HI255 - Lollardy PDF

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Notes regarding regardings on Lollardy ...

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Origins of Lollardy Features of Lollardy Relationship to wider European Protestantism Relationship to Reformation Relevance of Lollardy in the English Reformation Richard Rex - The Lollards Origins - John Wyclif and his Theology ● ● ● ●

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England was remarkably free of heresy before Wyclif came to Oxford in the 1530s He Lectured in Logic and philosophy although his studies were aimed at a doctorate in theology Around 1372 Wyclif attained his doctorate and was looking to attain a job in Church or State He was already a controversial figure in Oxford where his philosophical realism brought him to a certain degree of disputes - however, it is unlikely that his thought reached an audience outside Oxford He eventually was included on an English Embassy to Bruges to discuss papal taxation → In occasion of that trip he noticed how ecclesiastical hierarchy was ruled by preferences and not necessarily talent (Wyclif lacked administrative skills and experience which is why he was not granted the prebend of Caistor). Upon return to Oxford, he began to air his radical views on property and ownership in De civili dominion. These lectures contended that clergymen should not own property. His friends at Court, his support in the University and the university’s resentment for external interference meant that papal measures could not be implemented in 1377. However by 1380 even within Oxford, he was being accused of heresy

His Philosophy ●

Wyclif’s descent into heresy from 1378 should be understood in context to his philosophical principles. Wyclif believed that true philosophy was a requisite for sound theology. 1. A Knowledge of ‘universals’ (the ‘logic of holy scriptures. 2. An understanding of ‘accidents 3. A proper understanding of the ‘eternity’ of God, that is, a realisation that God exists outside time; to Him past and future are the same as the present 4. All created things exist eternally in the mind of God 5. All created things are, in their ‘essence’, everlasting and unchanging (even if their material forms, their accidents, are not). ● ●

Medieval philosophy was concerned with problems of existence and knowledge Oxford’s most commonly adhered with the Nominalist school of thought: upheld that things are known to the human intellect by a process of

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abstraction from sensory data (‘accidents). Hence, all objects are different and products of different sensory data. Wyclif broke with that tradition and adhered to the ‘realist’ view which contended that ‘things’ only existed because they shared or participated in some kind of ultimate reality - things are earthly photocopies of divine originals. Thus ‘universals’ or ‘ideas’ exist eternally in the mind of God - real things are but metaphysical substances which derive their reality from sharing in the ideas or universals conceived in the mind of God and hence share the eternity of that idea. Furthermore, things are made known to humans through ‘accidents’ (properties and dimensions) but accidents have no reality in themselves. They’re just the ways in which real things were manifested to the senses. Human knowledge is a participation in the ultimate knowledge of God.

Predestination and Necessity ● ●

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One of Wyclif’s most notorious doctrines was that everything which happens, happens by absolute necessity. The idea of ‘absolute necessity’ reflected his insistence on the eternity and immutability of God → SInce God is the source of all knowledge, whatever happens, must be in accordance to divinely knowledge. Things simply cannot be otherwise than God foresees them. However, there is free will since God does not necessitate sin. Free will is essential to the concept of sin and compatible with divine predestination. Distinction between God’s predestination of the ‘elect’ to heaven form the ‘foreknowledge’ of the punishment of hell - God actively salvages those predestined to heaven but the fate of the damned is entirely their fault.

Predestination and the Church ●

Wyclif thought that the church was the congregation, not of the faithful, but of those predestined to salvation. The true Church cannot change and admit any impurities. ● Since God is immutable, and he created the church that he wants and love, then the True Church has not changed and members of that church are only those that have been granted access to heaven. ● However, there is no way to know whether someone has been foreknown to salvation. ● Thus, although the church was a visible institution, the true church was invisible. ● Wyclif’s understanding of the true church did not allow for any visible ecclesiastical ranking or authority - true pope could be anyone regardless of sex, rank or class. ● Concept of institutional Church as guardian and authoritative interpreter of the scriptures was vacuous. The Papacy ●

The rejection of the official/ visible church developed into the view of the papacy as the anti-christ which he developed in De Potestate Pape.

