179 



require"; and he calls upon the King to expel, banish, and imprison such men, 

 and so that by " severe judgment and virtuous diligence, might, favour, and aid, 

 there may not one spark remain hid under the ashes, but that it be utterly 

 extinguished and speedily put out. " (Eeg. Tref nant, transl. ) 



Nothing fxirther appears in the Registers wi'h reference either to 

 Swynderby, Walter Brut, or the others. Swynderby is known to have escaped 

 harmless during the reign of Eicbard II. Fox thinks he was one of the earliest 

 martyrs, that he was burnt in Smithfield in 1401, in the presence of a great 

 multitude of people : others think "that he in prison died," or that he went 



name for heretics, if we put faith in Du Cange, who says in his Glossary, that 

 ceitain heretics who arose in Germany and Belgium at the \ery beginning of 

 the fourteenth century, were called " I.oUards " or " Lullards." In the 

 " Grcnealogia Cooiitum Flandri;B," 1302, they are called "Lilliards," 



The earliest known mention of Lollards, however, is by Joannes 

 Hocsemius, a.d. 1309, who says : " In that year some circumambulating 

 hypocrites, who are called 'Lollards' or 'Praise-God's,' deceived cei-tain noble 

 women in Hanover and Brabant," &c. Trithemius, in Chron. a.d. 1315, says 

 they were thus called from a certain German, named Walter Lolbard, about 

 whom little seems known, but that he was burnt for heresy at CologHe in 1322. 



Another derivation Du Cange gives from Kilianus, " Lollard, Mussitator 

 (Psalm-singer), Mussitabundus, LoUaerd, Lollebroeder, BroeJer-Lollard, Lol- 

 lardus." The word is thus connected with the German " lullen," to hum, and 

 our own "lull " and " lullaby." In Dutch "lollen" is used as to sing psalms. 

 Alexianus Monachus gives " LoUard, the defendant of a wrong faith, or of a 

 false religion, commonly called ' Lollards.' A Waldensiau heretic was also called 

 a Lollard." 



This German origin of the term " Lollard " does mot, however, sufficiently 

 explain its general and immediate adoption, as a party name of contemxjt in 

 England. It has been suggested, therefore, that by a play upon the word, the 

 common people would naturally think it derived from the English verbal root 

 "loll," after the analogy of laggard, sluggard, drunkard, dotard, and thus 

 " Lollard" would at once convey the idea of a lazy, idle, dawdler who preferred 

 to preach rather than to work, and this view seems to receive support from 

 a contemporary writer— 



"And folk of ye order 

 That lollers and loseles, for leel men halden." 



Vision of Piers Plouyliman, p. 131. 



Another play upon the word Lollard, which was very common, is the 

 one used by Pope Boniface as quoted from his BuE, which treats it as if 

 derived from the plant Lolium, the darnel : That as this weed causes great 

 damage to the corn amongst which it grows (infdix lolium. Georg :) so the 

 Wycliffites did great injury to the faithful in the church. Chaucer mention* 

 it in this sense, when speaking of the " Idler" — 

 " He wolde sowin some difficult^ 

 Or springen cokkie in our clene come." 



It must be added, however, that there are some, as well thoughlful 

 students in history, as philologists, who believe the term " Lollard " to be 

 purely and simply of English origin ; that it was first given to the followers of 

 Wycliffe, and was carried from England into Germany, at the same time as the 

 opinions denoted by it. 



The English root "loll," as above noticed, affords its most pimple deriva- 

 tion. The Germans adopting the English name, without knowing its origin, 

 or without being able to find any direct root for it in their own language, 

 would be led easily enough to derive it from the name of the chief leaders of 

 the sect. 



These gent'emen, therefore, think lightly of the authority and dates of 

 Hocsemius, and believe that Walter the Lollard, lived at a later period than that 

 usually assigned to him ; and also that he takes his own name from his opinions, 

 instead of giving it to them. 



