While compiling the other parts of these Bibliographies, I’ve come across works of fiction that depict lollards as important or central characters. Up to now I’ve not included them on the site, but this list seems to have grown large enough to warrant its own section for curious readers. Most of these coincide with the explosion in biographies of Wyclif that occurred in the decades around the quincentary of Wyclif’s death in 1884, most seem to have been targeted at young or adolescent readers, and some were published as agitprop by protestant presses.
I’ve also included works written for a young audience that are more accurately described as hortatory pedagogy rather than fiction. These include non-fictional histories and biographies that authors say are written for a student audience, some of which are Sunday school texts.
Some the fictional works have been published recently. Seyton’s and Vantrease’s novels, for example, seem to be part of the sub-genre one might describe as “costume dramas” (to abduct a phrase usually applied to films) or period dramas, in the vein of writers such as Margaret George or Sharon Kay Penman.
Please also see the blog post about this page. Texts included here as .pdfs have not been reviewed for completeness or other scanning errors, nor have they been bookmarked.
Ackroyd, Peter. The Clerkenwell Tales. Nan Talese, 2004.
Adams, Henry Cadwallader. Stories for Sundays, or, Tales Illustrative of Scripture. First Series. London, ?1871. [There are two “series” of stories, in two volumes. This first series of stories includes one entitled “The Lollard Priest.”]
—. Tales Illustrating Church History. England, vol. 3: The Medieval Period. Oxford, 1877. [
Tales Illustrating Church History (7.3 mb)]
A.L.O.E. [Tucker, Charlotte Maria.] The Blacksmith of Boniface Lane. London: Thomas Nelson, 1893. [ Blacksmith (3.8 mb)]
Burch, Harriete E. Dick Delver: A Story of the Peasant’s Revolt of the Fourteenth Century. 1889.
Callwell, Josephine M. A Champion of Faith: A Tale of Prince Hal and the Lollards.
Cochley, Herbert L. “The Boy’s Love of Fighting.” Rural Manhood: Devoted to the Country Work of the Young Men’s Christian Association in Village Town and Country 6.2 (Feb. 1915): 90-91. [ Rural Manhood (>1 mb)]
Coxe, Margaret. The Life of John Wycliffe, D.D.. Columbus: Isaac Whiting, 1840. [This biography is written, as her Preface says, for “our youthful readers.” Coxe (3.7 mb)]
Davis, Minnie K. The Lollard: a Story of the Wiclifites. Lutheran Publication Society, 1887.
Eastwood, Frances. Geoffrey the Lollard. New York: Dodd & Mead, 1870. [ Geoffrey the Lollard (3.2 mb)]
Frazer, Margaret. A Play of Isaac. A Joliffe Mystery. Berkley, 2004.
Gaspey, Thomas. The Lollards: A Tale Founded on the Persecutions which Marked the Early Part of the Fifteenth Century. 3 vols. London: Longman et al., 1822. [ vol. 1 (4.5 mb); vol. 2 (4.7 mb); vol. 3 (4.4 mb)]
Holt, Emily Sarah. The Lord Mayor: A Tale of London in 1384. 1884. [ The Lord Mayor (4.6 mb). Holt was also the author of John de Wycliffe, the First Reformer, which is non-fiction.]
—. Mistress Margery: A Tale of the Lollards. London: John F. Shaw, 1868. [ Mistress Margery (2.4 mb)]
—. Margery’s Son, or, Until He Find It. London: John F. Shaw, 1878. [See this here on Google Books only as a preview.]
—. White Rose of Langley: A Story of the Court of England in the Olden Time. London: John F. Shaw. [ White Rose (3.7 mb)]
Howitt, William. The Life and Adventures of Jack of the Mill, commonly Called Lord Othmill. New York, 1844. [ Jack of the Mill (4 mb)]
Leslie, Emma. Conrad: A Tale of Wiclif and Bohemia. Cranston & Stowe, 1879.
