Certainly, argues Cole, in its dispersal of Oxford scholars and systematic dissemination of its conclusions through English parishes, the Council guaranteed Wyclifite networks a coherence and publicity that they hitherto had hardly even sought, much less achieved.
He offers nuanced readings of how Chaucer's orthodox twit, the Shipman in the Parson's Tale, by chiding the Host for allowing the Parson to speak, represents the butt of a Lollard joke and how Wyclifite ideas about vernacular translation helped Chaucer to refine his sense of relationship with his readers.
The followers of Wyclif were known as
Wyclifites; however, the Lollards, with whom they are often grouped, were not, strictly speaking, followers of Wyclif.