“Give the Reason for the Hope that you Have”: Reginald Pecock’s Challenge to (Non)Disputing Lollards

Abstract

Medieval scholars are in broad agreement about Lollardy’s academic roots and its familiarity with disputational techniques; contemporaries also recognized these characteristics of the movement. It is surprising, then, to find that Bishop Reginald Pecock, the most vocal and persistent of Lollardy’s fifteenth-century opponents, accused Lollards of resisting sincere, reasonable, and academically informed debate and of refusing to offer a clear defense of their own opinions. This article considers how and why Pecock made this unusual accusation. It examines Pecock’s view of the “processes” of reason and suggests that, by characterizing Lollards as those who reject these processes, Pecock was able to clearly distinguish his own theological project from theirs. Pecock’s project, outlined in his written works, encompasses education, Christian community, and church renewal, and places debate and discussion at its center. By emphasizing Lollard refusal to engage in true and earnest discussion, Pecock tapped into a tradition that identified a failure to clearly communicate as a mark of the heretic’s isolation from the wider Christian community. Pecock’s vision, by way of contrast, actively promotes an alternative communal model of lay learning that fosters orthodoxy and respect between clergy and laity.