Wyclif and the Lollards

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss John Wyclif and the Lollards.

John Wyclif was a medieval philosopher and theologian who in the fourteenth century instigated the first complete English translation of the Bible. One of the most important thinkers of the Middle Ages, he also led a movement of opposition to the Roman Church and its institutions which has come to be seen as a precursor to the Reformation.

Wyclif disputed some of the key teachings of the Church, including the doctrine of transubstantiation. His followers, the Lollards, were later seen as dangerous heretics, and in the fifteenth century many of them were burnt at the stake. Today Lollardy is seen as the first significant movement of dissent against the Church in England.

With:

Sir Anthony Kenny
Philosopher and former Master of Balliol College, Oxford

Anne Hudson
Emeritus Professor of Medieval English at the University of Oxford

Rob Lutton
Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Nottingham

Producer: Thomas Morris.