lollardy

Described recently as ‘the premature reformation’, lollardy developed originally from Wyclif's teaching. Lollards (from middle Dutch lollaerd—a mumbler) were a motley group lacking theological coherence. Lollardy also attracted influential men, close to the court, some driven by genuine puritanism, some anticlerical, some selfishly cynical with eyes on clerical wealth. Providing havens for writing and copying texts, they patronized lollard preachers, which alarmed the government, who enacted the statute De heretico comburendo (1401) to arrest unlicensed preachers and sometimes hand them over for public burning. After Sir John Oldcastle's abortive revolt (1414) and death (1417), aristocratic lollardy was a spent force. Chased from university and aristocracy, lollardy embraced local artisans and yeomen farmers, who held negative, often simplistic, views. Though the authorities feared lollards as dangerously articulate with a backbone of literacy, their negative ideas had little popular appeal except for emphasis on Bible-reading.