Heresy

Question 1

Role of the community

Answer 1

• Ian Forrest = heresy investigations involved collaboration between rulers and the ruled
• Margery Baxter was accused by friend + neighbour Joan Cliand
• Ian Forrest = people could accuse others of heresy to take suspicion off themselves
• Robert Bert of Bury St Edmunds in 1430 claimed that Robert Dykkes of Bury, who had been tried for heresy in 1428, had annotated his copy of ‘Dives and Pauper (Forrest, 2005)
  -Editors of trials in 16th century Coventry noted: “it is remarkable how infrequently non-Lollards testified against Lollards”

Texts of heresy trials
– To better understand trials of heretics we must figure out how they ended up in the court room – they did so because there was a culture of informing – what does that say about fear/suspicion, community or lack of

Question 2

Crown-Church relations

Answer 2

• Both involved in heresy investigations
• As the power of the Crown in heresy investigations increased, the Church’s decreased
• Richard II’s government attacked heresy and Henry IV and Henry V made anti-heresy policy (Forrest, 2005)
• Richard II ordered the capture of suspected heretics who had failed to appear in Court
• He instructed bailiffs in Reading (1396) to arrest suspected heretics after the bishop of Salisbury wrote to him

Suppression of Heresy Act (1401) = punishment of burning for heretics
– Links to politics – Henry IV trying to assert his authority + popularity as King after deposition of Richard
– Arundel was a major figure in government – key in suppression of Heresy Act (1414)
-> Think about why the Crown was interested in cooperating with the Church on heresy
– Could lead to social unrest + political instability = Oldcastle revolt (Jan 1414)

Question 3

Criticism of Church + clergy

Answer 3

• ‘Heresy Trials in the Diocese of Norwich, 1428–31’, 14 criticised the Pope and 17 criticised the Clergy
• Many challenged need for intermediaries – shows people wanted to be closer to God + more religiously involved
• Cult fraternities – more religiously centered – feasts, pay to be members, more autonomy
• John Pert of Loddon = believed baptism wasn’t necessary, and love for Jesus was enough for marriage (Tanner, 1977)
• Margery Baxton = believed children were baptised in their mother’s womb
• Dioceses of Norwich trials = believed priests and nuns should marry and create a family
  – Heresy trials useful to gauge beliefs, but determined by what questions the investigators are asking – accused can’t just speak freely about whatever they decide
• Blumston denied Petrine succession - some heretical beliefs were based on detailed religious knowledge and awareness (but also influenced by q’s) (McSheffrey and N. Tanner (2003)
• Beliefs = desire to improve religion
• Anti-clerical – not rejecting Catholicism, but their particular parish priest was adulterous, financially corrupt, bigamous –> shows that people were involved, cared and wanted to improve religion
• Spectrum – devoted to church completely –> anti-clerical but still religious –> local religion –> heretical beliefs

Question 4

Audience

Answer 4

• Often audience was an educated elite – many heretical writings were written in Latin
• Wycliffe wrote in Latin and shared his beliefs with members of the University of Oxford
• Had supporters in the royal court, who gave him protection
• Contemporaries believed the lower classes were more susceptible to heresy

Peasants Revolt (name misleading)
– Walsingham accuse John Ball of being motivated by heresy
– William Rimington, a monk, wrote that heresy was the cause of the uprising (Aston, 1994)
- Of the 60 defendants in heresy trials in Norwich, only 1 was wealthy, 4 priests (Tanner, 1977)

Question 5

Literature + the vernacular

Answer 5

• Richard Gilmyn = had the Lord’s Prayer, Hail Mary, the Gospels and the Creed in English
• Aston writes “[Lollardy] was as a vernacular literate movement that it was suspected and persecuted” (Forrest, 2005)
• Fear of corrupting society through a language the masses understand
• In trials, described as ‘preached, taught, held, asserted and instructed’ - fear of corrupting society
• Not just the writings themselves, but how they’re used – i.e. sold, distrubuted, put on display etc. - 1413 = Richard Devenish excommunicated (posted a bill allegedly written by lollards in the Temple Church in Bristol
• Reading heretical books wasn’t usually enough to be deemed heretical
• Yet hiding them could be - John Galle hid a copy of the New Testament in English (1428)

Question 6

Women

Answer 6

• Texts of heresy trials
  – Think about the room they’re sat in, the power relations going on – e.g. lower on the social spectrum, women, there’s a scribe, church officials – power imbalance – dominance of the male
• Women had harsh punishments – woman had a H branded on her jaw, a woman was the only one burned for a year – bodily punishments, processions in just underwear – reducing respectability
• Literate women who had heretical texts were feared – could have influence in their family
• Women focused more on local saints’ cults – as period goes on see more female saints – e.g. infertility – when medical knowledge blames women for infertility, to be saved in childbirth, St Anne’s - mother of the virgin mary, Cizillia – women in childbirth
• Lollard – translates to loose tongue
  – If this is already gendered female might be easier to stop them doing it without going through the formal ways in the Court