Lollardy

Lollardy or Lollardry was the political and religious movement of the Lollards in late 14th century and early 15th century England. Its demands were primarily for reform of the 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. 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 was not 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 favor of consubstantiation.

The origins of Lollardy can be found in the teachings of John Wyclif, a prominent theologian at the University of Oxford beginning in the 1350s.

While the origin of the term is not known, it has been hypothesized to come from the Latin term lolium {"tares" or "weeds"). If true, this would have been a reference to the Lollard heretics springing up like weeds among the grain as in the Biblical parable.

Lollardy was initially supported by John of Gaunt, who gave it some protection and legitimacy. Oxford defended its academic freedom, which also gave some protection to the academics who supported it within that institution. However, as the movement developed and became increasingly hostile to hierarchical power and authority, the secular powers began to see it as a threat to their own prerogatives as well as those of the Church. What small measure of protection the Lollards had evaporated. This change in policy 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.

It was finally stamped out completely in the early 15th century after more extreme measures were taken by the Church and State. The most notable of these measures 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. Other martyrs for the Lollard cause include Thomas Harding who died at White Hill, Chesham, in 1532.