Prologue, St John the Baptist preaching to the Pharisees and Sadducees
Trinity Hall MS 17, f. 5r
Roger Dymock, Determinationes contra XII haereses Lollardorum
London?, ca 1395

Image reproduced by kind permission of the Master and Fellows of Trinity Hall

The Lollards, followers of John Wyclif (d. 1384), are famous for their translation of the Bible into English. Their translation was condemned, not so much for its use of the vernacular, but because they held several heretical or unorthodox views contrary to the teaching of the Church. The Dominican, Roger Dymock, refuted twelve of their heretical statements in this treatise dedicated to king Richard II. This luxury copy was almost certainly a presentation copy in 1395 for Richard and has a portrait of the king, the royal arms and his badge, the white hart, on the opening page. The page shown here is the beginning of the Prologue whose historiated initial shows John the Baptist preaching to the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matthew 3: 7–10) opening with the quotation ‘Progenies viparum … (Ye brood of vipers, who hath shewed you to flee from the wrath to come?’). Dymock’s text goes on to speak of those who attack the Church, namely the Lollards whose views he censures just as John the Baptist had condemned those of the Pharisees and Sadducees. The reference to John the Baptist’s preaching is as if Dymock parallels himself preaching to the Lollards, and is particularly appropriate for a member of the order of preachers.