Thomas Harding was the final Lollard to be executed for heresy, earlier than the Church of England was shaped. That is the story…
The Lollards
The Lollards have been England's first evangelical motion. Many individuals supported John Wycliffe's reform concepts that unfold all through England. Some individuals grew to become itinerant preachers and went in pairs to cities and villages telling individuals the excellent news about Jesus in English. Folks gathered of their properties the place males or girls led the congregation to hope and skim the Bible in English.
They have been an informed and peaceable individuals and have been known as Lollards. Their religion was biblical and fairly mainstream by trendy requirements. Actually, they have been often known as evangelicals. Nevertheless, on this pre-Reformation interval, a few of their views and practices have been thought of suspect by mainstream church authorities. They have been thought of heretics as a result of they met and not using a priest, used English as a substitute of Latin, met exterior the church constructing, gave the Bible the primary authority over the church, and particularly believed that the bread and wine of communion have been purely symbolic.
Chiltern Lollards
The Lollards have been significantly quite a few within the Chilterns, a closely wooded space roughly between London and Oxford. Right here the Lollards have been persecuted in 1414, 1462 and 1511. It was in all probability in 1511 that William Smith, Bishop of Lincoln, launched an inquiry into heresy in south Bucks primarily based within the former bishop's palace at Wooburn, close to Beaconsfield. In December 1511 some Lollards dwelling in Amersham have been questioned and spoke in opposition to idolatry and superstition. Some have been condemned to be monks in monasteries and a few have been condemned to make pilgrimages. These have been merciless occasions and others have been condemned to dying if they didn’t resign their evangelical beliefs.
Thomas Harding
One of many companions of the Lollards at Amersham was Thomas Harding. His story is instructed in Foxe's E book of Martyrs and in native oral custom. Thomas Harding, together with many different Lollards, agreed to retract their views. In 1521, Harding was discovered to have reverted to espousing the Lollard religion and was once more summoned earlier than an ecclesiastical court docket arrange by a brand new hardline bishop, John Longland. This time six Lollards have been sentenced to dying, 5 males and one lady. Harding escaped dying by interesting once more. One of many situations imposed on him was that he should not go away the parish of Amersham. Nevertheless, after the executions at Amersham in 1522, Thomas Harding moved to Chesham, the place he had a small property.
William Tyndale
In the meantime, there was a more moderen model of the New Testomony in English, translated from the unique Greek by William Tyndale. It was in additional trendy and customary English, and was extra intelligible than Wycliffe's translation. Revealed in Worms and later in Antwerp, it was first smuggled into England in early 1526. Tyndale's New Testomony grew to become extremely popular and was adopted by the Lollards. Tyndale additionally wrote different theological works that will at the moment be categorised as mainstream evangelical.
The Final Lollard Martyr
Round Easter 1532, Thomas Harding, about 60 years of age, was discovered sitting by a stool and going into the woods, the place he was studying considered one of Tyndale's theological books, entitled “The Obedience of a Christian Man.” Thomas and his spouse Alice have been arrested of their house the place different books deemed unlawful have been discovered beneath his floorboards, notably Tyndale's New Testomony and one other theological work by William Tyndale known as 'The Observe of Prelates'.
Harding was taken to Wooburn to be questioned by the bishop and Rowland Messenger, vicar of Excessive Wycombe. The fees in opposition to him have been that he learn the New Testomony in English, that he maintained that the bread and wine within the service have been merely symbolic (ie he denied transubstantiation), that he rejected the worship of pictures, and that he spoke in opposition to pilgrimages for the acquisition of advantage. These have been all thought of heretical on the time.
On 30 Could 1532, Harding was taken to Chesham for execution. The place was up on the White Hill, on the highway to Botley, simply seen for instance to many. Harding was tied to a stake and a fireplace was lit beneath it. It’s recorded that one of many spectators threw a log of fireside on his head, a particular favor which hastened his demise.
It was solely two years after Harding's execution, in 1534, that the Church of England was shaped and in 1539 Henry VIII launched the English Bible into the church buildings. After the creation of the Church of England, many issues that the Lollards believed and practiced have been not heretical.
Heritage
Thomas Harding is taken into account the final Lollard martyr earlier than the beginning of the English Reformation. There are a selection of Thomas Harding memorials in Chesham which could be visited. Chesham is on the north-west finish of the London Underground's Metropolitan Line. There’s a granite cross monument to his reminiscence on the entrance to St Mary's Parish Church and a memorial stone erected on White Mountain close to the positioning of his execution. Neither is way from the station. An elementary faculty can be named in his honor. Harding remains to be an area surname and lots of declare to be associated to it.