—. Dearer than Life: A Tale of the Times of Wycliffe. London: Religious Tract Society. [ Dearer than Life (3.4 mb)]
Leslie, Emma, and J.D. Watson. Before the Dawn: a Tale of Wycliffe and Bohemia. 1880.
Mackay, Margaret. Clifford Castle; a Tale of the English Reformation. Edinburgh. [ Clifford Castle (4.9 mb)]
—. The Wycliffites; or, England in the Fifteenth Century. New York: Robert Carter, 1847. [ The Wycliffites (5.8 mb)]
Maurice, Charles Edmund. Lives of English Popular Leaders in the Middle Ages. London: Henry S. King, 1875. [This is non fiction. It contains “lives” of Tyler, Ball, and Oldcastle written for students. Lives of English Popular Leaders. (2.7 mb)]
—. Richard de Lacy: A Tale of the Later Lollards. 1890.
Merryweather, F. Somnor. Gilbert Wright, The Gospeller: A Tale of the Lollards. [ Gilbert the Gospeller (2.4 mb)]
Meyer, Annie Nathan. Robert Annys: Poor Priest. A Tale of the Great Uprising. London, 1901. [ Robert Annys (2.8 mb)]
Morgan, Joseph Brown, and James Rogers Freeman. The Spurs of Gold: A Story of Lollard Times. 1905.
O’Connor, T. Clifford. Wycliffe Ballads: A Biography in Verse, with Other Poems and Ballads of Protestantism. Dublin, 1888. [ Wycliffe Ballads (12.8 mb)]
Phipps, C.M. Katherine. The Sword of De Bardwell: A Tale of Agincourt. London: John F. Shaw, 1881. [ De Bardwell (2.3 mb)]
Pond, Enoch. Wickliffe and His Times. Philadelphia: American Sunday School Union, 1841. [This is non-fiction. Pond (2 mb)]
Reed, Frederic Alonzo. The Boy-Lollard: a Tale of the Readers of Tyndale’s New Testament in the Times of Henry VIII. Boston, 1883.
Rhind, W. Oak. Hubert Ellerdale: A Tale of the Days of Wycliffe. London, ?1882. [ Hubert Ellerdale (3.8 mb)]
Sargent, George Etell. Richard Hunne: A Story of Old London. London: Religious Tract Society, 1871. [ Richard Hunne (4.2 mb)]
Satterlee, Thom. Burning Wyclif. Lubbock, Texas: Texas Tech Univ. Press, 2006. [Several of his poems, including “The Private Meditations of John Wyclif: On Angels” and “Wyclif Practices the Art of Definition while Walking to his Morning Class,” were published several years ago at poems.com.]
Sayles, Charles E. Wiclif: An Historical Drama. Oxford: John Thornton, 1887. [ Wiclif (1.4 mb)]
Seyton, Anya. Katherine. Houghton Mifflin, 1954. [About Kathryn Swinford.]
Stebbing, Grace. Denham Hall: A Story of Wiclif’s Days. 1890.
—. In Wiclif’s Days; or, A Safe Hiding Place. 1885.
The Trial of the Pope of Rome, the Antichrist, or Man of Sin, Described in the Bible, for High Treason Against the Son of God. . . Taken in Short Hand, by a Friend to St. Peter. 2nd ed. Boston: Tappan and Dennett, 1844. [This volume has been lightly bookmarked to designate the testimony around the period of Wycliffism. Trial of the Pope (2.2 mb)]
Vantrease, Brenda Rickman. The Illuminator. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2005.
—. The Mercy Seller. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2008. [A sequel to The Illuminator.]
Workman, Herbert B. The Dawn of the Reformation. Vol. 1: The Age of Wyclif; Vol. 2: The Age of Hus. Books for Bible Students. London: Charles H. Kelly, 1901, 1902. [These are non-fiction, and aimed at slightly older students than other texts on this page. (2.7 mb and 5.2 mb)]
Wycliffe to Wesley: Heroes and Martyrs of the Church in Britain. London: Wesleyan Conference, 1879. [This is non-fiction. Wycliffe to Wesley (5.9 mb)]