What is a Lollard? Dissent and Belief in Late Medieval England, by J. Patrick Hornbeck II

Abstract

This is a welcome contribution to the history of belief in late medieval England: the author, J. Patrick Hornbeck, is a theologian sympathetic to historians’ concerns and well versed in the literary scholarship in the field. His argument—that there was change and diversity within what we call lollardy—is not wholly original but his method and exposition are. For many historians, a comment on diversity has been the footnote to the study of a coherent body of heretical doctrine and practice. Hornbeck casts this assumption aside, and asks why the history of heresy should not explore change and diversity as the primary objects of study. In one respect he is simply moving the goalposts: studying heresy has always invoked difference, now the differences are to be found as much within heresy as between heresy and orthodoxy. Hornbeck takes a systematic approach to five areas of Wycliffite doctrine—salvation, the eucharist, marriage and celibacy, priesthood, and the papacy—in each case describing Wyclif's writings, the mainstream or orthodox context, Wycliffite texts, and the views expressed by defendants in heresy trials. Not content with the old question of lollard deviation from Wyclif's writings, he identifies theological difference across and within these categories of source. He then makes various claims about the degree of difference or similarity, in geographical and chronological terms, detectable within each area of belief, and makes interesting use of Wittgenstein's concept of ‘family resemblances’ to explain what all this difference might mean. The overall conclusion is that lollardy was a set of overlapping resemblances between otherwise rather disparate texts, groups and individuals.