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The Rise of the Lollards

© Phyllis Agronsky

The origin of the term "Lollard" is obscure. It apparently originated as a pejorative label, taken from the Middle Dutch word "lollaerd," meaning a babbler of nonsense. Its first recorded use in English is in 1382, and was a name given to anyone associated with heresy in late medieval England. Lollards believed that Christianity should be closely based on the Bible; that everyone should have access to a vernacular Bible; and that everyone should be allowed to interpret its meaning for themselves. In these beliefs, the Lollards closely followed the teaching of John Wycliffe.

Since his ideas directly challenged the supremacy of the Church, it was perhaps inevitable that Wycliffe was condemned as a heretic twice (1380 and 1382) and his followers were persecuted. He is best remembered as the prime mover in first translating the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into the common language of the English people. Although translated from Latin (instead of the original Greek and Hebrew texts), and copied by hand a century before Gutenberg's printing press could insure uniformity, over 150 copies of the Wycliffe Bible are still extant. Their unprecedented number attests to the impact his English Bible had upon the entire nation.

Lollardy posed a threat to the Church because some members of the nobility, (including some at the King's Court), were attracted to Lollard ideas. The initial rise of the movement depended upon gentry, such as Sir Thomas Latimer and Sir John Montague, taking the scholarly arguments of Wycliffe and his followers out into the world of everyday politics. Between 1384 and 1396, in addition to the Wycliffe Bible, a large compilation known as the Floretum was produced and widely circulated. This suggests that money and organization were available.

During the 14th century (and into the 15th), the Church was the sole authority on the Bible, and it was usually its interpretation of the Bible that permeated society. At a time when there was plenty of criticism of the Papacy and the clergy, Wycliffe had gone a step further. He stated that the clergy should be separated from secular matters so that they could concentrate on spiritual affairs. Lollards wanted the clergy to live off alms and their own labor, rather than from the labors of others. Their concern was that the clergy had become so caught up in secular affairs that they had forgotten their spiritual obligations.

From the 1380s the church authorities gradually defined more tightly what counted as correct belief (orthodoxy). They condemned the following beliefs as heretical: the substance of the communion bread remained after the priest had consecrated it; it was not necessary to confess one's sins to a priest; anyone (including women and laypeople) could have the authority to preach. The writings of John Wycliffe were identified as an important source of these heresies. Such developments contributed to the anxieties of the church that heresy was undermining their authority, leading to prosecutions in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries against those called Lollards, and the prohibition in 1409 of religious books and theological discussion in English.