Editing Lollardy (section)

=== Late Lollardy in the 1500s ===
Lollards were effectively absorbed into [[Protestantism]] during the [[English Reformation]], in which Lollardy played a role. Since Lollards had been underground for more than a hundred years, the extent of Lollardy and its ideas at the time of the Reformation is uncertain and a point of debate.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Aston |first=Margaret E. |author-link= Margaret Aston |date=1964 |title=Lollardy and the Reformation: Survival or Revival? |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-229X.1964.tb01098.x |journal=History |language=en |volume=49 |issue=166 |pages=149–170 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-229X.1964.tb01098.x |issn=0018-2648}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Dickens |first=A. G. |author-link= A. G. Dickens |title=The English Reformation |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0271028682 |edition=2nd |location=Pennsylvania |pages=46–60 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stansfield-Cudworth |first=R. E. |date=2021 |title=From Minority to Maturity: The Evolution of Later Lollardy |url=https://www.shermjournal.org/articles/from-minority-to-maturity%3A-the-evolution-of-later-lollardy |journal=Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry |language=en |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=325–352 |doi=10.33929/sherm.2021.vol3.no2.07 |s2cid=248602354 |issn=2637-7500|doi-access=free }}</ref> Ancestors of [[Blanche Parry]], the closest person to [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]] for 56 years, and of [[Blanche Milborne]], who raised Edward VI and Elizabeth I, had Lollard associations.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ric.edu/faculty/rpotter/statutes.html |title=Documents on the changing status of the English Vernacular, 1500–1540 |access-date=11 March 2008 |publisher=RIC |last=Potter |first=R.}}</ref>

Many critics of the Reformation, including [[Thomas More]], equated Protestants with Lollards. Leaders of the [[English Reformation]], including Archbishop [[Thomas Cranmer]], referred to Lollardy as well, and [[Cuthbert Tunstall|Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall of London]] called [[Lutheranism]] the "foster-child" of the Wycliffite heresy.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ric.edu/faculty/rpotter/statutes.html |title=Documents on the changing status of the English Vernacular, 1500–1540 |access-date=11 March 2008 |publisher=RIC |last=Potter |first=R.}}</ref> Scholars debate whether Protestants actually drew influence from Lollardy, or whether they referred to it to create a sense of tradition. Late Lollards had little direct connection to Wycliffe's ideas. <ref>"There is very little evidence that the late Lollards ever saw, read or possessed anything from the corpus of Wycliffite writings, with the exception of the scriptural translations." {{cite journal |last1=McSheffrey |first1=S. |title=Heresy, Orthodoxy and English Vernacular Religion 1480-1525 |journal=Past & Present |date=1 February 2005 |issue=186 |pages=47–80 |doi=10.1093/pastj/gti001}}</ref>

Other [[martyr]]s for the Lollard cause were executed during the next century, including the [[Amersham]] Martyrs in the early 1500s and [[Thomas Harding]] in 1532, one of the last Lollards to be persecuted. A gruesome reminder of this persecution is the 'Lollards Pit' in Thorpe Wood, now [[Thorpe Hamlet]], Norwich, Norfolk, "''where men are customablie burnt''",<ref name="Rackham">{{cite book|last=Rackham |first=Oliver |author-link = Oliver Rackham |year=1976 |title=Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape |publisher=JM Dent & Sons |isbn=0-460-04183-5 |pages=137–38}}.</ref> including [[Thomas Bilney]].

Despite the debate about the extent of Lollard influence there are ample records of the persecution of Lollards from this period. In the [[Diocese of London]], there are records of about 310 Lollards being prosecuted or forced to abjure from 1510 to 1532. In Lincoln diocese, 45 cases against Lollardy were heard in 1506–1507. In 1521, there were 50 abjurations and 5 burnings of Lollards.{{clarify |Lollard or Lutheran?|date=September 2023}} In 1511, [[Archbishop Warham]] presided over the abjuration of 41 Lollards from Kent and the burning of 5.<ref name="Dickens">{{cite book |last=Dickens |first=A.G. |author-link= A. G. Dickens |year=1959 |title=Lollards & Protestants in the Diocese of York, 1509–58 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=9780907628057}}</ref>

In 1529, [[Simon Fish]] wrote an incendiary pamphlet ''Supplication for the Beggars'', including his denial of [[purgatory]] and teachings that priestly [[celibacy]] was an invention of the [[Antichrist]]. He argued that earthly rulers have the right to strip Church properties, and that [[tithe|tithing]] was against the [[Gospel]], Protestant views that echo the Wycliffite/Lollard teaching.<ref>{{Cite journal| doi = 10.3366/more.1984.21.2.4| issn = 0047-8105| volume = 21 (Number 82)| issue = 2| pages = 18| last = Marc'hadour| first = Germain| title = Margaret Aston, "William White's Lollard Followers"| journal = Moreana | date = 1 June 1984}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Routledge| isbn = 978-1-134-91333-6| last = Rollison| first = David| title = The Local Origins of Modern Society: Gloucestershire 1500-1800| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZkKIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA88 |date = 11 August 2005}}</ref>  He advocated closing of all monasteries, and notably provided economic estimates of the revenues of various monastic and church institutions.

The extent of Lollardy in the general populace at this time is unknown. The prevalence of Protestant [[iconoclasm]] in England suggests Lollard ideas may still have had some popular influence if [[Huldrych Zwingli]] was not the source, as Lutheranism did not advocate iconoclasm. Lollards were persecuted again between 1554 and 1559 during the [[Revival of the Heresy Acts]] under the Catholic [[Mary I of England|Mary I]], which specifically suppressed heresy and Lollardy.

The similarity between Lollards and later English Protestant groups, such as the [[Baptists]], [[Puritans]], and [[Quakers]], also suggests some continuation of Lollard ideas through the Reformation.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The World of Rural Dissenters, 1520–1725 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1995 |isbn=978-0521410618 |editor-last=Spufford |editor-first=Margaret |editor-link= Margaret Spufford |location=Cambridge |language=en}}</ref>