page_title: Lollardy
section_title: Oldcastle Revolt and persecution
hierarchical_section_title: Lollardy / History / Oldcastle Revolt and persecution
caption_attribution_description: English: Sir John Oldcastle being burnt for Lollard heresy and insurrection. First published in Holinshed's Chronicles (1577). Image from: http://oldsite.library.upenn.edu/etext/furness/holinshed/oldcastle.html?
context_page_description: Lollardy, also known as Lollardism or the Lollard movement, was a pre-Protestant Christian religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century to the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Roman Catholic theologian who was dismissed from the University of Oxford in 1381 for criticism of the Roman Catholic Church. The Lollards' demands were primarily for reform of Western Christianity. They formulated their beliefs in the Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards.
context_section_description: By the early 15th century, stern measures were undertaken by Church and state which drove Lollardy underground. One such measure was the 1410 burning at the stake of John Badby, a layman and craftsman who refused to renounce his Lollardy. He was the first layman to suffer capital punishment in England for the crime of heresy.
  John Oldcastle, a close friend of Henry V of England and the basis for Falstaff in the Shakespearean history Henry IV, Part 1, was brought to trial in 1413 after evidence of his Lollard beliefs was uncovered. Oldcastle escaped from the Tower of London and organized an insurrection, which included an attempted kidnapping of the king. The rebellion failed, and Oldcastle was executed. Oldcastle's revolt made Lollardy seem even more threatening to the state, and persecution of Lollards became more severe. 
  A variety of other martyrs for the Lollard cause were executed during the next century, including the Amersham Martyrs in the early 1500s and Thomas Harding in 1532, one of the last Lollards to be made victim. A gruesome reminder of this persecution is the 'Lollards Pit' in Thorpe Wood, now Thorpe Hamlet, Norwich, Norfolk, where men are customablie burnt, including Thomas Bilney.
caption: John Oldcastle being burnt for insurrection and Lollard heresy.
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