10. Lollard Opposition to Roman Catholic Doctrines

On the basis of these views, the Lollards protested against a series of ecclesiastical requirements which find no authority in the Bible. They rejected the use of images in the churches, pilgrimages to holy places, the right of the clergy to possess land, the orders of the hierarchy, the legislative power of the pope and bishops above the Bible, the institution of spiritual orders and the priestly mediation, the invocation of

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saints, the extravagant decoration of churches, mass and the sacraments, the obligation to take oaths, and the justification of war and the penalty of death. These eleven theses are all derived primarily from Wyclif, and are permeated with the principle, common both to Wyclif and to Luther, that the Bible is the sole source of religious truth. The Old Testament, however, was far inferior, in their opinion, to the New, so that everything outside the New Testament was regarded as erroneous and harmful. Herein the Lollards departed from the conservative attitude of Wyclif and Luther with regard to the Old Testament [and were at one with early continental Evangelicals such as the Waldenses, and with the Anabaptists of the sixteenth century. A. H. N.]. This principle explains the negations already noted. The doctrines of God and man, as well as of the person and office of Christ, are lost in the intensity of their opposition to the Roman Catholic teachings concerning the means of grace and the sacerdotal function, although this frequently led to a spirituality which,was diametrically opposed to their Biblical objectivity, since it expected all from the spirit though it destroyed the means of intercommunication.

II. Lollard View of the Eucharist.

The faulty presentation in the scanty literature of the Lollards renders it difficult to tell whether they possessed a sharply defined system as opposed to the Roman Catholic teachings. Even their doctrine of the Eucharist nowhere receives a thorough proof, except that Oldcastle held that in the form of bread and wine the body and blood of Christ is present in the Eucharist after the consecration, although the elements still exist. This view accordingly represents the doctrine of the Real Presence as often taught by the Anglican Church, and approximates the position of Luther rather than that of Calvin. On the other hand, Walter Brute, of whom little is known, held that the presence of the body of Christ in the Eucharist is sacramental (i.e., symbolical), and not sacrificial, thus attacking the Roman Catholic doctrine of the mass. This is not found in the works of Wyclif. The view is also found that Christ has written his law in the hearts of believers, and fulfils through grace what the law can not fulfil through righteousness, so that the believer is justified by faith and not by works, a tenet almost identical with that of Luther.

(Rudolf Buddensieg†.)

Bibliography: The literature under Wyclif, John is of first importance, especially Lechler's work. For sources consult: Thomas Netter of Walden (?), Fasciculi sizaniorum . . Johannis Wycilif cum tritico, ed. W. W. Shirley, in Rolls Series, no. 5, London, 1858 (the only contemporary account of the rise of the Lollarde, fitted by the editor with a masterly discussion of Wyclif and his times); R. Pecock, The Repressor of Overmuch Blaming of the Clergy, ed. C. Babington, in Rolls Series, no. 19, ib. 1860 (valuable as preserving arguments used by the Lollards against casting practises); Thomas Waleingham, Historia Anglicans (1272-1422). ed. H. T. Riley, in Rolls Series no. 28, 1., 2 vols., ib. 1863-64; Chronicon Anglia 138-88 ed. E. M. Thompson, in Rolls Series, no. 84, ib. 1874 (adverse to Lollards); Henry Knighton, Chronicon ed. J. R. Lumby, in Rolls Series, 2 vols. London. 1889-95; Apology for Lollard Doctrine, Attributed to Wiclif, ed. J. H. Todd for Camden Society, ib. 1842; The Peasants' Rising and the Lollarda, a Collection of Unpublished Documents, ed. E. Powell and G. M. Trevelyan, ib. 1899. Documents relating to ecclesiastical action against the Lollards are in D. Wilkins, Concilia Magna Britannia et Hibernia, vol. iii., ib. 1737; parliamentary proceedings are given in Rotuli parliamentorum, vols. iii.-iv., ib. 1808-34. Selections from T. Gsaeoigne's Liber veritatum were published as Loci e libro veritatum, Oxford, 1881, and contain much of value.

Of more modern works, aside from Lechler (ut sup.), consult: The Lollards, some Account of the Witnesses for the Truth in Great Britain, 1400-1546, London, 1843; S. R. Maitland, Essays, pp. 203-230, ib 1852; A. Jundt, Les Precurseurs de Jean Hues au 14. aiecls, Montauban, 1877; J. Gairdner and J. Spedding, Studies in Eng. Hist., pp. 1-54, Edinburgh, 1881; W Marshall, Wycliffe and the Lollards, ib. 1884; J. F. Latimer, in Presbyterian Quarterly, April, 1888; R. L. Poole. Wycliffe and the Movement for Reform, London, 1889; A. Snow, in Dublin Review, cxviii (1895), 40-62 (Roman Catholic); H. L. Cannon, Poor Priests: a Study in the Rise of English Lollardry, in American Historicial Association's Annual Report, i (1899),Washington, 1900; G. M. Trevelyan, England in the Time of Wycliffe, London, 1904; W.H. Summers. Our Lollard Ancestors, ib. 1904; idem, Lollards of the Chiltern Hills, ib. 1906; Creighton, Papacy, i. 348 sqq.; J. Gairdner, Lollardy and the Reformation in England, 2 vols., London, 1908; and the literature on the church history of the period.