LOLLARDS

A religious sect, which arose in Germany about the beginning of the fourteenth century; so called, as many writers have imagined, from Walter Lollard, who began to dogmatize in 1315, and was burnt at Cologne; though others think that Lollard was no surname, but merely a term of reproach applied to all heretics, who concealed the poison of error under the appearance of piety. In England, the followers of Wickliff were called, by way of reproach, Lollards , from the supposition that there was some affinity between some of their tenets: though others are of opinion that the English Lollards came from Germany. (See Wickliffites .)