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Before 1377 Wyclif did recognise the papal supremacy in spiritual affairs even whilst maintaining that pope should be subordinated by kings in temporal affairs. BUT as late as De Ecclesia (1378-79) he conceded a vestigial primacy to the Pope Any primacy was clearly ‘charismatic’ rather than hierarchical’, a pope should be praised if he is a good Christian rather than based solely on his title. There is no way to know whether a Pope is part of the true church - on what ground could someone place him as its Earthly head.

Faith and salvation ● ● ●

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His theology of salvation deviated little from the scholastic consensus of the medieval church. First, it was an understanding of the New Testament as lew, Lex Christi. Christianity was but a law which ordered human behaviour towards the gaining of eternal life, with grace being granted to people in order to enable them to live according to law. One could not be certain of one’s predestination. Wyclif also believed that the 10 commandments were easily observable Accepted the scholastic understanding of faith as a habit (implicit faith/daily life) which is expressed where possible as an act (explicit faith). Individual salvation was the cooperation between divine grace and human good acts.

The Eucharist ● ● ● ●

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Wyclif denied the doctrine of transubstantiation; he announced for the first time in De Eucharistia (1379-80) and was a substantial break with medial doctrine. Transubstantiation was the miraculous process whereby the ‘substance’ of the bread was transformed into the ‘literal’ body of Chris The concept troubled Wyclif’s concept of accidents surviving without their original substance: ‘Accidents without a substance’. Accidents have no reality in themselves, their duty is to serve is to remind people of a ‘substance’. How could a host remind people of the body of Christ? Christ was not small, white and round. The accident of the host without the subject of Christ was practically and logically impossible. All theologians agreed that t was logically impossible but called it a divine miracle. Wyclif, confusingly, claimed that when Christ pronounced the words “This is my body” the bread remained bread in reality, but it was Christ’s body according to its signification, its power and effectiveness. Christ’s presence was a matter of Grace rather than substance

Sacraments and Signs

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Wyclif accepted the scriptural basis for baptism but blurred the emphasis on the absolute necessity of it for one’s salvation and also the idea that it cleansed one from all his sins. He rejected the idea that it is through baptism that one joins the church since that only happens by predestination. With regards to confirmation, he questioned both its necessity and the episcopal monopoly that administers it. Deeply sceptical of the scriptural foundations for the sacrament of extreme unction which he saw as unnecessary. Marriage is a sacrament ordained for the lawful procreation of the human race, but virginity is to be preferred Confession and penance - not necessary if one is predestined

Christian life ● ●

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Rejection of transubstantiation set him towards a break with the friars who were really keen on the doctrine. Wycliffe’s doctrine of predestination changed the relationship of the faithful with the dead. Essentially there was no point in praying for the dead; either they were saved or they were damned, no purgatory. Indulgences served no purpose at all Also suspicious of the cult of the saints and canonisation - because nobody can know if somebody is predestined or not, the Pope can’t possibly predict whether someone has gone to heaven or not. Prayers should be directed to God and not saints who have been saved by God’s grace. Cult of relics, shrines, pilgrimages were dismissed as rituals that lack scriptural foundation. The unacceptability of cult of saints mainly due to its intimate link with wealth of the Church visible with the luxurious shrines and churches.

Royalty and Reform ● ●

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He wished to erode the boundary between Church and State + necessity for the church to be reformed completely. The true church did not need legislative power (all laws were in the bible); no public power or authority (the divine kingdom was not on Earth and because there is no way of knowing whether the leader belongs to the true church) Thus the Kingdom and the Church should be one, divided in a tripartite structure: oratores, bellatores, aratores. Wyclif develops a sort of theocratic kingship in De Officio regis (1379) - he claimed that the king should undertake the role of reformer of the Christian life by stripping the clergy of all their possessions Thus, kings have a royal supremacy which is guided by God and theologians.

