was driven initially by the political necessities of Henry VIII. Henry had once been a sincere Catholic and had even authored a book strongly criticising Luther."
"undated handwritten text document containing church reform thoughts of John Wycliffe and the Lollards. The Roman Catholic Church reformation ideas identified as originally belonging to John Wycliffe was expounded upon by the Wycliffite party known as the Lollards. The purpose of the manuscript was to show the reader how corrupt the Roman Catholic Church was at the time and that it needed reform. Scholars attribute the original manuscript ideas to Wycliffe but that it was actually written by John Purvey after Wycliffe's death in 1384 and sometime before 1395. The arguments for Purvey being the sole author are based on"
"Margery Baxter Margery Baxter (fl. 1429) was an outspoken and unorthodox Lollard from Martham, England. The Lollards were a fourteenth and fifteenth century group of people who followed the teachings of John Wycliffe, an English scholar and theologian who saw corruption in the all-powerful Catholic Church organization and sought after reform. A few of Wycliffe and his followers' main points of interest were translating the Bible into English for the common man to read, cleansing religion of corruption and excessive wealth, and bringing all Christians in to more direct contact with the God. Ultimately, the Lollards laid the groundwork for"
"at the instigation of, John Wycliffe. They appeared between about 1382 and 1395. These Bible translations were the chief inspiration and cause of the Lollard movement, a pre-Reformation movement that rejected many of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Another literary genre, that of Romances, appears in English from the 13th century, with ""King Horn"" and ""Havelock the Dane"", based on Anglo-Norman originals such as the ""Romance of Horn"" (c. 1170), but it was in the 14th century that major writers in English first appeared. These were William Langland, Geoffrey Chaucer and the so-called Pearl Poet, whose most famous"
"John Wycliffe John Wycliffe (; also spelled ""Wyclif"", ""Wycliff"", ""Wiclef"", ""Wicliffe"", ""Wickliffe""; 1320s – 31 December 1384), an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, Biblical translator, reformer, English priest, and a seminary professor at the University of Oxford, became an influential dissident within the Roman Catholic priesthood during the 14th century and is considered an important predecessor to Protestantism. Wycliffe attacked the privileged status of the clergy, which bolstered their powerful role in England. He then attacked the luxury and pomp of local parishes and their ceremonies. Wycliffe also advocated translation of the Bible into the vernacular. In 1382 he completed a"
"Wycliffe's Bible Wycliffe's Bible is the name now given to a group of Bible translations into Middle English that were made under the direction of John Wycliffe. They appeared over a period from approximately 1382 to 1395. These Bible translations were the chief inspiration and chief cause of the Lollard movement, a pre-Reformation movement that rejected many of the distinctive teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. In the early Middle Ages, most Western Christian people encountered the Bible only in the form of oral versions of scriptures, verses and homilies in Latin (other sources were mystery plays, usually conducted in"
"US$1,692,500. The association between Wycliffe's Bible and Lollardy caused the Kingdom of England and the established Catholic Church in England to undertake a drastic campaign to suppress it. In the early years of the 15th century Henry IV (in his statute ""De haeretico comburendo""), Archbishop Thomas Arundel, and Henry Knighton published criticism and enacted some of the severest religious censorship laws in Europe at that time. Even twenty years after Wycliffe's death, at the Oxford Convocation of 1408, it was solemnly voted that no new translation of the Bible should be made without prior approval. However, as the text translated"
"England’s monasteries. The University of Oxford also protected Wycliffe and similar academics on the grounds of academic freedom and, initially, allowed such persons to retain their positions despite their controversial views. Lollards first faced serious persecution after the Peasants' 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 only to the Church, but to English society in general. The Lollards' small measure of protection evaporated. This change in status was also affected by the 1386 departure of"
"the first complete translation and the first to gain widespread acceptance and use. The Church authorities comdemned Wycliffe's translation because they deemed the commentary included with the work to be heretical, and because they feared a vernacular translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate, absent appropriate catechesis, would lead the ignorant laity to reject Church authority and fall into heresy. Wycliffe was the inspiration for what would become the Lollard movement, which was considered heretical by the Church. The Constitutions of Oxford, established in 1409 by Archbishop Thomas Arundel, were further punitive measures intended to punish heresy in England"
"In the Victorian period this was reinterpreted by John Newman as a ""via media"" (middle way), which idea remains a current theme of Anglican discourse. In England, the Reformation followed a different course from elsewhere in Europe. There had long been a strong strain of anti-clericalism, and England had already given rise to the Lollard movement of John Wycliffe, which played an important part in inspiring the Hussites in Bohemia. Lollardy was suppressed and became an underground movement so the extent of its influence in the 1520s is difficult to assess. The different character of the English Reformation came rather"
"English theologian, was condemned as a heretic in 1415 for teaching that the laity should have access to the text of the Bible as well as for holding views on the Eucharist that were contrary to Church doctrine. Wycliffe's teachings influenced two of the major heretical movements of the later Middle Ages: Lollardy in England and Hussitism in Bohemia. The Bohemian movement initiated with the teaching of Jan Hus, who was burned at the stake in 1415 after being condemned as a heretic by the Council of Constance. The Hussite Church, although the target of a crusade, survived beyond the"
