Conference Paper Archive

This is an archive of the papers presented in sessions sponsored by The Lollard Society. At the top are Conferences we have sponsored (one so far, with more to come we hope!). The second group of papers were presented at the International Conference for Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo. The third group were presented at the International Medieval Congress at Leeds. The names and affliations of presenters are as of the time of presentation.

Papers presented at conferences sponsored by The Lollard Society

LollardPalooza (University of Nebraska/Lincoln, March 10-11, 2005):

  • March 10: Plenary Address, Anne Hudson
  • March 11:
    • Moira Fitzgibbon, Marist College, "Wretchedness and its Pleasures in the Pore Caitif"
    • Fiona Somerset, Duke University, TBA
    • Paul Olsen, University of Nebraska, TBA
    • Shannon Gayk, University of Notre Dame, "'Sensible Signes': Reginald Pecock, Images, and the Vernacular Rhetorics of Sense"
    • Kirsty Campbell, University of Toronto, "Establishing an Authoritative Vernacular: Reginald Pecock and The Reule of Chrysten Religioun"
    • Ian Levy, Lexington Theological Seminary, "Wyclif's Soteriology"
    • Patrick Hornbeck, St. Cross College, Oxford, "The Epistle of James and the Transformation of Lollard Soteriology, 1380-1520"
    • Angelica Settell, University of Nebraska, "Aquinas and Wyclif on the Virtues"
    • Stephen Penn, University of Stirling, "Losing Time: John Wyclif and Scriptural Narratology"
    • Stephen Lahey, University of Nebraska, "Wyclif and the Concord of Faith and Reason: Understanding the Opening Chapters of De Trinitate"

Papers presented at the International Medieval Congress on Medieval Studies

42nd International Medieval Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo (May 10-13, 2007). Sessions took place on Saturday, May 12th.

  • Session 554, Saturday, 10:00 AM: Before the Lollards (Presider: Jill C. Havens, Texas Christian Univ.)
    • "'The Lawe and the Lore to Knawe God All-Mighten': Archbishop Thoresby and the Vernacular of the North," Sarah James, Univ. of Kent
    • "Rolle's Canor: Mystical Authority and Extragrammatical Meaning," Katherine Zieman, Univ. of Notre Dame
    • "Walter Hilton as a Pre-Wycliffite Writer," Michael Sargent, Queens College, CUNY
    • Respondent: Kathryn Kerby Fulton, Univ. of Notre Dame
  • Session 453, Saturday, 1:30 PM: Fifteenth-Century Publics (Presider: Paul Strohm, Columbia Univ.)
    • "The Political Virtues and Their Public in Late Fourteenth- and Fifteenth-Century England ," Charles F. Briggs, Georgia Southern Univ.
    • "'A Kyngdom in Comouns Lyes': The Digby Poems and the Idea of Public Poetry," Helen Barr, Lady Margaret Hall, Univ. of Oxford
    • "Widening or Narrowing: The English Public towards 1500," John Watts, Corpus Christi College, Univ. of Oxford
  • Session 554, Saturday, 3:30 PM: Lives of Christ in Late Medieval England (Presider: Michael G. Sargent, Queens College, CUNY)
    • "Challenging Conformities and Middle English Lives of Christ," Ian Johnson, Univ. of St. Andrews
    • "Uses of Affective Piety in the Siege of Jerusalem," Emily Leverett, Ohio State Univ.
    • "Lollard Canons and other Outlier Manuscripts: The Case of Huntington Library, MS HM 501," Elizabeth Schirmer, New Mexico State Univ.
    • "Incarnational Epistemologies and Incarnational Poetics: Reading and Writing Lives of Christ in Later Medieval English Texts," Nancy Bradley Warren, Florida State Univ.

