Heresy and orthodoxy in early English literature, 1350–1680

Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin & John Flood, editors

English literature from Chaucer to Milton was produced in a culture where accusations of heresy were frequently made, and where the meaning of orthodoxy was unsettled. The essays in this book show the ways in which ideas about heresy and orthodoxy had their impact, sometimes fatally, on writers. The various movements - Lollardy, Bible Protestantism, Calvinist orthodoxy and antinomian heresy - produced vital, often eloquent or satiric, writing from all sides in the recurring debates. Literary genres where these issues are important include autobiography, romance, history, theology, drama, and poetry.

Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin is a fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. John Flood is a lecturer in modern English literature and culture at the University of Groningen.

This book is part of the Dublin Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature series (John Scattergood, series editor). Other titles in this series include: Tony Corbett, The Laity, the Church and the Mystery Plays: a drama of belonging; Dinah Hazell, Poverty in Late Middle English Literature: the meene and the riche; and Carol J. Harvey, Medieval French Miracle Plays: seven wrongly accused women.