Walter Brut ( cy, Gwallter Brut) was a fourteenth-century writer from the Welsh borders, whose trial in 1391 is a notable event in the history of

Lollardy 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 Catholic ...

. Brut described himself as "a sinner, a layman, a farmer and a Christian" in his trial for

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

which took place on 3 October 1393 before the

Bishop of Hereford The Bishop of Hereford is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Hereford in the Province of Canterbury. The episcopal see is centred in the Hereford, City of Hereford where the bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is in the Hereford Cathedr ...

Thomas Trefnant John Trevenant (alternatively Trefnant or Tresnant; in some sources named Thomas Trevenant; died 29 March 1404) was a medieval Bishop of Hereford of Welsh descent. He was nominated on 5 May 1389 and consecrated on 20 June 1389.Fryde, et al. ''Hand ...

. He is mentioned in the medieval English poem ''

Piers Plowman ''Piers Plowman'' (written 1370–86; possibly ) or ''Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman'' (''William's Vision of Piers Plowman'') is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in un-rhymed, alliterative v ...

''. About the year 1402 he joined the forces of

Owain Glyndŵr Owain ap Gruffydd (), commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr or Glyn Dŵr (, anglicised as Owen Glendower), was a Welsh leader, soldier and military commander who led a 15 year long Welsh War of Independence with the aim of ending English rule in Wa ...

. It seems then that this Walter Brute, by nation a Briton or Welsh-man, who was “a layman and learned, and brought up in the University of Oxford, being there a graduate,” was accused of saying, among sundry other things, that “the Pope is Antichrist, and a seducer of the people, and utterly against the law and life of Christ.” Being called to answer, he put in first certain more brief “exhibits:” then “another declaration of the same matter after a more ample tractation;” ex-plaining and setting forth from Scripture the grounds of his opinion. In either case his defense was grounded very mainly on the Revelation. For he at once bases his justification on the fact, as demonstrable, of the Pope answering alike to the chief of the false Christs prophesied of by Christ, as to come in his name; to the Man of Sin prophesied of by St. Paul: the city of Papal Rome answering also similarly to the Apocalyptic Babylon. It is unclear, in the light of modern scholarship, whether Anthony Wood's identification of Brut with

Walter Brit Walter Brit ( alternatively Brit, Brytte, or Brithus) ( fl. 1390), was a fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and the reputed author of several works on astronomy and mathematics, as well as of a treatise on surgery. He has also been described as a ...

is sound.

Works

*''Theology of the Sacrament of the Altar''

Sources

*"Text and Controversy from Wyclif to Bale: Essays in Honour of Anne Hudson". ''English Historical Review'', 2007, vol CXXII *''Registrum Johannis Trefnant Episcopi Herefordensis'', ed. by W. W. Capes.

Canterbury and York Society The Canterbury and York Society is a British text publication society founded in 1904. It publishes scholarly editions of English medieval (pre-Reformation) ecclesiastical records, notably episcopal registers. History and activities The Society ...

vol. 20 (1916).

Notes

Lollards 14th-century Welsh writers {{UK-writer-stub