41st International Medieval Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo (May 4-7, 2006). Sessions took place on Friday, May 5th. The fifth session was a Roundtable co-sponsored with "Heretics Without Borders":

  • The Fifteenth Century I: Poetry and Politics After Lollardy (Presider: Kellie Robertson, Univ. of Pittsburgh).
    • "Death in Dialogue: Hoccleve, Suso, and hte Ars Sciendi Moriendi," Ethan Knapp, Ohio State Univ.
    • "Thomas Hoccleve, Wycliffism, and Late Medieval Political Discourse," Robin Wharton, Univ. of Georgia
    • "Hoccleve and Heresy," John J. Thompson, Queen's Univ. Belfast
  • The Fifteenth Century II: Religious Writing After Lollardy (Presider: Jill C. Havens, Texas Christian Univ.).
    • "Representing Reading in Dives and Pauper," Elizabeth Schrimer, New Mexico State Univ.
    • "Rolle's English Psalter and Late Medieval Pastoral Theology: The Case of the Lollards," David Lavinsky, Univ. of Michigan-Ann Arbor
    • "The Forest and the Tree: Metaphors for Translation in a Fifteenth-Century Passion Meditation," Catherine Innes-Parker, Univ. of Prince Edward Island
  • The Fifteenth Century III: Translation After Lollardy (Presider: Derrick G. Pitard, Slippery Rock University).
    • "Translation as Dissent: Orthodox Resistance in Fifteenth-Century Saint's Lives," Karen Winstead, Ohio State Univ.
    • "Markys . . . off the Workman': Heresy, Hagiography, and the Heavens in Lydgate's Pilgrimage of the Life of Man," Lisa H. Cooper, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison
    • "'Thow lei Yow Calle Lollard': Lollard and Reformist Hagiography in John Capgrave's Life of Saint Catherine," Shannon Gayk, Indiana University-Bloomington
  • Lollards and Allegory (Presider: Katherine Little, Fordam Univ.)
    • "Wyclif's Allegorical Sense," Alastair Minnis, Ohio State Univ.
    • "Preaching the Substance of the Saints: Lollardy, Allegory, and the Literal Sense of Sanctity," Jennifer Jahner, Univ. of Colorado-Boulder
    • "The Family Tree in Pecock and Benjamin Minor," Suzanne Conklin, Univ. of Toronto
  • Crossing Borders: An Interdisciplinary Roundtable on Heresy (Sponsors: Heretics Without Borders and the Lollard Society; Presider: Andrew Larsen).
    • A roundtable discussion with Stephen Lahey (Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln); Fiona Somerset (Duke Univ.); J. Patrick Hornbeck (Christ Church, Univ. of Oxford); Susan Taylor-Snyder (Benedictine College); Mark Gregory Pegg (Washington Univ.); and Louisa A Burnham (Middlebury College).

40th International Medieval Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo (May 5-8, 2005). Sessions took place on Thursday, May 5th:

  • Engendering Lollardy (Presider: Jill C. Havens, Texas Christian Univ.)
    • "The Trouble with Lollardy," Mishtooni Bose, Christ Church, Univ. of Oxford
    • "Lollard, Not Lollardy: The Case of St. Erkenwald," Jennifer Sisk, Yale Univ.
    • "Lollard Disaffection and the History of Emotion," Sarah McNamer, Georgetown Univ.
    • Respondent: Andrew Cole, Univ. of Georgia

  • Lollard Genres (Presider: Derrick Pitard, Slippery Rock Univ. of Pennsylvania)
    • "Antifraternalism, the Hermeneutic Ideal, and Pierce the Ploughman's Crede," Kate Crassons, Lehigh Univ.
    • "Preaching the Libri laicorum: Lollard Sermons and the Image Debates," Shannon Gayk, Univ. of Notre Dame
    • "Preaching by Genre: Sermons in the Lollard Controversy," Elizabeth Schirmer, New Mexico State Univ.
    • Respondent, Christina von Nolcken, Univ. of Chicago

  • Lollardy and Ritual (Presider: Katherine Little, Fordham Univ.)
    • "Lollard Prayers," Fiona Somerset, Duke Univ.
    • "Lollard Liturgy," Katherine Zieman, Wesleyan Univ.
    • "A Mass of Lollards," Bruce Holsinger, Univ. of Colorado-Boulder

39th International Medieval Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo (May 6-9, 2004). Sessions took place on Friday, May 7th:

