15-21 December 1414: Pardons for Lollards
By Dan Spencer This week saw pardons granted to religious dissidents known as Lollards. On 16 and 17 December ten men were given pardons, including: Nicholas Selby, an ironmonger from Leicester; Richard Sprotford, a carpenter from Buckinghamshire; Thomas Gray, a clerk from Northamptonshire; Thomas Blake, a weaver from Chester; and John Garthorpe, a scholar from Oxford. These men were followers of theological ideas which had been disseminated by the scholar John Wycliffe (c. 1330-1384). Wycliffe’s beliefs clashed with those of the traditional church, including the denial of the sanctity of... Read More