Peter Payne: A Forgotten Great European is an international workshop that will take place at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, 30 September – 1 October 2026. It is co-organised by Elizabeth Solopova, Henrike Lähnemann, Hannah Schühle-Lewis and James Howarth. The workshop is generously funded by a grant from the John Fell Fund awarded to Elizabeth Solopova and Hannah Schühle-Lewis. Focussing on an outstanding individual, we will explore connectedness in European cultural development and the emergence, as a result of joint artistic and scholarly endeavour, of modern local and common European identity. Register your interest in participating by emailing Elizabeth Solopova or Hannah Schühle-Lewis.
Peter Payne, the Principal of St Edmund Hall
Peter Payne (d. 1455/6?), referred to as ‘Peter Engliss’ in Bohemia, was an outstanding scholar, theologian, diplomat and an international figure. His career spans two universities and several European countries. He started to study at Oxford shortly before 1400 and became a highly outspoken supporter of the reformist theologian John Wyclif (d. 1384). Payne became the principal of St Edmund Hall in 1410.
Payne participated in some of the most famous events of the Wycliffite movement in England. Medieval evidence suggests that he introduced Sir John Oldcastle (d. 1417), the rebel and Lollard leader, to Wycliffite ideas. He also met two Bohemian scholars, Mikuláš Faulfiš and Jiří of Knínice, who came to England to copy Lollard texts, and provided them with a letter, bearing the university seal, affirming that Wyclif was an outstanding scholar and never condemned for heresy. The letter was taken to Prague and published in 1409 by Jerome of Prague. Jerome was later burned at the stake with Jan Hus, leader of the Bohemian reform movement, after their condemnation at the Council of Constance in 1414. Peter Payne may have acted as an intermediary in the correspondence between Hus and the English Wycliffites.
Payne left England in 1413 to avoid prosecution and travelled to Germany and possibly Switzerland, meeting with representatives of the European reform movement including a Waldensian emissary, Friedrich Reiser. He settled in Prague in 1414 and became a highly prominent member of the Hussite movement. He authored several theological and polemical treatises, compiled high quality indices of Wyclif’s works, and was registered as a Master of Arts at Prague University, where he acted as a teacher and examiner. His authority, as an English Wycliffite and defender of the Hussite doctrine, was so great that the city of Prague chose him as a principle speaker of several Hussite delegations to King Sigismund of Germany and Bohemia, and to King Władysław of Poland in 1420 and later. A skilful diplomat, he acted as a go-between and impartial adviser to different Hussite groups. He was elected to defend Hussite positions in a debate with Catholic clergy in 1429 and at the Council of Basel in 1433. The positions included utraquism (the idea that communion should be administered to the laity in the same form as to the clergy); free preaching of God’s word; and clerical poverty. He continued to be in danger throughout his career: arrested in 1438, he was imprisoned and ransomed by Hussite towns. Despite this he remained a public figure, acting as a negotiator and respected arbitrator in doctrinal disputes among the Hussites into the early 1450s. He is presumed to have died in Prague.
European connectedness
Peter Payne is an iconic figure of the university milieux and religious reform movements in England and Europe: a scholar and an exceptionally brave and dedicated intellectual reformer. He is less known and studied than he deserves, and this is emphasised in the workshop’s title, paraphrasing the title of his biography published by James Baker in 1894 (‘a forgotten great Englishman’). He is a perfect example of the European connectedness evident in all aspects of medieval culture.
Our focus on an individual
The workshop’s focus on a relatively well-documented individual, rather than on groups or social categories, such as Wycliffites and Hussites, is an important methodological point. The study of medieval religion is first of all the study of the written tradition, with texts acting as the sources of information about ideas. We want to supplement this approach with emphasis on the experience of writers and users of texts, bringing a real individual to life, and giving him a chance to speak and be heard. Without the study of experience, materiality and everyday practices we get a limited picture of medieval life, including religion, education, scholarship and travel. The focus on an individual will allow us to make observations on how a change of material and cultural environment influenced the formation of national and European identity.
Programme
The workshop will include presentations by internationally acclaimed scholars of the European reform movement, including an open lecture by Prof. Michael Van Dussen, McGill University, to which all are invited. James Howarth, the Hall’s librarian, will organise a display of books associated with Peter Payne and the Wycliffite controversy in the Old Library.