es, especially in
Oxford and in industrial centres. The Lollards, as his followers were
called, had supporters in parliament and among people of high rank in
the court of Richard II., and the king's marriage to Anne of Bohemia
brought about the importation of Wycliffe's writings into Bohemia, where
they had a strong influence on the religious movement led by Hus. At
first the bishops were not inclined to persecute, and the earlier
Lollards mostly recanted under pressure, but their number increased.

The 15th century.

With the accession of the Lancastrian house the crown allied itself with
the church, and the bishops adopted a repressive policy towards the
Lollards. By the canon law obstinate heretics were to be burnt by the
secular power, and though England had hitherto been almost free from
heresy, one or two burnings had taken place in accordance with that law.
In 1401 a statute, _De heretico comburendo_, ordered that heretics
convicted in a spiritual court should be committed to the secular arm
and publicly burned, and, while this statute was pending, one Sawtre was
burned as a relapsed heretic. Henry V. was zealous for orthodoxy and the
persecution of Lollards increased; in 1414 Sir John Oldcastle, Lord
Cobham, who had been condemned as a heretic, escaped and made an
insurrection; he was taken in 1417 and hanged and burned. Lollardism was
connected with an insurrection in 1431; it then ceased to have any
political importance, but it kept its hold in certain towns and
districts on the lower classes; many Lollards were forced to recant and
others suffered martyrdom. The church was in an unsatisfactory state. As
regards the papacy, the crown generally maintained the position taken up
in the previous century, but its policy was fitful, and the custom of
allowing bishops who were made cardinals to retain their sees
strengthened papal influence. The bishops were largely engaged in
secular business; there was much plurality, and cathedral and collegiate
churches were frequently left to inferior officers whose lives were
unclerical. The clergy were numerous and drawn from all classes, and
humble birth did not debar a man from attaining the highest positions in
the church. Candidates for holy orders were still examined, but clerical
education seems to have declined. Preaching was rare, partly from
neglectfulness and partly because, in 1401, in order to prevent the
spread of heresy, priests were forbidden to preach with