Stuart Murray’s description of Christendom in the late Medieval period is scathing: it was ‘monolithic, totalitarian and seemingly impervious to critique’ (Post-Christendom, page 132). And yet there were dissenting voices to be heard all over Europe at this time. That those dissenters faced the wrath of Christendom through suppression and persecution tells us a great deal about what a threat they were deemed to be.

Though there was little connection between these various groups they shared many similarities and Murray suggests three factors which may explain this: their rediscovery of the Bible and especially the four Gospels; their hostility towards the church system that surrounded them; and the ‘subterranean piety’ that sustained the radical ideas they believed in. Being on the margins meant that they were free to have a very different view of life and faith compared to the church that was by then at the very centre of political power. Murray suggests that these marginal voices could help us today as we grapple with this post-Christendom period.

Two such groups were the French Waldensian movement and the English Lollards. In the conversion of Valdes, with whom the Waldensians began, reading the Gospels played a significant part. His discovery of the ethical teachings of Jesus changed his life and challenged his priorities. The inspiration to the Lollards, John Wycliff, was also enamoured by Jesus’ teachings and believed that the core truth about God was to be found within the Gospels. How both these groups treated the Bible says a lot about how different they were to the churches around them: they believed that untrained lay believers could understand Scripture and that the Bible was best understood when discussed within a community; they insisted that the Bible should be applied to the daily life of the individual and community and not just treated as lofty philosophy; and they also suspected that the Old Testament had been misused within Christendom.

Having rediscovered Jesus they then rediscovered what the Bible had to say about church and found that the church of the NT was very different to the church of Christendom. Though some tried to reform from within, many others opted to form their own separate congregations. In these churches the emphasis was upon believers only being members; infant baptism was often rejected; the emphasis was on mutual accountability rather than ecclesiastical authority; congregations chose their own leaders; and there was a significant difference between ‘church and ‘world’ with the believers attempting to follow Jesus’ ethical teaching. Ordination was also a subject questioned by these two groups, believing that holiness rather than ordination was required for leadership and that participation should not be exclusively for men. Another radical departure was the way did continued to do mission work – an activity meant for all in the church and not just for some.

As can be seen above, central to these dissident groups – and there were others – was their rediscovery of Jesus. If Christendom had pushed him to the margins as the church took her place in the centre, the dissenters brought him back to the centre and were themselves pushed to the margins. But from those margins they were the ones who challenged the powers of the time and brought a potent prophetic voice where it was most surely needed.