Two Wycliffite Texts

The two texts edited here concern the views of two followers of John Wyclif in the years 1406-07. The first, the only surviving sermon of William Taylor, principal of St Edmund Hall in Oxford, was preached in November 1406 at St Paul's Cross in London; the sermon, setting out radical views on ecclesiastical temporalities and clerical corruption, caused a scandal, involving Henry IV and Archbishop Arundel. The sermon and the events following it are mentioned in the second text, the Testimony of William Thorpe. Thorpe was arrested in April 1407, and sent for investigation to Arundel; the text here, found in two English and two Latin versions, is Thorpe's account of his conversations with the Archbishop. The testimony throws light on the connections between Wyclif and early Lollards, as well as outlining the dominant views of the heretics. It is, despite the apparent accuracy of much of its evidence, an interesting early example of semi-fictionalized autobiography.