THE

BRITISH MAGAZINE,

AND

MONTHLY REGISTER

OF

RELIGIOUS AND ECCLESIASTICAL

INFORMATION,

PAROCHIAL HISTORY,

AND

DOCUMENTS RESPECTING THE STATE OF THE POOR,

PROGRESS OF EDUCATION, &c.

VOL. XXII.

LONDON:

T. CLERC SMITH, 13, HENRIETTA STREET,

COVENT GARDEN.

THERE is one point in the history of the Lollards which must, I think,
have puzzled others as well as myself; though I do not remember to
have seen it noticed. The position which they occupy in our civil and
ecclesiastical history renders them objects of great interest; and we are
naturally led, not merely by philological or antiquarian curiosity, but
from a hope that we may obtain real information as to their history,
to inquire respecting the origin and meaning of their name.
We may
acquiesce in the idea that they were called after one Walter Lollard,
mentioned by Trithemius, until we find that, notwithstanding the
quiet way in which it is talked of, Trithemius really mentions no such
person; but who can be satisfied with the explanation, that, being con-
sidered tares, or darnel, or some sort of mischievous weed in the field
of the good husbandman, their enemies gave them a name derived
from lolium?

Casting aside these imaginations, we are told, very truly I believe, that there were Lollards or Lullards very well known in some parts of Germany and Flanders. We are informed that they were identified, or connected with, or more or less resembled, the Beguins; and that while the particular religious practice which distinguished the Beguins was the visitation of the sick, that which the Lollards took upon them was, the burial of the dead where circumstances rendered it a work of piety and charity, and the attendance at funerals, either as gratuitous or hired mourners, who sung-perhaps only on such occasions, or perhaps generally in the vagrant mendicity in which they lived-a sort of plaintive melody, which (through the German word whence we have derived lull and lullaby) gave them their name.

All this is very natural and credible. It is altogether in character with the spirit and the facts of their age; and it seems to be supported by sufficient authorities. If it is at all obscure, it is because the people were themselves obscure; but among the many curious morsels of information which the learning of Mosheim and others has gleaned and put together, there seems to be nothing contradictory, and less apparent discrepancy than might have been expected in such a case. But having found these Lollards in Germany, and learned why they VOL. XXII.-July, 1842.

B

Are we really much
How are we to con-

were called so, what are we to do with them? forwarder? How do they suit our purpose? nect them with the Lollards of England? It seems as if some link was wanting which is not supplied by any historian whose works I have seen. Look at the early history of our English Lollards, and what do you find which resembles what I have just mentioned as the characteristics of the Germans? And on the other hand, looking at the Germans, what do you find that resembles the well-known characteristics of our Lollards? The English sectarians were not at all like a confraternity of begging friars; and the Germans, do what we will, cannot be turned into anything like protestants. The formation of brotherhoods, sisterhoods, and sodalities of all sorts, was a common thing well understood in their days. They do not appear to have dreamed of separating from or opposing the church of Rome, or to have been considered by it as anything but perfectly good catholics. If it be true that at a later period some foreign Lollards, or persons to whom some writer or other may have given that name, are to be found bearing a greater resemblance to our English Lollards, and involved in similar charges of heresy and sedition, this only puts them in the same predicament with those whom they resemble, and they are equally in want of some link which may unite them also to those who were, in name, their predecessors.

I am inclined to believe that such a link may perhaps be found; but I beg to offer what I have to say on the subject simply in the way of suggestion and inquiry, and with the hope of gaining further information.

I scarcely need say that, during what may be termed the latter part of the middle ages, prophecies, predictions, and prognostications, were current and influential among all classes of society. How much interest they excited and how much influence they exercised, how widely they were circulated, and how perpetually, how craftily, how boldly, they were used for political purposes, can be understood by those only who have taken some trouble to understand that particular period. Their prevalence and mischievous effects in our own country are attested by successive acts of parliament; and there is sufficient

(a) With the Abbot Joachim, who may perhaps be considered as having been at the bottom of all this, the readers of the British Magazine are probably better acquainted than anybody (except the gentleman to whom they are indebted) ever was before, through the very valuable and learned papers which appeared in it during the year 1840, entitled "Antichrist in the Thirteenth Century. And those who have seen Dr. Todd's beautiful reprint of Wycliffe's "Last Age of the Church" (a work equally creditable to the scholarship and the press of Trinity College, Dublin) will be aware of the manner in which the abbot is quoted by the Reformer. It may be worth while to add, and to reflect on the fact, that Bale appended some of the abbot's prophecies to his Life of Lord Cobham. It is not worth while to speak of Merlin and a train of less important prognosticators.

(b) The 33 Hen. VIII. c.xiv. (1541-2) is intituled, "Touching Prophecies uppon Declaration of Names, Armes, Badges," &c., and begins

"Where dyvers and sondry persons, making theyre foundacion by prophecies, have taken uppon theyme knowledge as it were what shall become of theyme whiche beare in theyre armes cognysaunce or badge feldes, beastes, fowles, or any other thing or thinges whiche hathe ben used or accustomed to be put in any of the same, or in and uppon the letters of theyre names, have dyvised, descanted, and practised, to make folke thinke that by theyre untrew gessys it might be knowne what good or evyll things shulde coome, happen, or be doone, by or to such persones as have and had suche