Thomas Harding was the last Lollard to be executed for heresy, before the creation of the Church of England. This is the story ...
The Lollards
The Lollards were England's first evangelical movement. Many people supported John Wycliffe's reforming ideas which spread across England. Some people became itinerant preachers, and went in pairs to towns and villages, telling people the good news about Jesus in English. People gathered in each other's homes, where meetings were led by men or women, to pray and read the Bible in English.
They were educated and peaceful people and were called the Lollards. Their beliefs were biblical, and by modern standards quite mainstream. In fact they were known as evangelicals. However, in this pre-Reformation period, some of their beliefs and practices were regarded as suspicious by the main Church authorities. They were considered heretics for things like meeting without a priest, using English instead of Latin, having meetings outside a church building, giving primary authority to the Bible over the Church, and particularly believing that the bread and wine of communion were purely symbolic.
The Chiltern Lollards
Lollards were particularly numerous in the Chilterns, in the heavily wooded area roughly between London and Oxford. Here Lollards were persecuted in 1414, 1462 and 1511. It was probably in 1511 that William Smith, Bishop of Lincoln, set up an inquiry into heresy in south Bucks, based at the former bishop's palace at Wooburn, near Beaconsfield. In December 1511, some Lollards living in Amersham were interviewed and spoke against idolatry and superstition. Some were sentenced to be monks in monasteries, and some were sentenced to make pilgrimages. These were cruel times, and others were sentenced to death if they did not renounce their evangelical beliefs.
Thomas Harding
One of the associates of the Lollards at Amersham was Thomas Harding. His story is told in Foxe's Book of Martyrs, and in local oral tradition. Thomas Harding, along with many other Lollards agreed to recant their views. By 1521, Harding was found to have returned to holding Lollard beliefs, and was again called before an ecclesiastical court, set up by the new hard-line bishop John Longland. This time six Lollards, five men and one woman, were sentenced to death. Harding escaped death by recanting again. One of the conditions imposed on him was that he must not leave the Parish of Amersham. However, after the executions in Amersham in 1522, Thomas Harding moved to Chesham, where he kept a smallholding.
William Tyndale
Meanwhile there was a newer version of the New Testament in English, translated by William Tyndale from the original Greek. It was in more modern and common English, and easier to understand than Wycliffe's translation. It was published in Worms and later Antwerp, and first smuggled into England in early 1526. Tyndale's New Testament became very popular and was adopted by the Lollards. Tyndale also wrote other theological works, which today would be classed as mainstream evangelical.
The Last Lollard Martyr
Around Easter in 1532, Thomas Harding, aged about 60, was found sitting by a stile going into the woods, where he was reading one of Tyndale's theological books called 'The Obedience of a Christian Man'. Thomas and his wife Alice were arrested in their house, where other books were found under his floorboards, which were considered illegal, most notably Tyndale's New Testament and another theological work of William Tyndale's called 'The Practice of Prelates'.
Harding was taken to Wooburn to be interrogated by the bishop and by Rowland Messenger, the vicar of High Wycombe. The charges against him were that he was reading the New Testament in English, that he claimed the bread and wine in the communion service were merely symbolic (i.e. he denied transubstantiation), rejected the worship of images, and spoke against pilgrimages for earning merit. These were all considered heretical then.
On May 30, 1532 Harding was taken to Chesham for execution. The place was up White Hill, on the way to Botley, easily visible as an example to many. Harding was chained to a stake and a fire was lit beneath him. It is recorded that one of the spectators threw a firelog at his head, a strange kindness which hastened his demise.
It was just two years after Harding's execution, in 1534, that the Church of England was formed, and it was in 1539 that Henry VIII introduced the English Bible into churches. With the creation of the Church of England, many of the things that the Lollards had believed and practised were no longer heretical.
Legacy
Thomas Harding is believed to be the last Lollard martyr, before the start of the English Reformation. There are a number of reminders of Thomas Harding in Chesham which can be visited. Chesham lies at the north-west end of the London Underground Metropolitan Line. There is a granite cross memorial to his memory, near the entrance to St Mary's parish church, and a commemorative stone erected on White Hill near to his place of execution. Neither are far from the station. There is also a primary school named in his honour. Harding is still a local surname, and many claim to be related to him.
