Along time ago in a church not so far away from me a movement was born. This movement would set in train a series of events that would lead ultimately to the reformation and the birth of the protestant church, the movement was called the Lollard's.
The Lollard's believed in one of the first forms of Sola Scriptura (scripture alone) this is the belief that all doctrine of the church must come from the bible, this set the the movement at odds with the catholic church.
the movement followed the teachings of John Wycliffe an Oxford academic and theologian how translated parts of the bible into English and pointed out various problems with the structure and doctrines of the catholic church.
the main problems where that of authority of the pope being not based on scripture and the many other practices like confession, pilgrimages, papal pardons and the idolatry of Mary. There was a long list of complaints but 12 of them became part of a petition to parliament called “the twelve conclusions of the Lollard's” that was nailed to the door.
The Twelve conclusions are available on Wikipedia and definitely worth a read if you get a chance, but the main one i want to highlight is the Universal priesthood which is a very biblical doctrine that basically puts a congregation above the authority of the church, Martin Luther also suggests this with his “Priesthood of believers” but that’s a few hundred years later.
1 Peter 2:9 says, "You are a royal priesthood and a priestly kingdom," and Revelation 5:10, "Through your blood you have made us into priests and kings."
these verses are pretty damning of the church structure of the time, and should also serve as warning to any organized denomination that their structures must be biblical or they are wrong in the eyes of God.
So the main result of the petition was getting the movement branded as heretical and various people where arrested and i know at least one was burned at the stake, John Badby a layman and a craftsman who was burned at the stake for refusing to reject Lollardy and for denial of transubstantiation .
John Wycliffe died of natural causes but was posthumously declared a heretic and exhumed and burned and his ashes cast into a river as a symbol to others.
This movement died out in England but its message did not, a Czech theologian called Jan Hus started a movement called the Hussite’s and was burned at the stake after being declared a “Wycliffe and a heretic” this movement was very similar to the Lollard’s in all but name.
This started the Hussite wars and a crusade and everything starts to spiral towards the reformation from that point.
So that’s the Story of the Lollard’s and the reformation before the reformation.
i have also written a post on the five Sola’s of the Reformation if you would like more info on the origins of the protestant movement and the core beliefs of the protestant churches.
https://david-bennett-posts.tumblr.com/post/174244579140/five-solas