Editing Lollardy (section)

==Etymology==
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[[File:Lollards QE4 126.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Lollards' prison in [[Lambeth Palace]], overlooking the [[River Thames]] in London]]

''Lollard'', ''Lollardi'', or ''Loller'' was the popular derogatory nickname given to those without an academic background, educated, if at all, mainly in [[English language|English]], who were reputed to follow the teachings of [[John Wycliffe]] in particular. By the mid-15th century, "lollard" had come to mean a [[heresy|heretic]] in general. The alternative term "Wycliffite" is generally accepted to be a more neutral term covering those of similar opinions, but having an academic background.

The term is said to have been coined by the [[Anglo-Irish people|Anglo-Irish]] cleric [[Henry Crumpe]], but its origin is uncertain. The earliest official use of the name in England occurs in 1387 in a mandate of the [[Bishop of Worcester]] against five "poor preachers", ''nomine seu ritu Lollardorum confoederatos''.<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Lollards}}</ref> According to the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', it most likely derives from [[Middle Dutch]] ''{{lang|dum|lollaerd}}'' ("mumbler, mutterer"), from a verb ''lollen'' ("to mutter, mumble"). The word is much older than its English use; there were Lollards in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 14th&nbsp;century who were akin to the [[Fraticelli]], [[Beguines and Beghards|Beghards]], and other sectaries similar to the recusant [[Franciscans]].<ref name=EB1911/>

Originally the Dutch word was a colloquial name for a group of buriers of the dead during the [[Black Death]], in the 14th&nbsp;century, known as [[Alexians]], Alexian Brothers or Cellites. These were known colloquially as ''{{lang|dum|lollebroeders}}'' (Middle Dutch for "mumbling brothers"), or ''{{lang|goh|Lollhorden}}'', from {{langx|goh|lollon}} ("to sing softly"), from their chants for the dead.<ref>cf. English ''[[:wikt:lullaby|lullaby]]'', and the modern Dutch and German ''lallen'' "to babble, to talk drunkenly": {{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.dwds.de/?qu=lallen |dictionary=Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache |title=lallen|date=November 2022 }}</ref> [[Middle English]] ''{{lang|enm|loller}}'' (akin to the verb ''[[wikt:loll|loll]]'', ''[[:wikt:lull|lull]]'', the English cognate of Dutch ''lollen'' "to mutter, mumble") is recorded as an alternative spelling of ''Lollard'', while its generic meaning "a lazy vagabond, an idler, a fraudulent beggar" is not recorded before 1582.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}

Two other possibilities for the derivation of ''Lollard'' are mentioned by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'':<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Lollard |dictionary=[[Oxford English Dictionary]] |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref>
* [[Latin]] ''{{lang|la|lolium}}'', a weedy [[Vicia sativa|vetch]] (tares), supposedly a reference to the biblical [[Parable of the Tares]] (Matthew 13:24–30);
* the surname "Lolhard" of an eminent Franciscan preacher in [[Guyenne]], who converted to the [[Waldensians|Waldensian]] way. The region of Guyenne was at that time under English dominion, and his preaching influenced pious lay English. He was burned at [[Cologne]] in the 1370s. Earlier, another Waldensian teacher, also named "Lolhard", was tried for heresy in Austria in 1315.<ref>{{cite book |first=T.J. |last=van&nbsp;Bright |title=The Bloody Theater or Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians |orig-year=1660 |edition=Third English |year=1886 |translator=Joseph F. Sohm |publisher=Herald Press |place=Scottsdale, Pennsylvania}}</ref>