13 - Lollards and Religious Writings

Summary

The Middle English Rosarium (c. 1375–1415) an alphabetic compendium of religious knowledge compiled by sympathisers with John Wyclif (c. 1330–64), begins its discussion of ‘Lex’ in this way:

‘Law’ is spoken of in two ways, that is to say, true and pretended. True law is a truthful directive, or rectifying, of a created thing, in order to have it as it ought to be, as at its beginning. And this law is divided into God’s law and man’s law.

Man-made laws, as much as God’s law, can be true. That truth is evident in their capacity to bring about reform by restoring created things to how they were in the beginning. This understanding of law’s place in the life of a Christian would surprise scholars who expect lollard writers to adopt a scriptura sola position, where only the Bible is a reliable source of moral rectitude. However, Wyclif and his followers (‘lollard’ or ‘Wycliffite’ are used interchangeably to describe these persons and their mostly anonymous writings) resembled reform-minded religious writers more generally not only in their tendency to seek models in the past, but also in their willingness to cite both church and secular law in order to advance their claims. The Rosarium says no more at this point about pretended law; but other lollard writings dismiss man-made laws only when they regard them as manifestly incompatible with scripture and reason. What is more, they commonly insist on leaving room for human doubt: only God is always sure of the truth. Rather than assuming that lollards simply rejected human law while orthodox writers accepted it unquestioningly, this chapter will take a fresh look at how lollard and other religious writings engaged critically with law and its practice, communicating legal knowledge as they sought to explain the best way to live in this world.