Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/340

 a common ancestor. The English loller was a sturdy beggar who lived on his fellow-men, and in this sense the term would have suited many of the mendicant friars—"great lubbers and long, that loth were to swynke," as Langland calls them. But the foreign congener of the loller was a religious enthusiast who seems to have obtained his nickname from the friars themselves—a fourteenth-century ante-type of the modern revivalist, or Salvation Army preacher, who would have nothing to say to the regular Orders. An authority quoted by Ducange, referring to the year 1309, speaks of "quidam hypocritæ gyrovagi, qui Lollardi sive Deum-laudantes vocabantur." The Praise-Gods of Wyclif's time accepted and kept the name for themselves, and have been known to history as Lollards ever since.

Sundry references are found in Wyclif's later works—as in the Trialogus and the De Ecclesia—to the institution of the Poor Priests.

"It seems to be a meritorious thing," he says in one place, "to associate good priests together, since Christ, the pattern of every good work, did likewise. But when they ask for alms let these priests be particularly cautious in these three respects. First, let them move from place to place, and not become established (hceredati), for they are not confirmed without regard to their good behaviour. But if they live worthily and uprightly, let them enjoy temporal gifts in moderation. Secondly, let their number, their locality, and the time of their appointment be well considered, for both excess and deficiency in these points introduce an occasion of error, according