From Oxford, as from Assissi two centuries before, Wyclif sent out “poor priests” into the byways and village greens, sometime even to churches, to win the souls of the neglected. Clad in russet robes of undressed wool, without sandals, purse, or scrip, a long staff in their hand, dependent for food and shelter on the good will of their neighbors, Wyclif ’s “poor priests” soon became a power in the land. Their enemies dubbed them Lollards, meaning “mumblers.” They carried a few pages of the reformer’s Bible and his tracts and sermons as they went throughout the countryside preaching the Word
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