John Badby

John Badby was born in about 1380. He worked as a tailor in Evesham and became a follower of John Wycliffe. Wycliffe antagonized the orthodox Church by disputing transubstantiation. According to the teaching of the Catholic Church, the bread and the wine used in the sacrament of the Eucharist become in actual reality the body and blood of Christ. Wycliffe followers who shared his beliefs became known as Lollards. They got their name from the word "lollen", which signifies to sing with a low voice. The term was applied to heretics because they were said to communicate their views in a low muttering voice. (1)

John Foxe, has pointed out: "Wycliffe, seeing Christ's gospel defiled by the errors and inventions of these bishops and monks, decided to do whatever he could to remedy the situation and teach people the truth. He took great pains to publicly declare that his only intention was to relieve the church of its idolatry, especially that concerning the sacrament of communion. This, of course, aroused the anger of the country's monks and friars, whose orders had grown wealthy through the sale of their ceremonies and from being paid for doing their duties. Soon their priests and bishops took up the outcry." (2)

The Lollards

In 1394 the Lollards presented a petition to Parliament, claiming: "That the English priesthood derived from Rome, and pretending to a power superior to angels, is not that priesthood which Christ settled upon his apostles. That the enjoining of celibacy upon the clergy was the occasion of scandalous irregularities. That the pretended miracle of transubstantiation runs the greatest part of Christendom upon idolatry. That exorcism and benedictions pronounced over wine, bread, water, oil, wax, and incense, over the stones for the altar and the church walls, over the holy vestments, the mitre, the cross, and the pilgrim's staff, have more of necromancy than religion in them.... That pilgrimages, prayers, and offerings made to images and crosses have nothing of charity in them and are near akin to idolatry." (3)

John Badby was charged with heresy and appeared before Thomas Peverell, the Bishop of Worcester on 2nd January 1409. According to his biographer, Peter McNiven, Badby had... achieved notoriety by his uninhibited denial of the doctrine of transubstantiation... Badby insisted that the bread in the eucharist was not, and could not be, miraculously transformed into Christ's body." Although Badby was adjudged a heretic, and so liable to the death penalty, the church had no wish to make martyrs of insignificant men and was released. (4)

Prince Henry (the future Henry V) suggested to the House of Commons that they might endorse a Lollard solution to the crown's financial problems by the "wholesale confiscation of the church's temporal possessions". Archbishop Thomas Arundel was horrified by this suggestion and persuaded Henry IV to make an example of a Lollard leader.

Execution of John Badby

John Badby appeared before a convocation of the clergy on 1st March 1410. The author of Heresy and Politics in the Reign of Henry IV: The Burning of John Badby (1987) has argued that this "hearing became a show trial of national importance". The principal charge against him was that he believed the "bread was not turned into the actual physical body of Christ upon consecration". Badby refused to renounce his beliefs and on 15th March, 1409, he was declared a heretic, and was turned over to the secular authorities for punishment. "That afternoon, John Badby was brought to Smithfield and put in an empty barrel, bound with chains to the stake, and surrounded by dry wood. As he stood there, the king's eldest son happened by and encouraged Badby to save himself while there was still time, but Badby refused to change his opinions. The barrel was put over him and the fire lit." (5)

The death of William Tyndale (1563) — The burning of John Badby from *Book of Martyrs* (1563)

John F. Harrison, the author of The Common People (1984) has pointed out that "John Badby was one of the earliest of a succession of Lollard martyrs memorialized for later generations of humble readers in the gruesome illustrations to Foxe's Book of Martyrs. It is clear from John Foxe's great work that Lollards survived into the 1530s, and that most of them belonged to the common people... Tradesmen and craftsmen seem to have been more numerous than husbandmen, and there was a handful of merchants and professional men from the towns, especially London." (6)

Primary Sources

(1) Peter McNiven, John Badby : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

Charged before his bishop, Thomas Peverell, on 2 January 1409, Badby insisted that the bread in the eucharist was not, and could not be, miraculously transformed into Christ's body. His acknowledgement of the influence of ‘John Rakyer of Bristol’ (a leading centre of Lollardy) represented a more general challenge to priestly power. Although Badby was adjudged a heretic, and so liable to the death penalty under the statute De haeretico comburendo enacted in 1401, recent precedents suggested that the church had no wish to make martyrs of insignificant men. However, circumstances arose in the following year in which Badby's case came to serve the highest affairs of state.

The coming to power of a ‘ministry’ led by Henry, prince of Wales (the future Henry V), emboldened the Commons to hope that he might endorse a Lollard solution to the crown's financial problems; the wholesale confiscation of the church's temporal possessions. This political misjudgement, perhaps inspired by the prince's friendship with allegedly ‘Lollard’ knights, provoked vigorous reactions from Henry IV and his ally Archbishop Arundel of Canterbury. The reassertion of orthodox authority, it seemed, might be furthered by making an example of a particularly obdurate Lollard.

(2) John Foxe, Book of Martyrs (1563)

That afternoon, John Bradby was brought to Smithfield and put in an empty barrel, bound with chains to the stake, and surrounded by dry wood. As he stood there, the king's eldest son happened by and encouraged Badby to save himself while there was still time, but Badby refused to change his opinions. The barrel was put over him and the fire lit.

(3) John F. Harrison, The Common People (1984)

John Badby was one of the earliest of a succession of Lollard martyrs memorialized for later generations of humble readers in the gruesome illustrations to Foxe's Book of Martyrs. It is clear from John Foxe's great work that Lollards survived into the 1530s, and that most of them belonged to the common people... Tradesmen and craftsmen seem to have been more numerous than husbandmen, and there was a handful of merchants and professional men from the towns, especially London.