In European history, what were the 'Lollards'?

The 'Lollards' were a group of anti-clerical English Christians who lived between the late 1300s and the early 1500s. The 'Lollards' were followers of John Wycliffe, the Oxford University theologian and Christian Reformer who instigated the translation of the Bible into vernacular English.

The 'Lollards' had profound disagreements with the Catholic Church. They were critical of the Pope and the hierarchical structure of Church authority. The 'Lollards' emphasized personal piety, humility, and simplicity in their relationship to God, rather than formality.

At Oxford in the 1370's, Wycliffe came to advocate increasingly radical religious views. He denied the doctrine of transubstantiation and stressed the importance of preaching and the primacy of Scripture as the source of Christian doctrine. Claiming that the office of the papacy lacked scriptural justification, he equated the pope with Antichrist and welcomed the 14th-century schism in the papacy as a prelude to its destruction. Wycliffe was charged with heresy and retired from Oxford in 1378.

Nevertheless, he was never brought to trial, and he continued to write and preach until his death in 1384. The term 'Lollard' was a derogatory term given to the group by the established Church.

The exact origin of the term remains uncertain, but it is believed by many etymologists to have come from the Dutch word 'lollaerd,' meaning 'mumbler.' By the mid-1400s, the word had essentially become synonymous with 'heretic.'