John Resby was an English priest and supporter of

John Wycliffe John Wycliffe (; also spelled Wyclif, Wickliffe, and other variants; 1328 – 31 December 1384) was an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, biblical translator, reformer, Catholic priest, and a seminary professor at the University of ...

. He was executed by burning for heresy in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

, Scotland, in 1407 or 1408, during the time when

Henry Wardlaw Henry Wardlaw (died 6 April 1440) was a Scottish church leader, Bishop of St Andrews and founder of the University of St Andrews. Ancestors He was descended from an ancient Saxon family which came to Scotland with Edgar Atheling, and was ho ...

was Bishop of St. Andrews. He is regarded as the first Protestant

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

in Scotland.

Arrest and execution

In 1407 Resby was arrested in Perth for teaching

Lollard Lollardy, also known as Lollardism or the Lollard movement, was a proto-Protestant Christian religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Catho ...

heresies. The regent of Scotland,

Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany (c. 1340 – 3 September 1420) was a member of the Scottish royal family who served as regent (at least partially) to three Scottish monarchs ( Robert II, Robert III, and James I). A ruthless politician, Albany w ...

, opposed Lollardy because of its communistic views, so he allowed the papal inquisitor Laurence of Lindores to deal with Resby as he wished. During his trial, Resby was accused of believing forty different heretical doctrines, including that the pope was not the vicar of

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

. After refuting Resby's opinions, Laurence turned him over to the secular authorities to be burned. Some of Resby's writings were secretly preserved by his followers and read down to the time of

the Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

References

Protestant martyrs of Scotland People executed by the Kingdom of Scotland by burning English people martyred elsewhere 1407 deaths 15th-century English clergy Lollard martyrs {{Scotland-bio-stub