Walter Brut () was a fourteenth-century writer from the Welsh borders, whose trial in 1391 is a notable event in the history of

Lollardy Lollardy was a proto-Protestantism, proto-Protestant Christianity, Christian religious movement that was active in England from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Catholic C ...

. Brut described himself as "a sinner, a layman, a farmer and a Christian" in his trial for

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Heresy in Christian ...

which took place on 3 October 1393 before the

Bishop of Hereford The Bishop of Hereford is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Hereford in the Province of Canterbury. Until 1534, the Diocese of Hereford was in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church and two of its bishop ...

, Thomas Trefnant. He is mentioned in the medieval English poem ''

Piers Plowman ''Piers Plowman'' (written 1370–86; possibly ) or ''Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman'' (''William's Vision of Piers Plowman'') is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in un-rhymed, alliterative ...

''. About the year 1402 he joined the forces of

Owain Glyndŵr Owain ap Gruffydd (28 May 135420 September 1415), commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr (Glyn Dŵr, , anglicised as Owen Glendower) was a Welsh people, Welsh leader, soldier and military commander in the Wales in the late Middle Ages, late Middle ...

. It seems then that this Walter Brute, by nation a Briton or Welsh-man, who was "a layman and learned, and brought up in the University of Oxford, being there a graduate", was accused of saying, among sundry other things, that "the Pope is Antichrist, and a seducer of the people, and utterly against the law and life of Christ". Being called to answer, he put in first certain more brief "exhibits": then "another declaration of the same matter after a more ample tractation"; ex-plaining and setting forth from Scripture the grounds of his opinion. In either case his defense was grounded very mainly on the Revelation. For he at once bases his justification on the fact, as demonstrable, of the Pope answering alike to the chief of the false Christs prophesied of by Christ, as to come in his name; to the Man of Sin prophesied of by St. Paul: the city of Papal Rome answering also similarly to the Apocalyptic Babylon. It is unclear, in the light of modern scholarship, whether Anthony Wood's identification of Brut with

Walter Brit Walter Brit (alternatively Brit, Brytte, or Brithus) (fl. 1390), was a fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and the reputed author of several works on astronomy and mathematics, as well as a treatise on surgery. He has also been described as a foll ...

is sound.

Works

*''Theology of the Sacrament of the Altar''

Sources

*"Text and Controversy from Wyclif to Bale: Essays in Honour of

Anne Hudson Anne Hudson (born in Bowling Green, Kentucky) is a syndicated television personality and radio personality in Austin, Texas. Hudson is currently the lifestyle reporter for Time Warner Cable News Austin & San Antonio. Hudson won the Alliance for W ...

". ''English Historical Review'', 2007, vol CXXII *''Registrum Johannis Trefnant Episcopi Herefordensis'', ed. by W. W. Capes. Canterbury and York Society vol. 20 (1916).

Notes

Lollards 14th-century Welsh writers {{UK-writer-stub