>From J. Helt's recent post on the Lollards and Purgatory:
> the dead" (III, 339-40). Some Lollards did denounce Purgatory,
> while others attacked prayers for the dead as a "false ground of
> alms-giving." Most, however, did not include rejection of
> Purgatory among their beliefs when confessing their heresies in
> 1511-12 or 1528-29.
> Is it safe to say that Wycliffe did not "expressly denounce the
> doctrine of Purgatory" in his works? Or are there other more
> explicit references than that from _Select English Works_? If he
> did denounce the doctrine, it would be striking that so few
> Lollards chose to follow him.
I haven't read the Lollard confessions of 1511-12 or 1528-29,
but the question I would ask is: how confident are you that the
confessions reveal the Lollards' true beliefs? Presumably, the
confessions were not written by the Lollards themselves. Were they
the product of leading questions? Did those questions concern
Purgatory? Can we take confessions as comprehensive statements of
belief, as we might confessions of faith?
-Michael Graham
Coker College
GRAHAM@Coker.edu