  • Latin to Vernacular: Trickle down Theology? (Presider: Emily Steiner, Univ. of Pennsylvania)
    • "Lollardy in the Image of Grosseteste" Michelle Karnes, University of Pennsylvania
    • "Lollard Imagination: From Latin to Vernacular Theology" A.J. Minnis, Ohio State Univ.
    • "The Glossed Gospels: A Lollard Adaptation of Latin Biblical Exegesis to a Lay Audience" Marina Davidson, Independent Scholar
  • Biographies of Lollardy (Presider: Derrick Pitard, Slippery Rock Univ.)
    • "Who were the East Anglian Lollards?" Maureen Jurkowski, Univ. College, Univ. of London
    • "Wyclif's Use of the Fathers in His Sermon on the Mount Commentary" Stephen Lahey, Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln
    • "From Oxford to Dallas: The Biography of a Wycliffite Bible" Jill C.Havens, Texas Christian Univ.

38th International Medieval Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo (May 8-11, 2003). Sessions took place from Friday through Sunday.

  • Literary Experimentation in Lollard Writings: Genres, Modes, Conceits. (Presider: Derrick Pitard, Slippery Rock Univ.)
    • "Writing the Lollard Theology of Marriage" A. J. Minnis, Ohio State Univ.
    • "The Wycliffite Sermons as 'Skilful Texts'" Mishtooni Bose, Univ. of Southampton
    • "Lollards and Fables" Katherine Little, Fordham University
  • Unity and Division: Lollards and Others. (Presider: Mishtooni Bose, Univ. of Southampton)
    • "'Modern' Jews and Lollard Hermeneutics" Ruth Nissé, Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln
    • "Myths of Antimendicantism: Wycliff, Fitzralph, and the Discourse of Exclusion" Stephen Penn, Univ. of Stirling
    • "Lollards, Jews, and Lawyers: An Orthodox Campaign against Lollard Ideology " Judy Ann Ford, Texas A&M Univ.-Commerce
  • Lollards and the Court. Cosponsored by the White Hart Society. (Presider: Jill C. Havens, Baylor Univ.)
    • "John Purvey and Gaunt's Third Marriage" Richard Firth Green, Ohio State Univ.
    • "Court, Craft, and Cleanness in the Lollard Controversy" Elizabeth Schirmer, New Mexico State Univ.
    • "The Lollard Saracen: Religion and Theological Discussion in the Sege of Melayne" Emily Leverett, Ohio State Univ.
    • Respondent: Christopher Given-Wilson, Univ. of St. Andrews
  • Langlandian Canons: The Piers Plowman Tradition. Co-sponsored with the Yearbook of Langland Studies; session organized by Fiona Somerset and Andrew Cole (Presider: D. Vance Smith, Princeton Univ.)
    • "Bags of Books: The Threat of the Itinerant and the Undocumented Document" Stella Singer, Univ. of Pennsylvania
    • "Piers Plowman and Alexander and Dindimus???" Frank Grady, Univ. of Missouri-St. Louis
    • "Breaking Ground: Song of the Husbandman in the Plowman Tradition" Steve Werkmeister, Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln

37th International Medieval Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, (May 2-5, 2002). All sessions took place on Friday, May 3rd.

  • Lollards and Aesthetics (Presider: Rebekah Long, Duke University):
    • "Lollard Ekphrasis (And Why It Matters)" Bruce Holsinger, U of Colorado Boulder
    • "Performing Lollard Theology: The Narrative of William Thorpe" Elizabeth Schirmer, New Mexico State U
    • "Passion and Persuasion: The voice of brennynge loue in Rylands MS Eng. 85" Andy Cockbain, University of Western Ontario
    • Respondent: Nicholas Watson, Harvard University
  • Lollardy and Audience (Presider: Derrick Pitard, Slippery Rock U):
    • "Lollers in the Wind" Lynn Staley, Colgate U
    • "Attribution, Authorship, and Audience in 'Of Wedded Men and Wifis and of Here Children Also" Eve Salisbury, Western Michigan U
    • "Reading Arundel's Reading: Hermeneutical Conflict and the Craft of Representation in Thorpe's Testimony" William Rankin, Abilene Christian University
    • Respondent: Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, University of Victoria

36th International Medieval Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, (May 3-6, 2001). All sessions took place on Saturday, May 5th.