How Successful was it?

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It has been easy for historians to exaggerate the importance of Lollardy - this is due to the large amount of Lollard literature (the English Bible) as well as the records of strong Church and state response to it and the English reformation’s quest for historical legitimacy. The harshness of sanctions should not be interpreted as a numerical strength of dissidents, rather, it should be seen as the system’s readiness to react to threats. The survival of English Bibles is no index of Lollard strength since most copies were made before Arundel’s censorship and the orthodox ownership. “Their survival testifies more to the systematic preservation of the Lollard Heritage after the Reformation than to the prevalence of heresy before it. If the alliance between Lollard academics and the gentry accounts for the early success of Lollardy, then the collapse of support among the gentry accounts for its ultimate failure. Although in its earliest stages the Lollard movement did generate fear in the hierarchy of religious orders, such fears simply do not reach the Protestant antipopery of the 1600s. Not to deny that Lollardy was perceived as a threat by authorities (both for pastoral obligations and defence of personal interest) HOWEVER, Lollardy was far from uppermost in the minds of clergy or laity in the 15th Century The distinctive features of late English Medieval Catholicism (cult of saints, chantries, fraternities, Corpus Christi, Eucharist) were not affected by Lollardy and persisted in their existence. Lollardy did, however, stimulate catechetical efforts - It gave the state a more prominent role in religious affairs, provoked system of censorship and preaching licenses. Nonetheless, mainstream English religious life did not really change at all and the sporadic burning of heretics was not exactly a reign of terror and not on the scale of, for example, the Spanish Inquisition. The Lollards were a small, scattered minority of dissidents united by their sense of being the few true christians on earth, the ‘known men’, almost overwhlmed by the boundless seas of mainstream church practise by which they were surrounded. Although the vast majority of Lollards were not executed for their disssent form the nrorms of Church and Realm, that final sanction was always a very real threat. Not surprisingly, therefore, most Lollards conformed to the external requirements of parish religion

Eamon Duffy - Stripping of the Altars (Preface)

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It was a mistake to set such dissidence (Lollardy) and doubt at the centre of an overarching discussion of the content and character of traditional religion. Wycliffe has often been accorded the pious and honorific title “morning star of the Reformation” The impact of Lollardy on the fifteenth and early sixteenth-century religious awareness has been grossly exaggerated. Lollardy has been presented as a major rival to orthodox Catholicism, needing sustained persecution and counter-propaganda to contain it, and hence functioning as a major determinant of official religious policy. If we are to believe the surviving visitation and court record, 15th century Lollardy seems to have been less of an irritant to most diocesan authorities than local cunningmen or womanising priests, and there is no convincing evidence that it served as the shaping factor in any of the major development of late medieval piety. Certainly even at the height of the struggle against Lollardy, in the decades on either side of 1400, it is possible to exaggerate its cultural and political impact. All the same, it is worth noting that under Henry IV more Franciscan friars were executed for preaching against Lancastrian dynastic usurpation than Lollards burned for heresy The positive religious attraction of Lollardy is in any case elusive. It must certainly gave centred on its Biblicism, the draw of the vernacular scriptures, an attraction which certainly extended far beyond the bounds of the heretical movement itself. Lollardy shared with the Franciscan movement it so much detested a powerful critique of the extravagant excess of much contemporary ritual provision and the consequent neglect of the poor. Lollardy appealed also to a desire for simplicity which must often have been felt amidst the lavishness of late medieval Catholicism. For all its biblicism, Lollardy presented itself primarily as a critique of religion rather than an alternative religion

Peter Marshall - Heretics and Believers (CH4)

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Heresy, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder. Lollardy was not straightforwardly a ‘cause’ of the reformation in England or a sign that society was impatiently ready for it, in the way some protestants historians used to imagine. Yet, neither should we regard the persistent presence of heresy in officially Catholic England as a sideshow of irrelevance

