Since the publication of Anne Hudson's The Premature Reformation: Wycliffite Texts and Lollard History (1988), narratives surrounding John Wyclif, Wycliffism, Hussites, and the Lollards—the questions raised and conclusions sought—tend to follow her thesis that Wycliffism and the like were forms of proto-Protestantism that never quite got off the ground. Reading history in this way, Wyclif and the rest are seen only as the nascent stages of more robust religious reforms that were brewing in Europe, which would come to full formation in the sixteenth century. Only in the past decade or so has scholarship developed a more nuanced, and more appropriate, picture of these various expressions of religious nonconformity. Edited by J. Patrick Hornbeck II and Michael Van Dussen, Europe after Wyclif builds upon this problematizing trend, challenging the narrative of Wyclif as a forerunner to the Protestant Reformation, by insisting that the various other dissident groups inspired by Wyclif should be studied as unique religious movements in themselves, rather than simply as means to a Protestant end.

Through the twelve essays that make up Europe after Wyclif, Hornbeck and Van Dussen attempt to apply a more “lateral” approach to late medieval religious thought and practice, focusing, as they explain, upon the “controversies in their own time” with an emphasis upon Wyclif's influence and without any attempt to connect it with any “teleological trajectories” (4). The essays are focused almost entirely upon textual evidence; however, this does little to diminish their variety, exploring high theological debates and official papal documents, as well as sermons and popular Lollards tracts. John Van Engen's essay on the shape of European religion in the fifteenth century is an insightful framework with which to begin this lateral study. Van Engen encourages scholars to relax traditional boundaries and categories of late medieval religious culture (such as Carthusians, Hussite, and Devotio Moderna), which, he argues, tend to create a “partisan story” that ignores much of the overlap, intersection, and influence—whether it was convivial or adversarial—that the various religious communities had upon one another. Furthermore, the partisan stories blind scholars to other “nodal points” like community, property, and textual exchange that had as much, if not greater, influence upon the identity and development of religious groups (29).

One of the many useful aspects of the volume is the particular attention several of the contributors pay to the winding path ideas can take in their evolution and influence. The authors of the five essays following Van Engen's contribution reassess the various influences that Wyclif had upon later reform movements (particularly the Hussites and the Lollards). Fiona Somerset raises an oddity of late medieval belief, the doctrine of sin by social consent, which held a great deal of sway in Lollard communities. Pavlína Cermanová examines the Lollard/Hussite apocalyptic thought, an increasingly poignant trope at the end of the middle ages. Ota Pavlíček offers a closer study of Wyclif's influence upon Hussites like Jerome of Prague, while Luigi Campi provides a fascinating look at how fifteenth-century thinkers like the Wycliffite Peter Payne—an adamant determinist—have been conflated and confused with Wyclif. Most importantly, perhaps, Kathleen Kennedy delivers a sophisticated examination of manuscript illustrations and initials. The picture that Kennedy paints is a compelling one, connecting “Wycliffite scripture” to “a religious manuscript network stretching from England through Europe to Rome” (60).

The authors of the next three essays approach the topic from the outside. Ian Christopher Levy focuses upon Roman responses—including figures like Jean Gerson and Nicholas of Cusa—to Wycliffite utraquism, and Mishtooni Bose studies the intersection of literary metaphor with popular theological tropes describing “intellectually uninhibited narratives rich in theological argumentation” (228). Pavel Soukup provides a fascinating study of the particular terms employed in polemical works and papal documents to describe the heresies stemming from Wyclif and Jan Hus. Returning to an English context, the authors of the final three essays assess the long-term reach of Wyclif's influence within his own society: Jennifer Illig, Louisa Foroughi, and Mary Raschko scrutinize popular sermons, vernacular scriptures, and gospel glosses, respectively; each author in her own way approaches Wycliffitism as a particular form of fifteenth-century religious expression, identifying similarities as well as differences between orthodox and dissident thought, rather than attempting to impose any particular teleology upon the texts.

As a whole, Hornbeck and Van Dussen's volume raises key questions about the significance of national and transnational boundaries in religious reforms, the naming of dissident groups, the influence of dissidents upon one another, and the increasingly apparent complexities of late medieval theology and devotional practices. In this way, Europe after Wyclif is an important work for studies of late medieval piety and practice across Western Europe, not only in England and Bohemia. This volume successfully points in new directions and toward new ways of looking at well-trodden terrain, offering an astute contribution to the growing body of work that is dissatisfied with the traditional narratives of religious categories and culture before and after the Reformation.