Lollards of Coventry, 1486–1522

New insights into the nature of religious dissent in England prior to the English Reformation.

Shannon McSheffrey (Edited and translated by), Norman Tanner (Edited and translated by)

9780521830836, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 November 2003

372 pages
22.4 x 14.8 x 2.5 cm, 0.602 kg

'The editors deserve thanks for making these records available in a user-friendly format and in fluid English translation. … a volume that will be treasured by students of later Lollardy.' Journal of Ecclesiastical History

In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, Coventry harboured a community of Lollards, adherents of medieval England's only popular heresy. Allowed to flourish relatively unmolested for decades, the Coventry Lollards came under close episcopal scrutiny in 1511 and 1512 when Geoffrey Blyth, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, began a concerted effort to uncover and eradicate their community. This volume presents a remarkable record of the testimony compiled during Blyth's crackdown, along with all other surviving evidence for heretical activities in Coventry. The documents, offered here both in their original languages of Latin and Middle English and in modern English translation, give new insights into the nature of religious dissent in the years just prior to the first stirrings of the English Reformation.

Acknowledgements
Editorial procedure
Abbreviations
Introduction: The prosecution of heresy in the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield, 1486–1522
The charges and the defendants' beliefs
The defendants and the practice of Lollardy
The documents
Part I. Chronology of Examinations of Coventry Lollard Suspects, 1486–1522: Part II. Prosecution of The Coventry Lollards in the Ecclesiastical Records, 1486–1522, 1486–1503,1511–1512: Abjurations, 1511–1512, Undated fragments, c. 1511–1512, 1515–1522, Explanatory notes
Part III. Prosecution of the Coventry Lollards in Foxe's Martyrologies and in the Coventry Civic Annals: Explanatory notes
Appendix 1. Suspects named in the Coventry heresy prosecutions, 1486–1522
Appendix 2. Books named in the records of Coventry heresy prosecutions, 1486–1522
Appendix 3. Clerics and others present at Coventry heresy prosecutions, 1486–1522
Index.

Subject Areas: Political oppression & persecution [JPVR], History of religion [HRAX], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], British & Irish history [HBJD1]