Lollardy and Social Status in East Anglia

Abstract

Thanks to the survival of the court book of William Alnwick, bishop of Norwich, and John Foxe's transcripts of its lost portions and of earlier heresy proceed ings, we know much about the beliefs and attitudes of the network of over one hundred Lollards that straddled the Norfolk-Suffolk border in the 1420s.1 These records do not tell us, however, what the origins of this community were or who, exactly, were its individual members. We know their names, but of their socioeco nomic background-that is, their social standing, occupation, and income-the trial records reveal little, and no serious attempt has been made to elicit this information, despite its obvious value for our understanding of the development and social dynamic of this community. Only when we comprehend who and what these people were can we begin to know how their community functioned and why heretical doctrine appealed to them. In fact, the issue of Lollardy and social status-certainly in the heresy's later phase-has never been fully investigated. The work of K. B. McFarlane and his student J. A. E Thomson created the impression, without furnishing direct evi dence, that, after the failure of the Oldcastle revolt of 1414 and the resulting loss of its influence among England's ruling class, the later Lollard sect drew its member ship almost exclusively from the lower ranks of society-the artisan and peasant classes-and lost much of its doctrinal coherence.2 Their monographs, essentially broad surveys, which provide useful starting points, have not spawned the same proliferation of local studies as has McFarlane's other pioneering work-on mag nates and gentry during the Wars of the Roses.3 This is not to denigrate the few studies of local Lollard communities that have appeared, most of which have made valuable contributions to the field. Many of these examinations, however, have either formed part of a larger investigation of a