Features of Lollardy ● ●

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Heresy was virtually as old as Christianity itself but it’s concentrated presence in England was a phenomenon traceable to Wyclif. He was never definitely condemned as a heretic thanks to the endorsement of Edward III’s son, John of Gaunt. Wyclif argued that ‘dominion’ (temporal power derived by God) was bound to imperfection and the clergy should NOT be involved in it by holding wealth and estate. Wyclif was also a proponent of Philosophical realism: a metaphysical system that posited the existence of ‘universals’, underlying realities that account for the existence of individual things by pointing that they share a common essence. The philosophical realism prevented him from believing in transubstantiation → Whether he believed that Christ was really present at the mass ‘virtually’ ‘figuratevely’ or ‘sacramentally’, or as a signification of his power and grace one thing was sure: bread was bread. Another controversial point was his repudiation of the Earthly institution of the clergy as the upholder of the True Church and the True Faith. The true church was “an invisible congregation of those predestined to eternal life”. Hence, true authority could rest only with the genuinely holy, whether ordained or not. The Bible was the only source of Law and truth.

Lollardy Outside the intellectual circles: ● ● ●

Wyclifism was a potent social and political force around the turn of the 15th Century since by the early 1380s it was already being preached to lay audiences. It established itself more or less strongly in: Bristol, Essex, Kent, parts of Suffolk and Norfolk Trials for Lollard heresy spiked in the early 1400s but slowed down by the 1430s and almost stopped in 1450. Seemed to rise again at the end of the 15th century but doubtful if they represent an actual resurgence of Lollardy.

Who were the Lollards and what did they do ● ●

The Demographic appeal of Lollardy was rather varied: nobody adhered or was admitted in a certain way. Very few Lollards seem to have come from agricultural circles; London Lollards were mostly artisans; members of the gentry were touched by Lollardy; the clergy too was not immune.

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However, Lollardy had no priesthood of its own (wasn’t a religion in itself) and the leaders of it (Thomas Mann, Stilman) were peripatetic laymen. Nobody was baptised into Lollardy but often men passed the ‘gospel’ down to their wives and children - mainly flourished within certain communities where it could establish itself. Lollardy flowed in the interactions of day-to-day life. Also, no specific creed - believe that true religious knowledge ought to be found in the bible. They rejected various sacraments: penance, confession, refusal of Eucharist, veneration of saints and images, pilgrimages, Despite the various rejecting of certain aspects of Christianity, Lollards still attended mass and performed sacraments - a way to blend in? Or did it mean that orthodoxy and heresy were not completely incompatible? Lollards definitely did not reject ALL aspects of Catholicism → They shared important points of reference and operated within the same moral universe; Lollards were Catholics. After all, Catholicism in medieval England was universal but not uniform: devotional practises varied between regions and individual (could it explain the geographical divide of Lollardy?) Lollardy is important not because it showed the inherent weakness of the Catholic Church in England prior to the Reformation, rather, it showed how the religious landscape in England was moulted and varied and permeable.

Peter Marshall, ‘Lollards and Protestants Revisited’, in Wycliffite Controversies by Mishtooni Bose and L Patrick Hornbeck (Last chapter) ●

Questions surrounding Lollardy

1. Did Lollardy predispose people to receive the message of the Reformation? 2. To what extent was Lollardy able or willing to provide organisational support for the early evangelical movement? 3. How, if at all, did distinctively Lollard concerns shape the social and theological character of the English Reformation? 4. Were Lollard themselves absorbed smoothly and swiftly into mainstream Protestantism, or did they retain their role as dissidents and dissenters? ●

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1890, W.H. Becket wrote The English Reformation of the Sixteenth Century “Lollardy prepared the way in thousands of homes for the great religious reforms of the sixteenth century 1899 George Macaulay Trevelyan, England in the Age of Wycliffe - Trevelyan’s assessment of the Lollard’s symbolically important but somewhat passive role in the grand narrative of ...