In England from Wicliffe to Henry VIII - James Aitken Wylie

een preceded by the Act of Parliament, passed in
1414, soon after the midnight meeting at St. Gilesin-the-Fields,
which made it one and the same
thing to be a Lollard and to be a traitor. The
preamble of the Act of Parliament set forth that
"there had been great congregations and
insurrections, as well by them of the sect of heresy
commonly called Lollardy, as by others of their
confederacy, to the intent to annul, destroy, and
subvert the Christian faith, and also to destroy our
Sorereign Lord the King, and all other manner of
Estates of the Realm of England, as well spiritual
as temporal, and also all manner of policy, and
finally the laws of the land." These simple men,
who read the Scriptures, believed what they taught,
and assembled in secret places to worship God, are
painted in the Act as the most dangerous of
conspirators–as men aiming at the destruction of
society itself, and so are to be hunted out and
exterminated. Accordingly, the Act goes on to
enjoin that all judges, justices, and magistrates
shall take an oath to make inquisition for Lollards,
and that they shall issue warrants for their
apprehension, and delivery to the ecclesiastical
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