  • Beyond the Binary: Reconsiderations of the relationship between heresy and orthodoxy (Presider: Jill Havens, Baylor University):
    • Andrew Larsen, University of Wisconsin - Madison: "Prosecution for Heresy in England, 1166-1399."
    • John H. Arnold, University of East Anglia: "The Production of Heresy: Lollardy and Inquisitorial Discourse."
    • Shannon McSheffrey, Concordia University: "Heresy, Orthodoxy, and English Vernacular Devotion: The Books and Prayers of the Coventry Lollards."
  • Responses to Lollardy (Presider: Derrick Pitard, Slippery Rock University):
    • Emily Steiner, University of Pennsylvania: "Critics and Commonalities."
    • Suzanne Conklin Akbari, University of Toronto: "Image and Relic in Medieval Romance."
    • Mishtooni Bose, University of Southampton: "Latin and Vernacular Responses to Lollardy: Dymmok, Netter, and Pecock."
  • Poverty and Labour in late medieval England (withYearbook of Langland Studies) (Presider: Kellie Robertson, University of Pittsburgh)
    • David Aers, Duke University: "Poverty: Langland and Wyclif."
    • Kate Crassons, Duke University: "Changing Conceptions of Poverty and the Sermon of William Taylor."
    • Lawrence Scanlon, Rutgers University: "Piers Plowman at the End of History: Langland's Eschatology of Labor."
  • Latin and Vernacular in Gower and Lollard Writers:
    Organizers: R. F. Yeager, Univ. of North Carolina--Asheville, and Fiona Somerset, Univ. of Western Ontario (Presider: Fiona Somerset):
    • Peter Brown, Univ. of Kent/Canterbury: "Gower on Images: Vox Clamantis II.10."
    • Siân Echard, Univ. of British Columbia: "'Among the bokes of latin': Reading Latin and Writing English in Gower's Confessio Amantis."

35th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI (May 4-7, 2000). All sessions took place on Saturday, May 6th.

  • The English Wycliffite Sermons: Vernacular Contexts
    • Ruth Evans, Cardiff University: "A Fifteenth Century Vernacular Collection: Proto-Lollard or Something Else?"
    • Paul Schaffner, University of Michigan: "Contexts for the Life of the Soul": the English Wycliffite Sermons"
    • Christopher Manion, Ohio State University: "Sermons and Pastoral Theology in Late Medieval England"
  • Lollardy and Sanctity
    • "Sanctity and Authority: Some Lollard Saints Revisited"
      Christina Van Nolcken, Univ. of Chicago
    • "The Other Reformers: the Franciscans and the Lollards and Wyclif"
      Lawrence Clopper, Indiana Univ.
    • Respondent: David Aers
  • Lollards and their Books
    • "'Trewe teching and false heretikis': Some Lollard Manuscripts of the 'Pore Caitif'"
      Kalpen Trivedi, Univ. of Manchester
    • "'Go awey from me ye cursid lymes': Eschatological Gloom in the Lantern of Liyt"
      Nicholas Watson, Univ. of Western Ontario

34th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI (May 6th-10th, 1999). All sessions took place on Thursday, May 6th.

  • Lollardy and the Langland Tradition
    • David Lawton, Washington University in St Louis: "'Lolleres,' Lollards, and the Evolving Text of Piers Plowman"
    • Andrew Walters Cole, Duke University: "The 'Piers Plowman' C-Text and the Lollard Tradition"
    • Respondent: Andrew Galloway, Cornell University
  • Wycliffism in Oxford, 1377-1410
    • Andrew Larsen, University of Wisconsin Madison: "Preludes to Wyclif: Academic Condemnation and Intellectual Freedom at Oxford, 1277-1377"
    • Fiona Somerset, University of Western Ontario: "Here, There, and Everywhere?: Wycliffite Conceptions of the Eucharist"
    • Ian C. Levy, Marquette University: "Wyclif and Purvey: Convergence and Divergence"
    • Respondent: Geoffrey Martin, University of Exeter
  • Lollardy and Women
    • Katherine Little, Duke University: "Reading Women Into Lollardy"
    • Laurie Ringer, University of Hull: "'Feed My Sheep': Concepts of Spiritual Food/Feeding and the Possibility of Women 'Sheep-Feeders' in Lollard Literature"
    • Alfred Thomas, Harvard University: "Hussite Women as Readers and Writers"
    • Respondent: Shannon McSheffrey, Concordia University

33rd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI (May 6th-10th, 1998). All sessions took place on Friday, May 8th.

