**LOLLARDS** –
I. IN THE LOW COUNTRIES AND IN GERMANY
The Lollards were the members of a religious brotherhood that arose in the early fourteenth century at Antwerp during a pestilence, during which they cared for the sick and buried the dead. The name derives from the German *lullen*, *einlullen*, “to sing softly, in a low voice,” and was applied to them on account of the psalmody with which they accompanied funeral processions; for this reason they were also called *Deum laudantes*. They were also called “Brothers of St. Alexis” from their patron saint, or *cellites* from the *cellae*, caves or tombs where they buried the dead. On account of their poor way of life and the penitential habit they wore, they resembled the Beghards or Beguines, with whom they were not infrequently confused (cf. G. L. Mosheim, *De berghardis*, Leipzig 1790). Among the wandering students of fourteenth-century Germany there were also some Lollards (cf. L. Spätling, *De Apostolicis*, Munich 1947, p. 163). They were sometimes suspected of heresy and consequently persecuted, but were finally tolerated by Gregory XI in 1374. The Lollards, despised by the world, resembled the “Brethren of the Common Life,” as attested by Thomas à Kempis and Johannes Busch (*Chronicon Windeshemense*, ed. K. Grube, III, Halle 1886, ch. 41).II. IN ENGLAND
The name was given to the first preachers or “poor priests” sent by Wyclif to proclaim his false doctrines. Their existence is first attested in 1387 by the bishop of Worcester (“... nomine seu ritu lollardorum confederati,” full text in D. Wilkins, *Concilia Magnae Britanniae*, III, London 1737, p. 202). In 1395, having become very powerful, they affixed defamatory posters against the clergy on the doors of Westminster and St. Paul’s in London. At the same time they secured the proclamation of Church reform by the English Parliament. King Richard II Plantagenet, who until then had attempted to paralyze the action of the clergy against the Lollards, ordered the imprisonment of Lollard preachers and, if necessary, their burning before the people. In 1399 Henry V of Lancaster still showed himself opposed to the Lollards. The archbishop of Canterbury persecuted them zealously and purged the University of Oxford of their heretical tendencies. After the solemn condemnation of Wyclif’s errors at the Council of Constance (1414–18), the zeal against the Lollards in England revived. Despite this, the Lollards were still numerous in 1428, and their writings were widely circulated.The errors of the Lollards, as set forth in *The Repressor* by Reginald Pecock, bishop of Chichester, are the same as those of Wyclif, except for the final point condemning war and the death penalty. Officially, the Church’s struggle against the Lollards lasted until the reign of Henry VIII.
III. THE LOLLARDS AND THE PROTESTANT “REFORMATION.” – The question has been raised whether the Lollard movement prepared the way for the sixteenth-century “Reformation.” Neither in Germany nor in England did the Lollards bring about the Lutheran or Anglican “Reformation,” since they had almost disappeared by the time the “Reformation” began. There are, however, undeniable similarities between the doctrines of the Lollards and those of the Reformers, particularly in the following points: subordination of spiritual power to civil authority; opposition to ecclesiastical possessions; the need for a popular translation of the Bible and its reading outside the control of the hierarchy. It may be said that, by their fierce struggle against the existing order in the Church of their time, the English Lollards prepared the ground for the Anglican “Reformation.”
Lucchesio Spätling – *Formelle with angels bearing the symbols of the Passion. Arch of the door to the right of the basilica of S. Petronio. Bologna.*