Lombard League 451worked out in detail in the 13th century at Paris and at
Oxford. The logicians of the 14th century. such scholars as
WILLIAMof Ockham, Walter BURLEY, and John BURIDAN,
systematically devoted themselves to semantic paradoxes.
At about the same time humanists and educational reform-
ers enriched logic by emphasizing the rhetorical and prag-
matic roles of language or semantics.
Medieval logic cannot be reduced simply to Aris-
totelianism. Its foundations included Platonism as repre-
sented in the theological treatises of BOETHIUSand, for
semantic analysis, the theory of signs of AUGUSTINEand
the classical grammar of Priscian (fl. 525). Arabic logic
formulated by such scholars as IBN SINAor Avicenna
exercised strong influence on the logic of the Latin West.
Further reading:E. J. Ashworth, The Tradition of
Medieval Logic and Speculative Grammar from Anselm to
the End of the Seventeenth Century: A Bibliography from
1836 Onwards(Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval
Studies, 1978); Deborah L. Black, Logic and Aristotle’s
Rhetoric and Poetics in Medieval Arabic Philosophy(Lei-
den: E. J. Brill, 1990); Alexander Broadie, Introduction to
Medieval Logic,2d ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993);
Eleonore Stump, Dialectic and Its Place in the Development
of Medieval Logic(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press,
1989); Mikko Yrjönsuuri, ed., Medieval Formal Logic:
Obligations, Insolubles and Consequences (Dordrecht:
Kluwer Academic, 2001).
Lollards (mumblers) Initially in the early 14th cen-
tury, Lollardwas a synonym for Beghard, or a religious
eccentric. Very critical of the institutional church, Lol-
lardy was an English HERESY, in many ways comparable to
the HUSSITEmovement in BOHEMIA. Rooted in academic
and political environments, it grew out of the views of an
Oxford academic, John WYCLIFFE. By 1382 his ideas were
spread by his Oxford academic disciples, the Wycliffites
and by poor priests, all of whom spread them widely. The
movement grew further in the next few decades through
much of ENGLAND. Lollards opposed ideas of transub-
stantiation of Christ in the Eucharist, PILGRIMAGES,the
worship of images, the PAPACYand its bureaucracy, reli-
gious orders, ecclesiastical wealth and property, absolu-
tion of sins by clerics, and EXCOMMUNICATION. They also
promoted greater use of the BIBLEin the VERNACULAR.
The movement became linked, fairly or not, with the
peasant rebellions of 1381.
Oxford was the starting point for Lollard book pro-
duction in the late 14th century. This led to the produc-
tion of a vernacular version of the BIBLE, the vernacular
Glossed Gospels, and a Lollard sermon cycle. This also
might have involved a plan for a takeover of the church
in England. Early Lollardy had initially high political and
social support. There were openly Lollard KNIGHTSat
RICHARDII’s court, and King HENRYV was a friend of the
leading Lollard, Sir John Oldcastle (ca. 1378–1417).
Clerical opposition to Lollardy developed slowly in a
country that had not previously dealt with widespread
heresy. The death penalty for heresy was only introduced
in 1401. There were then major trials of Lollards and exe-
cutions by burning at the stake. Turning points were the
trial of the leading Lollard, Oldcastle, and the failure of
his uprising in 1414. There were later persecutions of
remnants in the 1430s, and a still later wave of Lollardy
and persecution between about 1480 and about 1520.
See also BALL,JOHN;BEGUINES AND BEGHARDS;
PEASANT REBELLIONS.
Further reading:Margaret Deanesly, The Lollard Bible
and Other Medieval Biblical Versions(1920; reprint, Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966); Anne Hud-
son, The Premature Reformation: Wycliffite Texts and
Lollard History(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988); K. B.
McFarlane, Lancastrian Kings and Lollard Knights
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972); Richard Rex, The Lol-
lards(New York: Palgrave, 2002); Shannon McSheffrey,
Gender and Heresy: Women and Men in Lollard Communi-
ties, 1420–1530(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, 1995); John A. F. Thomson, The Later Lollards,
1414–1520(London: Oxford University Press, 1967).Lombard, Peter SeePETERLOMBARD.Lombard League In the Middle Ages northern Italian
communes formed reciprocal arrangements on several
occasions to secure commercial advantages and to estab-
lish military alliances to face a common enemy, the Ger-
man emperor. At the meeting of the imperial diet of
Roncaglia in 1158, the emperor FREDERICKI BARBAROSSA
announced his plans to recover imperial authority in
ITA LY, demonstrating his determination with the destruc-
tion of MILANin 1162.FIRST LOMBARD LEAGUE
The first antiimperial league was formed in response. The
League of Verona was established in 1164 by VERONA,
Vicenza, and PADUAat the urging of VENICE. In 1167 the
COMMUNESof Cremona, Bergamo, Brescia, and Mantua,
oppressed by the imperial officials, formed the League of
Cremona. Its first act was to bring back the exiled citi-
zens of Milan to their city to rebuild its fortifications. In
December 1167 the two organizations joined with other
communes in a single political and military alliance soon
called the Lombard League.
The league was composed of individual representa-
tives of each commune, who deliberated the terms of
alliance and imposed taxes. Pope ALEXANDERIII soon
joined. Imperial troops were defeated at the Battle of LEG-
NANOon the morning of May 29, 1176, by Milanese
infantry and Lombard cavalry. The emperor himself fled
the battlefield to avoid capture. This led to a six-year
truce, at the end of which, in 1183, the peace treaty of