Margery Baxter

Johanna Clifland testified against her, claiming that Baxter had expressed a variety of unorthodox sentiments, speaking out against the traditions of sanctioned marriage, fasting for religious days, and the swearing of religious oaths.^[6] Echoing foundational Lollard beliefs, Baxter also opposed the wealth of Catholic clergymen^[7] and the practice of confession to church officials.

Baxter was an admirer of her fellow Lollard Hawise Mone. She and Baxter were followers of the heretical priest William White who had been burnt at the stake in 1428 with fellow heretics Hugh Pye of Loddon and John (or William) Waddon.^[7]

Six months after Johanna Clifland made her accusations, Margery Baxter confessed in October 1428, and she was sentenced to four Sunday floggings at her parish church.^[8] two at the local marketplace and then two recants at the cathedral.^[1] She had admitted that she had smuggled and hidden White's teachings at her home and that she believed six heresies:

• only people who keep God's commandments are Christian;
• confessions to God are not required (one can rely on God's mercy);
• pilgrimages are generally not required;
• killing of any type including capital punishment are wrong;
• any good person is a priest;
• oaths are only required in a court.^[1]

She was brought to trial again in April 1429 and although the charges were serious, she believed she would escape death because she was pregnant. This was not certain, but she was not sentenced to death, and this may be because she implicated another Lollard, John Pyry from Martham.^[1]

• Lynn, Staley (1994). Margery Kempe's Dissenting. Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 9780271040226.
• Tanner, Norman P. (2004). "Lollard women (act. c.1390–c.1520)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/63489. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
• Steiner, Emily (2003). "Lollard rhetoric and the written record: Margery Baxter and William Thorpe". Documentary Culture and the Making of Medieval English Literature. Cambridge University Press. p. 229. ISBN 978-0521824842.
• Doe, Penny (November 2007). "Women and Lollardy in Norwich". Norwich Heritage, Economic & Regeneration Trust. Archived from the original on April 2, 2013. Retrieved December 10, 2012.