Manuel II Palaiologos (1391-1425) and the Lollards

The register of Cuthbert Tunstal, bishop of London (1522-30) contains an interesting statement about the visit of the Byzantine emperor Manuel II to London in 1400-1. Basing his information on a book in the library of the London Blackfriars, Tunstal claimed that the Byzantine delegation was questioned on whether the Greek of the Byzantine liturgy and scriptures was the vernacular language of the people. Manuel’s visit occurred at the very time when the English authorities were suppressing the Lollards who were demanding that the scriptures be translated into English so that it is likely that it was these events that inspired the cross examination of the Byzantine visitors. This article discusses this and other possible links between English Lollardy and the Byzantine Church and examines what it might have been that attracted English reformers to Orthodoxy.