John Wycliffe appears wasted and physically weak. Thorpe says Wycliffe was of unblemished walk in life, and regarded affectionately by people of rank, who often consorted with him, took down his sayings, and clung to him. "I indeed clove to none closer than to him, the wisest and most blessed of all men whom I have ever found." Thomas Netter highly esteemed John Kynyngham in that he "so bravely offered himself to the biting speech of the heretic and to words that stung as being without the religion of Christ". But this example of Netter is not well chosen, since the tone
Lollardy be a derisive expression applied to various people perceived as heretics—first the Franciscans and later the followers of Wycliffe. Originally the Dutch word was a colloquial name for a group of the harmless buriers of the dead during the Black Death, in the 14th century, known as Alexians, Alexian Brothers or Cellites. These were known colloquially as ' (Middle Dutch for "mumbling brothers"), or ', from ("to sing softly"), from their chants for the dead. Middle English "" (akin to the verb "loll", "lull", the English cognate of Dutch "lollen" "to mutter, mumble") is recorded as an alternative spelling of