Marvellous Foolishness

This chapter examines how the English bishops demonstrated the indispensability of their jurisdiction by launching a campaign to eradicate heresy. There is no doubting the seriousness with which heresy was taken in early Tudor England, or the determination of church leaders to see it eradicated. In February 1512, John Colet reminded the Fathers of Convocation that the realm was nowadays ‘grieved of heretics, men mad with marvellous foolishness’. His suggestion that the wicked lifestyle of priests itself represented a kind of heresy was calculated to concentrate minds on the problems facing the Church of England, and the weight of moral demand on those charged with addressing them. In England, the people accused of heresy were known as Lollards. The chapter first considers the heretics' link to reformation of the Church before discussing the inner worlds of Lollardy.