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Lollards: Roman Church
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[L]ike Wycliffe, the Lollards did not have a complete understanding of the gospel of the kingdom. They wanted secular and religious offices separated, but they still saw the secular and religious powers together constituting the “entire Holy Church.” God’s kingdom was still married to the state.
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One group of Lollards petitioned Parliament with The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards by posting them on the doors of Westminster Hall in February 1395. While by no means a central authority of the Lollards, the Twelve Conclusions reveal certain basic Lollard ideas. The first Conclusion rejects the acquisition of temporal wealth by Church leaders as accumulating wealth leads them away from religious concerns and toward greed. The fourth Conclusion deals with the Lollard view that the Sacrament of eucharist is a contradictory topic that is not clearly defined in the Bible. Whether the bread remains bread or becomes the literal body of Christ is not specified uniformly in the gospels. The sixth Conclusion states that officials of the Catholic Church should not concern themselves with secular matters when they hold a position of power within the Church because this constitutes a conflict of interest between matters of the spirit and matters of the State.
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In 1384 Wycliffe died of a stroke, but the Lollards continued to preach. The Church clergy made every effort to kill the Lollards and burn Wycliffe’s English Bibles. 44 years after his death, the Church clergy was still furious with Wycliffe and what he stood for. The Pope had his bones dug up and, alone with some of Wycliffe’s writings, had them burned and thrown into the River Swift. The Pope thought this act of desecration would serve as a warning to anyone else who thought about translating the Bible into the vernacular. But as historian Ken Connolly noted, just as Wycliffe’s ashes flowed down the River Swift, to the English Channel, and eventually connecting to the world’s oceans, so his influence has spread to every part of the earth.
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The doctrines of the Lollards were inspired by the teachings of John Wycliffe (ca. 1325-1384), an Oxford theologian whose vies anticipated many of the developments of the Reformation. Wycliff argued that the Bible was the standard of faith for Christians. The head of the church is Christ, not the pope whom he denounced as Antichrist. The true church is composed not of the visible church but of those who have been predestined to salvation. The doctrine of transubstantiation (that Christ is actually present in the eucharistic bread and wine) is illogical and unscriptural.
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[I]n Ireland, in 1394, a petition of the Lollards, attacking the Church, was presented to Parliament. This document must be regarded as the exposition of their opinions (cf. Fasciculi Zizaniorum, 360-369). Its twelve articles set forth that the Church of England, following its stepmother, the Church of Rome, was eaten up by temporal pride; that its clergy had deviated from the example of Christ and the apostles; that the celibacy of the clergy occasioned moral disorder, and that the belief in transubstantiation caused idolatry. It protested against exorcismns and benedictions of lifeless objects, against the holding ot secular office by priests, against special prayers for the dead, pilgrimages, auricular confession, and vows of chastity. To these points concerning ecclesiastical polity were added a protest against war as contrary to the gospel, and against unnecessary trades which were exercised only for the satisfaction of luxury.
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Although the Lollards were no longer effective in England, their ideas had spread and had taken root in other areas of Europe. In Bohemia a man called John Huss was burned at the stake in 1415 for starting a group which followed John Wycliffe's ideas. His followers were called Hussites. Although people who held these ideas were persecuted, the Lollard doctrines were not completely silenced, and one hundred years later a German friar named Martin Luther spoke out against the established Church and paved the way for the Protestant religion.
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