In referring to the passage of Heda's history relating to
bishop-boiling, the following curious fact caught my eye. Speaking of
the same bishop, Florentius de Wevelichoven, he says:
"Fecit et exhumari ossa cujusdam hæretici Matthæi Lollaert atque
ante atrium Pontificale comburi, cineresque in fossas urbis
dispergi."--_Hist. Episcopor. Ultraject._ p. 259.
Now though the Christian name, _Matthæus_, of this Lollaert does not
agree with that usually assigned to Lollard, viz., _Walter_; nor yet
this assertion that his bones were dug up, and burned at Utrecht, with
the current story that Lollard was buried alive at Cologne; yet it is
evident from the note upon this passage on p. 263., that Heda is
speaking of the founder of the sect of the Lollards. In this note he
refers to Prateolus and Walsingham, to which I turned in order to
ascertain where he got his information; but, alas, in vain! They only
give a very meagre account of the origin of the Lollards. Heda must
therefore have had some independent source from which he wrote, as he
could hardly have invented the story. The form of name, _Lollaert_,
would make it more than probable that Lollard was a Dutchman, which
agrees very well with the account that he preached in Germany.
How much is it to be wished that some member of the many learned Dutch
Antiquarian Societies now in existence, would endeavour _at last_ to
clear up the history of Lollard by reference to the records of the city
of Utrecht, if they are still in being, and extend so far back as the
fourteenth century.
Florentius became Bishop of Utrecht in 1379, and died 1394.