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The Lollards
John Wyclif was a remarkable man. Born in Yorkshire, c1330, he graduated in 1356 as a Bachelor of Arts and fellow of Merton College. He went on to become Master of Balliol College in 1360 and Warden of Canterbury College in 1365. A leading theologian and a prolific writer, Wyclif believed that the Bible should be available to every man and every woman and not just the educated classes; the learned men and priests who could read Latin. For his views he was condemned as a heretic and his body was exhumed and burned in 1428. By the sixteenth century, however, Protestants were hailing Wyclif as ‘the morning star of the Reformation’.
A leading scholar, Wyclif taught philosophy in the 1360s. Over the following decade he studied theology and during the 1370s he published works on philosophy, theology and the Church. His views became progressively more controversial and worrying to the Church as he espoused the idea that Christian doctrine should be based exclusively on the Scriptures. In addition, he stated that the doctrine of transubstantiation, the belief that the bread and wine of Holy Communion actually become the body and blood of Christ during the Mass, was false and, furthermore, he denied the divine origin of papal authority. Needless to say, Wyclif’s views were not accepted by the Christian Church and a papal bull of 1377 condemned his doctrines as heretical.
Pope Gregory XI called for Wyclif’s arrest in 1377. With the weight of the Church against him, Wyclif should have been smothered into silence, but he had friends in high places and the support of Joan, mother of Richard II, and John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, ensured that Wyclif escaped punishment while he remained in Britain. Not only did Wyclif escape punishment, he went on to gather a number of supporters who were collectively known as Lollards.
The derivation of Lollard can probably be traced to the Dutch word lollaerd, which can be defined as someone who mumbles his prayers. Alternatively, the word could be a variation of loller, meaning a loiterer or an idler. As is often the case, these names are given by opponents of, and not supporters of, a particular group or faction. The Lollards attracted support from three levels of society: Wyclif’s followers at Oxford, who were ‘persuaded’ by Archbishop Courtenay to abjure their beliefs shortly before Wyclif’s death; knights at the court of Richard II who, while not exactly encouraged to pursue their beliefs, were largely protected by their status; and humble priests and laymen, men and women who were keen to gain first-hand knowledge of the Scriptures. |
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In 1376 Wyclif published On Civil Dominion which stated that sinful clergy should be deprived of their lands. On the face of it, this argument should have chimed with the tones of the Church authorities but, worried at the thought of losing rents and tithes, the Christian Church frowned on Wyclif leading to condemnation and the papal bull of 1377.
Although he was not free from contradiction and hypocrisy, Wyclif frequently condemned the clergy for the hypocrisy of living amid great wealth. To Wyclif, such opulence went against the teachings of the Bible. Furthermore, in his opinion, true authority stemmed from the Bible, and from the Bible alone, and therefore the Bible, and not the Pope, represented the source of absolute authority. Needless to say, this idea did not go down well in Rome.
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Medieval philosophers argued that only things that could be observed or experienced should be regarded as real whereas John Wyclif and the Lollards maintained that concepts, including predestination, also moved within the realms of reality. Wyclif went on to argue that all being, all matter and all ideas were eternal. Such concepts were born of God and therefore the Bible should be regarded, literally, as God’s Word. From this Wyclif deduced that what God knew today He knew forever and always and hence the concept of predestination and the idea that God had settled in advance on who was to be saved and on who was to be damned. To the Church, this was a dangerous thought.
John Wyclif died a natural death on the 31st of December 1384 at his Leicestershire rectory. He continued to write until the end, his words rejecting the authority of the Christian Church. After John Wyclif’s death, the Lollards continued to preach against the excesses of the Church. Furthermore, they translated the Bible from Latin into English and encouraged people to read the Bible for themselves. Such a combination was too much for the Church and with the coming of Henry IV heresy was made a capital crime in Britain in 1401.With the enthusiastic support of Archbishop Thomas Arundel many Lollards were executed for their beliefs. These men and women were burnt at the stake in public places. Such a display was calculated to strike fear into the minds of the onlookers while the flames also served the purpose of purifying the victims’ souls.
Clearly, the medieval Church saw John Wyclif and the Lollards as a threat. They were a threat because of their belief in the Scriptures as the absolute Christian authority and their desire to translate the Scriptures into the vernacular. If the Bible could be translated into English and the Scriptures could be accepted as the source of absolute authority then priests would not be required to mediate between the people and God. From there, it was but a short step to challenge the role of the clergy and to argue that the Church should redistribute its great wealth. And, for Church and State, then, as now, that remains the ultimate heresy.
Copyright © 2010 Mansel Jones |
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