A Case Study of Lollardy in the Diocese of Salisbury, 1485-1500
Exam No. B044251 Overcoming the Binary: A Case Study of Lollardy in the Diocese of Salisbury, 1485-1500 Dissertation Supervisor: Cordelia Beattie 1 Exam No. B044251 Many thanks to Dr Cordelia Beattie for all the help, inspiration and time she has given me over the course of this year. 2 Exam No. B044251 Contents Introduction 4-8 Chapter I 9-20 Chapter II 21-31 Chapter III 32-40 Conclusion 41-43 Bibliography 44-46 3 Exam No. B044251 Introduction ‘Wavering in my mynde and greatly doubting’1 On 23nd March 1499, John Stanwey, a weaver from the parish of Saint Giles in Reading, stood before John Blyth, Bishop of Salisbury, at the Bishop’s Palace of Sonning Manor. With him was Thomas Scochyn, a tailor from the same parish, but a man who was probably John’s social superior, as a burgess of the guild merchant in Reading.2 Perhaps, therefore, when called upon to abjure, Thomas went first. He seems to be the more committed religious dissenter, confessing a full range of unorthodox beliefs; calling the Pope the antichrist, questioning the value of pilgrimages and criticizing offerings made to images instead of the poor. He also said he had believed that the sacrament of the altar was ‘veray bredd and nought ellys’.3 John’s abjuration reads differently. The formulaic structures and language of the abjurations recorded in the bishops’ registers prevents us from getting a precise understanding of John’s attitudes and feelings, but the tone of his confession seems very different from Thomas’s. Far from a clear statement of heterodox dissent, John says: Also I the said John Stanwey have been wavering in my myde [mind] and greatly doubting upon the sacrament of the aultere whether it were the veray body of ou saviour Cryste or noo.
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