"his call for a reformation of its wealth, corruption and abuses. Wycliffe, an Oxford scholar, went so far as to state that ""... The Gospel by itself is a rule sufficient to rule the life of every Christian person on the earth, without any other rule."" The Lollard movement continued with his pronouncements from pulpits even under the persecution that followed with Henry IV up to and including the early years of the reign of Henry VIII. The first break with Rome (subsequently reversed) came when Pope Clement VII refused, over a period of years, to annul Henry's marriage to"
"his cross eventually became the flag of England. Laurence Minot, writing in the early fourteenth century, wrote patriotic poems celebrating Edward III's military victories against the Scots, French, Bohemians, Spaniards, Flemings and the Genoese. After the English victory at Cressy in 1346, a cleric wrote a Latin poem criticising the French and extolling the English: In English, this is: Shortly after Henry V's victory over the French at Agincourt in 1415, a song was written to celebrate the victory. It started: John Wycliffe (1320s–1384), the founder of the reformist Lollard movement, argued against the power of the Pope over England:"
"a man is truly contrite after his verbal confession, then no other action is necessary. The final point he argued was that of papacy. In his life Wycliffe had proposed that Pope Urban VI should be the last pope and that people govern themselves under their own laws. William Sawtrey William Sawtrey (died March 1401) was an English Roman Catholic priest who was executed for heresy. Sawtrey was born in Norfolk, England. He was a follower of John Wycliffe, the leader of an early reformation movement called Lollardy. Sawtrey was a priest at two churches, St. Margaret's in Lynn and"
"The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards is a Middle English religious text document containing statements by leaders of the English medieval movement, the Lollards, inspired by teachings of John Wycliffe. The Conclusions were written in 1395. The text document was presented to the Parliament of England and nailed to the doors of Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral as a placard (usual medieval method for publishing). The manifesto suggested the expanded treatise ""Thirty-Seven Conclusions"" (""Thirty-seven Articles against Corruptions in the Church"") for those that wished more in-depth information. The text summarizes twelve areas in"
"to the priesthood, Lollards thought confession to a priest was unnecessary since according to them priests did not have the ability to forgive sins. Lollards challenged the practice of clerical celibacy and believed priests should not hold government positions as such temporal matters would likely interfere with their spiritual mission. Although Lollardy is denounced as a heresy (by the Roman Catholic Church and the early pre-reformation Church of England), initially Wycliffe and the Lollards were sheltered by John of Gaunt and other anti-clerical nobility, who may have wanted to use Lollard-advocated clerical reform to acquire new sources of revenue from"
"in May 1414 at Grey Friars Priory in Leicester to lay out the notorious Suppression of Heresy Act 1414, enabling the burning of heretics by making the crime enforceable by the Justices of the peace. John Oldcastle, a prominent Lollard leader, was not saved from the gallows by his old friend King Henry V. Oldcastle was hanged and his gallows burned in 1417. Jan Hus was burned at the stake after being accused at the Roman Catholic Council of Constance (1414–18) of heresy. The ecumenical council also decreed that the remains of John Wycliffe, dead for 30 years, should be"
"sixteenth-century invention. Following this, there is an authentic, late fourteenth-century Lollard anti-clerical text, written ca. 1375-85. (It is included in Matthew, ed. ""The English Works of Wyclif"".) To all this, the second version adds another prose tract probably from the late fifteenth century, which argues in favor of vernacular Bible translations. The dialogue begins with the gentleman lamenting how his class has fallen low and is unable to help the poor, because long ago they were fooled into giving their lands and wealth to the church. The husbandman then argues for confiscating the possessions of a corrupt clergy which preys"
"away with the existing hierarchy and replace it with the ""poor priests"" who lived in poverty, were bound by no vows, had received no formal consecration, and preached the Gospel to the people. Itinerant preachers spread the teachings of Wycliffe. The bull of Gregory XI impressed upon them the name of Lollards, intended as an opprobrious epithet, but it became, to them, a name of honour. Even in Wycliffe's time the ""Lollards"" had reached wide circles in England and preached ""God's law, without which no one could be justified."" In the years before his death in 1384 he increasingly argued"
"Wycliffe's teachings were spread by his followers, known as Lollards. Beginning in the first decade of the 15th century, Jan Hus, a Czech Catholic priest and professor who was influenced by John Wycliffe's writings, founded the Hussite movement. He was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1415 by secular authorities. After his execution, a revolt erupted. Hussites defeated five continuous crusades proclaimed against them by the Pope. Later on, theological disputes caused a split within the Hussite movement. Utraquists maintained that both the bread and the wine should be administered to the people during the Eucharist. Another major"
"undertaken by Church and state which drove Lollardy underground. One such measure was the 1410 burning at the stake of John Badby, a layman and craftsman who refused to renounce his Lollardy. He was the first layman to suffer capital punishment in England for the crime of heresy. John Oldcastle, a close friend of Henry V of England and the basis for Falstaff in the Shakespearean history ""Henry IV, Part 1"", 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"
"and Lollardy came to be more and more a lay movement, often connected with political discontent. The death penalty was seldom carried out. Until 1410, no further Lollards were executed. The 1414 Oldcastle Revolt saw a minority of the seventy or so who were hanged also burned. Thereafter, executions were again few until the Tudor period. Arundel had a stroke which left him unable to speak shortly afterwards. Henry V, who had had uneasy relations with Arundel, installed Henry Chichele in his place. Arundel died on 19 February 1414. In 2005/2006, ""BBC History Magazine"" chose Thomas Arundel as the 15th"