  • Lollardy and Performance
    • David Aers, Duke University: "Conflicts in Wycliffite Models of Discipleship: Some Ethical and Political Implications"
    • Katherine Little, Duke University: "The Common Ground of Scripture: Interpretation and Instruction in the English Wycliffite Sermons"
    • Laura King, Yale University: "God's 'hee frawde': Incarnation as Theater in the Second Shepherds' Play"
    • Presider and Respondent: Ruth Nisse, U of Nebraska at Lincoln
  • Lollards, Lancastrians, and the Crisis of Late Medieval England
    • Paul Strohm, Indiana University: "Burning Sautre: From Speech-Act to Symbolic Action"
    • Daniel E. Theiry, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto: "Faith in the Vicarius Dei, Disdain for the Princeps Presbytorum : Lollard Political Theory and Practice, 1379-1415"
    • Ethan Knapp, The Ohio State University: "The Making of Images in Hoccleve's 'Address to Sir John Oldcastle'"
    • Presider: Fiona Somerset, University of Western Ontario
  • Lollards and Censorship
    • Bruce Holsinger, U of Colorado at Denver: "Curious Motets: Vernacular Censorship, Musical Innovation, and Lancastrian Cultural Patronage in the Early Fifteenth Century"
    • Simon Forde, Brepols Publishing: "Manuscript Tradition and Circulation of Repyndon's 'Sermones super evangelia dominicalia' in the 15th Century"
    • Emily Steiner, Yale University: "The 'Charters of Christ' and Strategies of Internal Censorship"
    • Respondent: Nicholas Watson, University of Western Ontario
    • Presider: Kellie Robertson, Southern Illinois U at Carbondale

32nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI (May 8-11, 1997). All sessions took place on Friday, May 10th.

  • Lollardy and Wyclif
    • Fiona Somerset, Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford: "Reson and Gabbynge: Latin and English Versions of Wyclif's 'Dialogus'"
    • Wendy Scase, University of Hull: "Pecock Displayed: Representations of a Heretic and Lancastrian Propaganda"
    • Anne Hudson, Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford: "The Means of Access to Wyclif's Writing"
  • Lollardy and Authority
    • Derrick G. Pitard, University of Rochester: "'In Here Modir Langage': The Authority of Heterodox Literacy"
    • Carolyn Dinshaw, University of Californornia-Berkeley: "It Takes One to Know One: Sodomites and Lollards"
    • Respondent: Larry Scanlon, Rutgers University
  • Lollardy and Manuscripts
    • Anita Lundy, University of Missouri/Kansas City: "Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys Library MS 2125: Evidence of a Wycliffite Document?"
    • Matti Peikola, University of Turku: "'And after all, myn Ave-Marie almost to the ende': Lollards and the Exposition of the 'Ave Maria'"
    • Christina von Nolcken, University of Chicago: "An English Apocalpyse with Commentary and the Date of British Library MS Harley 874: Some Implications for the Lollards"

31st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI (May 9-12, 1996). All sessions took place on Friday, May 11th.

