Who would have thought that a century before the apostate Augustinian, debaucher of nuns, and faithful servant of Satan, Martin Luther, there were already people attacking the One, Holy Catholic, and Apostolic Church of Christ on many of the same points raised by that heresiarch?
Influenced by the heresiarch, Hus, John Wycliffe in England was the inspiration for a movement called 'Lollardy'.
Like the full-blown protestantism of Luther, his minions, and those who followed him in their vicious attacks on the Body of Christ, Lollardy led to apostasy, rebellion, and the disintegration of society.
They specifically believed in the heresy of consubstantiation, which Luther probably adopted from them. They denied the necessity of confession and went even further than Luther when they denied the necessity of baptism for salvation.
They resurrected the iconoclast heresy, which Calvin and his minions followed them in. They rejected religious vows, fasting, and pilgrimages. They rejected the Biblical doctrine of prayer for the dead, denouncing chantries and endowments for Masses to be said for the departed.
Their attack on civil society was rooted in the heresy of 'dominion and grace', which was also held by Jan Hus, and was condemned by the Œcumenical Council of Constance. This heresy held that no man might hold dominion or power over other men unless he was in the state of grace. The obvious problem with this is that it justifies rebellion in any case. Don't like what the King, the Pope, your manorial lord, or your Parish Priest is doing? No problem! He's obviously sinned and fallen from the state of grace. Therefore, rebellion is perfectly justified.
It is true that some Saints have been granted the power to read the state of men's souls, but it is not one of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost given to every Catholic at their Confirmation or Chrismation!
Whilst not all Lollards accepted all of these beliefs in their entirety, here is a link to the 'Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards', nailed to the doors of Westminster Abbey and Old St Paul's Cathedral in AD 1395. Sounds a bit familiar, eh?
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