LOLLARD, a name given to a re ligious association which arose at Ant werp about the beginning of the 14th century. By some, Walter Lollard, who 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 consti tuted them a religious order. In 150G Julius II. increased their privileges. They continued to the French Revolution. The name, having become one of con tempt, was applied to the followers of Wyclif, and especially to the poor preach ers whom he sent out. While Richard II. reigned, the persecution of the Lol lards was not heartily favored by the court, and in 1395 they presented a peti tion to Parliament for the reform of the Church. But on the accession of the House of Lancaster in 1399 a change for the worse took place. The clergy hac;
assisted Henry IV. to the throne, ir return for which he followed their direc tions as to the Lollards, and the Act de hwretico comburendo was passed as 2 Henry IV., c. 15. The first Lollard martyr was Williar— 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 Old castle (Lord Cobham), who had edited the works of Wyclif, was adjudged to be "a most pernicious and detestable here tic." Early in 1414 a conspiracy of Lol lards under the leadership of Lord Cob ham was alleged to have been detected, and he was comm:tted 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.