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영어

This study aims at examining the role of Lollard women in later middle ages through the work of John Foxe's Acts and Monuments. It is generally accepted that heresy in later medieval period gave more opportunity to women than Catholic church. However, this study suggests a careful revision to that notion through the work of for John Foxe's Acts and Monuments. According to John Foxe's book, the role of women seems to be reduced into the household role. Although there are many records on women in his book, the role of women are not explicitly prominent in general. Even compared to some well known women mystics of Catholic church such as Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich who played in an independent role as women, no Lollard woman in fifteenth and sixteenth centuries showed a similar role in the community. In this study, it is argued that it is not only because the role of women in Lollard society was limited, but also because John Foxe himself considerately drew a picture of women in the Reformation period in England. It means, during the Reformation period, a desirable image of women was newly established to emphasize their role in the household. The emphasis in family and the household role of women were shrewdly penetrated across the work of Foxe.