  • The Doctored Text: Lollard Interpolations of Orthodox Texts
    • Jennifer Cooper, City University of New York: "A Lollard Sermon in the Tradition of the Ars Moriendi."
    • Jill C. Havens, Bridgewater State College: "A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing: The Lollard Interpolation of Some Anonymous Devotional Texts"
    • Christina Von Nolcken, University of Chicago: "A Lollard Reading of the Ancrene Riwle and Readers of That Reading: Some Preliminary Observations"
  • Treading a Fine Line: Lollardy and Orthodoxy in Middle English Texts
    • Moira Fitzgibbons, Rutgers University.: "Lines of Descent/Dissent: Handlyng Synne and the Lollard Heresy"
    • Nicolas Watson, University of Western Ontario: "Before the Earthquake: Devotion and Dissent in Book to a Mother"

Papers presented at the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds

International Medieval Congress 2006:

International Medieval Congress 2005:

  • Did "Censorship" Lead to "Cultural Change"? Reassessing Arundel's Provincial "Constitutions" (1407-9). Session 108 (Mon. 11 July, 11.15-12.45). Organizer and Moderator: Mishtooni C.A. Bose, Christ Church, University of Oxford
    • Paper 108-a "Muddying the Mainstream: Middle English Religious Texts after Arundel," Ian Johnson, School of English, University of St Andrews
    • Paper 108-b "The Towneley Cycle: Dramatic Displacement of the Eucharist," Sarah James, Newnham College, University of Cambridge
    • Paper 108-c "The Trouble with Lollardy," Mishtooni Bose

International Medieval Congress 2004:

  • Heresy and Authority: Whose Agenda?
    • "How Easy Was it to Identify Heretics?" Ian Forrest, All Souls College, University of Oxford
    • "Were the Lollards Heretics?" Ian Levy, Lexington Theological Seminary, Kentucky
    • "Netter and Lollardy: Whose Agenda?" Kevin Alban, Insitutum Carmelitanum, Roma

International Medieval Congress 2003:

  • Lollardy and Repression
    • "Latitude Repression and Orthodox Textuality" Ian Johnson, University of St. Andrews, Scotland
    • "Capgrave's Lollards: Power and Persecution" Karen A. Winstead, Ohio State University
    • "Lollard Conventicles and the Discourse of Power" Penn Szittya, Georgetown University
  • What Makes a Heresy?
    • "Forcing the Heretic out of the Tradition" Ian Levy, Lexington Theological Seminary
    • "False Piety and Incredible Subtlety: What Makes a (Mystical) Heresy?" Wendy Love Anderson, St. Louis University
    • Respondent: John Arnold, Birkbeck College, University of London

International Medieval Congress 2002:

No sessions were sponsored this year.

International Medieval Congress 2001:

  • Responses to Heresy
    • Ian Levy, Marquette University: "Scripture as 'Speculum': Wyclif's Exposure of Heresy"
    • Mishtooni Bose, University of Southampton: "Latin and Vernacular Responses to Lollardy: Netter and Pecock"
    • John Arnold, University of East Anglia: "The Production of Heresy: Lollardy and Inquisitorial Discourse"
    • Beyond the Binary: Images and the Relationship Between Heresy and Orthodoxy
    • Ann Eljenholm Nichols, Winona State University: "Beyond the Binary: The Evidence of Art in Norfolk"
    • Emily Leverett, Ohio State University: "Between Orthodoxy and Heresy: Ambiguous Moments in Lydgate's Troy Book"

International Medieval Congress 2000:

  • Heresy and Lay Preaching
    • Genelle Gertz-Robinson, Princeton University: "Re-Examining Margery Kempe's Preaching Ministry (1413-1438)"
    • Emily Steiner, University of Pennsylvania: "'My lordys lettyr and seel': Documentary Authority and Lay Preaching in the Early 15th Century"
    • Respondent: Wendy Scase, University of Birmingham
  • Wycliffite Hermeneutics
    • Melissa Mohr, Stanford University: "Lollard Linguistics: Why Lollards are Not Supposed to Swear"
    • Kantik Ghosh, Lincoln College, Oxford: "Lollardy and Hermeneutic Freedom"
    • Gila Aloni, Columbia University: "A Question of Diplomacy? The 'Legend' of Geoffrey Chaucer and the
      Lollards"

International Medieval Congress 1999:

  • Lollardy and other Heterodoxies
    • Andrew E. Larsen, University of Wisconsin at Madison: "Are All Lollards Lollards?"
    • Eva Dolezalova, Institute of History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic: "Clergy in the Diocese of Prague on the Eve of Hussite Revolution"
    • Ralph Hanna III, Keble College, Oxford: "English Biblical Texts before Lollardy and their Fate"