Abstract
This article considers how writings that address the pursuit of heresy in England might have prepared their readers for heretical self-defense, and it surveys the emotional scripts of the Lanterne of Light, Wordes of Poule, Letter of Richard Wyche, and Testimony of William Thorpe, suggesting many lollard writings offer training in feeling as much as argument. This essay closely examines the advice on self-defense in the Sixteen Points, proposing that it aims to teach readers the simple strategy of denying anything they do not know to be true. However, teaching readers to doubt, as in the Dialogue between Reson and Gabbyng, is as important as teaching them to deny. The article finishes with the longest lollard defensive text, the Thirty-Seven Conclusions, showing how it uses doubt to construct its arguments, and even defend Wyclif himself.
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