Wycliffe and English nonconformity

Men and Their Times

by K.B. McFarlane

188p decent honest period paperback, ink notes to back endpaper, this copy published in the year 1971 in the series entitled Pelican

Genres: History, Church History, Christian

188 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

Reviews

[Mike Luoma]

After reading the posthumously published "The Nobility of Later Medieval England" I picked up this slim volume, one of the only books published by Bruce McFarlane while alive. Unfortunately, it's a tough slog for a small volume like this. It's clear from the posthumous releases that McFarlane was a brilliant lecturer - the texts of his lectures, while not annotated with the voluminous notes a historian might desire, clearly and concisely explain McFarlane's concepts. His personality also shines through, as he sticks it to Stubbs and other past historians whose conclusions he finds faulty.

Here, however, we find none of that. The writing is dry and scholarly, though there are a few McFarlane "zingers" in the book to remind one who one is reading. But for the most part this is a dry dissertation of facts and interpretation. It seeks, for the most part, to deflate the Wycliffe "myth" - and does so. One caution? In so doing it assumes a knowledge of that previous myth which at times leaves gaps for a reader new to the subject.

The greatest surprise after reading his lecture texts is that McFarlane isn't a very good prose writer - at least not here. It seems as if he didn't know writing was as much of a performance and presentation as lecturing - though writing for a popular series "Teach Yourself History", McFarlane displayed little of the verve he did on the podium. Have just started another of the posthumous collections - there's that voice again! If only he'd been able to carry it over into his writing. Perhaps this is why he didn't produce more written work in his lifetime.

[sam tannehill]

I give this book four stars because I picked it up to read thinking that it would be a biography on Wycliff. At the first, the author says that there is very little on Wycliff and that his book was going to focus on the surrounding culture and events during his period to give context to Wycliff's influence. I didn't believe him, I thought I would still get a good biography. But his book is exactly what the author said it would be. Context to the few things we actually do know about Wycliff, starting with his education at Oxford and ending with the fizzling out of the Lollards in the early 15th century.

This is still a good book, although it is a little dense in some parts for being such a short book (180-ish pages). I would still recommend it. I found it very interesting to learn about England, the Roman Catholic church in England, Wycliff's chief arguments to reform the church, and the Lollards. There are also a few interesting sentences regarding the Czech Bohemians and Jan Hus. The author concludes that although the followers of Wycliff were linked to the followers of Hus, and there was some correspondence, ultimately the two reform movements did not influence each other very much at all. That was interesting to learn! I had thought otherwise. But McFarlane supports his conclusion by saying that Wycliff sought to reform the church from within, much like Luther, while the Czech Bohemians sought to counter the church and separate (although I am not sure this is accurate of Jan Hus himself).

I also learned that the Lollard movement was at first started by leading Oxford scholars and essentially sought the same reforms as Wycliff, but as the Roman Catholic church headed up an inquisition at Oxford and threatened excommunication and capital punishment the first Lollards surrendered the cause. The movement then transferred from the academics to the commoners. Few were burned at the stake in England. And then the Lollards simply lost all steam.

The story of Wycliff, although limited, is powerful and inspiring. I recommend this book with the caveat not to expect a rich biography but rather an explanation of the times.

[Kenneth]

This one was assigned reading for a medieval English history course I was taking at the time. An excellent survey of the life and times of John Wycliffe and his early followers, called Lollards, who were often prosecuted as heretics. Wycliffe was an ordained medieval Catholic priest who kind of inadvertently slipped into criticism of Catholic doctrine, and though he died in peace, his bones were later dug up and burned, having been declared a heretic. The author was a professor at Oxford University.

[Kainka]

This is a great introduction to the history of Lollards and John Wycliffe. It is well researched and easy to read. Although, it is slightly outdated now.