The Lollards

Barbara Harris considers the beliefs and practice of the Lollards

'Wycliffe… a scholastic philosopher, theologian, Biblical translator, reformer and seminary professor at Oxford.' | Photo: William Frederick Yeames’ painting of Wyclife giving the ‘poor priests’ copies of his Bible.’

When listening to the story of George Fox, the founder of Quakerism, I have often wondered where his convincement came from. How could he be so certain, I asked myself? The notion that George Fox had an idea, sprang up and set forth on his travelling in ministry always made me query whether he was indeed the founder of Quakerism. Then, when we recently saw the play about Elizabeth Hooton, an early Quaker, which was performed in our Meeting house, and how she burst into the local ‘steeple house’ during the service to rage at the clergy and accuse them of abusing their powerful positions and robbing the poor, I realised that she was one of many who dared to bravely challenge the established church in this way.

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