LOLLARDS (ante), a name at first, about the beginning of the 14th c., applied to the Cellites, who, at Antwerp, devoted themselves to the care of persons ill with pestilential diseases; and afterwards, during the close of that century and through the next, given to the followers of Wycliffe. Various explanations of the name have been sucrgested, one of which, favored by many, is that derived from the Low-German word lullen, or lollen, which means to sing low or softly; it was applied to the Cellites because they sang low and plaintively at funerals. A later and more probable theory derives it from lol 4lardus, the Latin form of the old English " loller," one who lolls or lounges about, a vagabond. It was applied at first both to the begging-friars and to the Wycliffites; but .afterwards being restricted to the latter, it occasioned, by its resemblance to the Latin " lolia," the punning accusation that they were tares among the wheat. Many of them, .sent forth by Wycliffe to carry the gospel into the remote villages, were called " poor priests" by the people, to large numbers of whom they preached in the fields, church yards, and market-places.
After Wycliffe had taken the deg,ree of D.D. at the university of Oxford, and had commenced tliere his earnest appeals against papal errors, he aroused the hatred of the bishops, and became prominent as an advocate and leader of reform. When lie retired from the university to the little parish of Lutterworth, the work went on with unabated power. Those who had been instructed by either his preaching or writings were active in diffusing his doctrines abroad. IIis followers were found among all classes of people; some of the inore distinguished being influenced somewhat perhaps by political motives, but the greater part chiefly by the power of religious truth. The judicial examinations of those who, in the next age, were arrested for heresy show that they all cherished, substantially, the doctrinal views which Wycliffe had taught. The principal of these views were: the supreme authority of the Scriptures as the rule of faith; the finished work of Christ as the only Savior; and the denial of transubstantiation, auricular confession, image worship, the papal hierarchy-, and the priestly offices in the mass. At the time te Wycliffe's death the number of his followers was increasing rapidly, as -was indicated by the somewhat extravagant affirmation of Knighton that nearly every second man in England was a Lollard. In 1382 a council, convened by archbishop Courtney, con demned 10 of Wycliffe's articles as heretical and 24 as erroneous. The archbishop pub lished an order forbidding any man, of any estate or condition whatsoever, to hold, teach, preach, or defend the aforesaid heresies and errors, or any of them, or even allow them to be preached or favored either publicly or privately. Bishops and priests were exhorted to become inquisitors of heretical pravity, and were threatened with excom munication if they neglected their duty in this respect. The chancellor of the univer
sity, charged with " being somewhat inclined to the errors aforesaid," was enjoined to allow no one under lus jurisdiction to teach or defeud them. At length, violent perse eution was commenced. Some of the accused recanted, and became bitter persecutors 'of their former friends. Others fled out of the country. In other parts, also, of the kingdom the Lollards were actively teaching their doctrines. In Leicester and the -vicinity they made great progress; and as the people hid their teachers, the whole city and all its churches were placed under interdict until all the Lollards of the town should forsake their heresy and obtain absolution. To arrest their advance and break up their meetings, parliament resolved that if any persons, on conviction, refused to abjure their errors, they should be delivered over to the secular arm to be burned. Sautre, ." a good man and faithful priest, inflamed with zeal for true religion," 1N-as condemned and committed to the flames in an open part of London. The " cruel constitution" of archbishop Arundel forbade any one to preach in English, either within the church or without, except by permission of the bishop. Schoolmasters and teachers were for bidden to teach anything contrary to what the church had declared. No book or yeatise of Wycliffe was to be read anywhere. No person was allowed to write or print a translation of any text of Scripture into English or any other language. ' No one was to dispute upon articles determined by the church. No scholar or inhabitant of Oxford university was to propose or defend anything contrary to the determinations of the (church.
But all these measures proving insufficient to suppress the hated opinions, the active persecution also went on, and many persons were burned. The accession of Henry V. was signalized by his surrendering to the persecutors his friend sir John Oldcastle, who was arrested, condemned, and excommunicated. At first he contrived to escape from prison, but was rearrested, and in 1417 was burned at the stake. The parliament further enacted " that whatsoever they were who should read the Scriptures in the mother tongue, they should forfeit land, cattle, body, life, and goods from their heirs forever; and so be condemned for heretics to God, enemies to the crown, and most arrant traitors to the land." In case of relapse after pardon, they were to be hanged as traitors against the king, and then burned as heretics against God. The laSt executions took place in 1431.
In Scotland, also, especially in the western districts, the Lollards were numerous, and suffered persecutions during different parts of the 15th century. Near the close of it 30 persons were summoned before king James IV. and the great council. Happily for them the king refused to sanction their condemnation, and they were released. After the opening of the 16th c. the Lollards gradually became incorporated with the reformed churches.