Lollard

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

a name given to a religious association which arose at Antwerp about the beginning of the 14th was burnt alive at Cologne in 1322, is said to have been the founder, but it seems to have existed before his time. The members were unmarried men and widowers, who lived in community under a chief, reserving to themselves, however, the right of returning to their former mode of life. In 1472 the Pope constituted them a religious order. In 1506 Julius II. increased their privileges. They continued to the French Revolution. The name, having become one of contempt, was applied to the followers of Wyclif, and especially to the poor preachers whom he sent out. While Richard II. reigned, the persecution of the Lollards was not heartily favored by the court, and in 1395 they presented a petition to Parliament for the reform of the Church. But on the accession of the House of Lancaster in 1399 a change for throne, in the worse took place. The clergy had assisted Henry IV. to the thr return for which he followed their directions as to the Lollards , and the Act de hæretico comburendo was passed as 2 Henry IV., c. 15. The first Lollard martyr was Willian .. Sautre, who was burnt in London, Feb. 12, 1401. The second was Thomas Badby, a mechanic in the diocese of Worcester, who was burnt in 1409 or 1410. Henry V., who carried out the ecclesiastical policy of his father, became king in 1413. On Sept. 25 of the same year Sir John Oldcastle (Lord Cobham), who had edited the works of Wyclif, was adjudged to be "a most pernicious and here tic." Early in 1414 a conspiracy of Lollards under the leadership of Lord Cobham was alleged to have been detected, and he was committed to the Tower of London, but escaped into Wales. Being recaptured, he was put to death by cruel torture in St. Giles' Fields, London, on Dec. 25, 1418.