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THE LOLLARDS.
rural society in England began to work into its later
forms, to be modified chiefly, and perhaps only, by
the law of settlement and the poor-laws.
The embers of the rebellion, however, long
smouldered, and at times broke out into a flame
large enough to cause apprehension and alarm,
especially amongst the clergy. There was no concerted
movement, but throughout the middle and
lower classes of the people in particular there was a
deep and wide-spread feeling of animosity to the
great churchmen and the monastic orders. Vehement
denunciations were uttered by wandering and
fanatical preachers against their immoral and luxurious
lives, and curious calculations were made by
them as to the number of earls, knights, and squires
who might be maintained for the king's service, and
the relief which might be given to the sick and
needy, if the wealth of the Church might be divided
and applied to these purposes. The ballad-singer
chanted his rude rhymes to the same effect, and contributed
to swell the chorus of disaffection.
Neither
was it altogether confined to the humbler classes.
There were great nobles who sympathized, or affected
so to do, with the movement which under the name
of Lollardism became so prominent before the end
of Richard's reign, and which e\oked in that of
his successor such cruel repressive measures. The
doctrines of the Church did not escape reproach and
contumely. They scoffed at the doctrine of transubstantiation
as involving idolatry, they uttered coarse
invectives against priestly celibacy, connecting it with
'
.Stubbs' "Constitutional History,'' vol. ii. p. 463.