Sitting at home yesterday waiting for some digital transcription work to arrive, I thought I’d start a local history article and, for some totally inexplicable reason, the word ‘Lollard’ came into my mind!  I could vaguely remember hitting on the subject when I was at primary school some 40 years ago and I knew that the Lollards had been part of the Norwich, England history but I’d totally forgotten who they were and what they believed so did a bit of delving and discovered their grizzly history!

Picture this – a girl is led over Bishopbridge (above), through a throng of ’spectators’ and tied to a stake.  She’s surrounded by wood and other flammable materials and then a naked flame is cruelly inserted into the pyre.  The crowd that had gathered for the spectacle watched as the flames surrounded the choking, screaming girl.  Before long the once beautiful young woman is nothing more than a heap of charred bones.  The baying crowd were now silent and began drifting away from the area hoping that there’d be another similar spectacle later in the week.  Once the crowds had dispersed the undertakers would arrive to gather what was left of the girl and bury it amongst the ashes that remained in the pit.

No, it’s not a scene from a Vincent Price movie.  The girl had been a Lollard – a follower of John Wycliffe who in essence was an early humanitarian and socialist – and therefore regarded as a heretic.  The name ‘Lollard’ appears to derive from a Dutch word for ‘mumbler’ or ‘mutterer’ – lollaert, possibly on account of their method of prayer, but this has never been confirmed or otherwise. 

Today, Bishopbridge, within a stone’s throw of the regal Norwich Cathedral, still remains and if you take a walk over it, it’s difficult to imagine it’s bloody history.  Likewise, the site of Lollard’s Pit can still be found although sadly it’s now part of a pub car park.

John Wycliffe was born in the mid 14^th century and lived to relative old age for those hard times. He died when he was in his mid 60s which was a pretty good innings.  He had studied theology at Balliol College, Oxford and became a tad disenchanted with the catholic church.  The pope was becoming involved in worldly affairs which influenced the thinking of the Catholic people, whereas John considered that the pope’s role should be purely spiritual and totally unbiased.  He also thought that the monasteries were becoming increasingly greedy and felt it was about time that someone gave them a good, sound talking to and be reminded that they were there for spiritual reasons rather than for gathering taxes to pay for pretty objet d’art to decorate their places of worship.  He considered that the church, via the pope and the monasteries, were exploiting their powers specifically for personal gain but, quite rightly so, the only power that should be exerted on the people was the power of God.

John Wycliffe was one of the earliest humanitarians and socialists as he felt extremely strongly that all human beings, whether they be rich or poor, should be treated as equals and in that respect campaigned for the extensively used Latin Bible to be converted to the native tongue which would make it accessible to all, rather than just to Latin readers who were primarily the higher orders of the church and the wealthy.

John’s following was not great initially, probably due in the main to a fear of the power of the Roman Catholic church, but those followers that he had were considered to be somewhat damaging to the Crown and the church and became a mild nuisance.

The most notable Lollards recorded at the time were a group of knights including Sir William Neville, Sir John Montague and Sir William Beauchamp.  However, Edward, the Black Prince (first son of Edward III) and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (third son of Edward III) were also known to be Lollard sympathisers.

By the end of the 14^th century the Lollards were becoming a little more vociferous and as such were now beginning to really get under the skin of the Crown and the church so in 1401 King Henry IV who had not long been on the throne, passed the Statute De Heretics Comburendo (a law relating to the burning of heretics) which forbade anyone “to teach anything contrary to the sacrament or the authority of the church, under penalty of being burnt before the people” and hence the ‘kill fest’ began in earnest.

By Henry V’s reign, however, which began in 1413 the Crown and the church had united against the Lollards and had in the main driven them underground and so by around 1414 they had largely been contained.  The revolt rumbled on in the background of this unsettled period of the Middle Ages but thankfully the burnings at the stake fizzled out (no pun intended!).