Religion in Sussex is situated at St. Hugh's Charterhouse, Parkminster near Cowfold. Protestant non-conformity was historically strong in the Weald and in the east of county, as well as some of the towns in the west. Non-conformity emerged in the Sussex Weald in the 14th century where some of the supporters of the Peasants Revolt of 1381 were Lollard followers of John Wycliffe or followers of John Ball. Over the centuries the Weald gained a reputation for being beyond state and church control, providing a haven for Lollard and early Protestant congregations. The towns of Rye and Winchelsea in the east of the
John Wycliffe 1415, and banned his writings, effectively both excommunicating him retroactively and making him an early forerunner of Protestantism. The Council decreed that Wycliffe's works should be burned and his bodily remains removed from consecrated ground. This order, confirmed by Pope Martin V, was carried out in 1428. Wycliffe's corpse was exhumed and burned and the ashes cast into the River Swift, which flows through Lutterworth. None of Wycliffe's contemporaries left a complete picture of his person, his life, and his activities. Paintings representing Wycliffe are from a later period. In the history of the trial by William Thorpe (1407), Wycliffe