The council of Constance (1414-1418) put an end to the papal schism, and
also showed its determination to put down heresy by burning John Huss.
When news of this reached England the clergy were incited to still more
vigorous proceedings against Lollard preachers and books. From this time
Lollardy appears banished from the fields and streets, and takes refuge
in houses and places of concealment. There was no more wayside
preaching, but instead there were _conventicula occulta_ in houses, in
peasants' huts, in sawpits and in field ditches, where the Bible was
read and exhortations were given, and so Lollardy continued. In 1428
Archbishop Chichele confessed that the Lollards seemed as numerous as
ever, and that their literary and preaching work went on as vigorously
as before. It was found also that many of the poorer rectors and parish
priests, and a great many chaplains and curates, were in secret
association with the Lollards, so much so that in many places
processions were never made and worship on saints' days was abandoned.
For the Lollards were hardened by persecution, and became fanatical in
the statement of their doctrines. Thomas Bagley was accused of declaring
that if in the sacrament a priest made bread into God, he made a God
that can be eaten by rats and mice; that the pharisees of the day, the
monks, and the nuns, and the friars and all other privileged persons
recognized by the church were limbs of Satan; and that auricular
confession to the priest was the will not of God but of the devil. And
others held that any priest who took salary was excommunicate; and that
boys could bless the bread as well as priests.
From England Lollardy passed into Scotland. Oxford infected St Andrews,
and we find traces of more than one vigorous search made for Lollards
among the teaching staff of the Scottish university, while the Lollards
of Kyle in Ayrshire were claimed by Knox as the forerunners of the
Scotch Reformation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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