LOLLARDS - FOLLOWERS OF WICKLIFFE
by A. George Ashdown
Introductory Note from Bill Jackson - Back in 1951, I met George Ashdown. As Pastor of Isleham High Street Baptist Church, he was instrumental in helping organize the Youth Rallies we held. Later, he taught at Kensit College of the Protestant Truth Society and served for many years as General Secretary of the Protestant Alliance.
I had the pleasure of fellowship with him throughout the years, twice being with his party to the Waldensian Valleys of NW Italy, and often visiting him in the Alliance Headquarters in London and Flitwick. I had the privilege of ministering with him on several occasions.
George is retired now. At 87 years old, he is suffering from Parkinson's Disease, but on a recent visit with him (June 2001), I found his mind and memory still sharp as always.
I don't know how much longer George will be with us, but I want to pay tribute to him first as a true man of God, and then as one of the most astute Reformation scholars England produced in the 20th century.
I know you will enjoy reading his account of the Lollards.
The death of Wicliffe (often spelled Wycliffe) and the shameful burning of his bones and the scattering of his ashes, did not destroy his influence. During his period of teaching in the University of Oxford he had gathered disciples and followers. His preaching and teaching earned him the title of the "Evangelic Doctor." The followers he gathered round him, both at Oxford and at Lutterworth, formed the nucleus of a body of people who were in fact the first English Protestant dissenters. They worshiped in secret when persecution was used against them and suffered severely under it. Many recanted and were put to perpetual penance, often being branded in the cheek with a hot iron with the letter H. They were made to wear the badge of a flaming faggot on the sleeve of their tunic. Some served what was virtual slavery as part of their sentence as laborers for monasteries and convents. There were those who paraded in Market and Country Towns while sermons were preached against them and they were dressed in a long white garment carrying a faggot on their shoulder and a torch or taper alight in the hand, to signify the end that awaited them if they relapsed into heresy. Wicliffe died in 1384 but his followers continued right down the Sixteenth Century Reformation.
A WORTHY NOBLEMAN
One of the greatest of these was Lord Cobham or Sir John Oldcastle. This nobleman was a former student of Wicliffe. He was a Sheriff of Hertfordshire and a Member of Parliament. He had served in the wars against the French and built his own castle at Cooling, near Rochester in Kent. The castle became a headquarters for the Lollards. From it they evangelized in Kent and crossing the Thames Estuary they penetrated into Essex. These Lollards were known later as Christian Brethren and in some places, like Amersham in Buckinghamshire, Newbury in Berkshire and in London, were quite numerous. Their Bible was the handwritten version of Wicliffe, often only portions of it, but when Tyndale's New Testament became available in 1525 their numbers increased. Many suffered Martyrdom in the period from 1401-1546. The Church equated the movement's demand for Church reform to the peasants revolt. The unrest was caused partly by the plague in 1366 with the consequent large loss of life among the agriculture laborers, by the increase in manufacture such as weaving and pottery ware, and the rise of the towns which were becoming more than just Market Towns. Lord Cobham was accused wrongly of heresy and sedition and was arrested and confined in the Tower of London. He escaped and fled into Wales, but was betrayed to his enemies and brought back to London where he was, in 1418, slowly burnt to death, hanging in chains.
MONASTIC CORRUPTION
Many of the followers of Wicliffe - the Lollards - never saw a whole Bible in English, but they had parts handwritten on parchment or vellum. The monasteries held great tracts of agricultural land and caused considerable unrest by their overbearing attitude and policy. At St. Albans, the retainers of the Abbot would search the humble dwellings of the poor for hand mills to grind corn. These were broken and their owners punished (often physically). The peasants had to use the mill owned by the monastery and paid a fee in cash or kind. At Bury St. Edmunds three times in the hundred years prior to 1538 the townspeople rioted against the monastery; at least once they set the gatehouse on fire in protest against the increased fees for stalls in the fairs and markets which were part of the patrimony of the Abbey.
THE CHURCH UNDERGROUND
Driven underground by the persecution, many worshiped God and studied the Bible in secret. A large congregation met in the Beech Forest round Amersham, where seven were eventually burnt at the stake. The Priests and Monks were ever ready to report any who appeared to have connections with these reformed groups. Torture was often resorted to, to extort the names and details of the others who worshiped with them. It is remarkable that 169 fragments or whole copies of Wicliffe's Bible are to be found in our great libraries and museums. The main doctrine around which the English Reformation was fought was the Mass, due to the fact that Wicliffe was so clearly Biblical on this matter. He regarded the Holy Communion as a memorial meal and not a sacrifice. He could see that this was really a new doctrine, transubstantiation was based only on Church Authority and used to support the power of the clergy and the Church. The Church, jealous of its power, insisted that the test of heresy should be on the grounds of belief of the transubstantiation doctrine. This was enacted in 1400 or 1401 in the statute for burning heretics.
THEIR MODERN SUCCESSORS
A lovely term was used concerning them, "the Gospellers", or "the Gospel Men." The most effective antidote to Papal and other error is the Gospel. The personal experience of Wicliffe of repentance and faith, i.e. conversion, was the common experience of the Lollards and all English Evangelicals who believe and apply the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture. They are the spiritual successors to these humble believers who sowed much of the seed and nurtured it with the shedding of their blood that came to fruition in the Glorious Reformation. We who hold these saving truths are following in their footsteps. Hebrews 12:1-2.