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  • 2 - Religion

    • By Thomas Betteridge, Professor of Theatre and Dean of the College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences, Brunel University, London.
  • Edited by Sebastian Sobecki, John Scattergood
  • Book:
    A Critical Companion to John Skelton
    Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    24 July 2019
    Print publication:
    15 November 2018, pp 26-36

  • Summary

    John Colet's convocation sermon of February 1512 was an impassioned demand for the reform of the clergy and an attack on their covetousness and secularity. It was not, however, anti-clerical. The sermon of February 1512 was in practice profoundly clericalist. Colet, an eminent humanist scholar, argued that ‘the dignity of priests … is greater than either the king's or emperor's; it is equal with the dignity of angels’ (Harper-Bill 1997: 18). Colet's view of the priesthood reflected above all an emphasis on their status as different and separate, as a superior estate. And indeed the central ritual of the medieval Church, the mass, did stress the privileged elevated nature of the clergy. As Eamon Duffy writes:

    the prestige of the Sacrament [of the Altar] as the centre and source of the whole symbolic system of late medieval Catholicism implied an enormously high doctrine of priesthood. The priest had access to mysteries forbidden to others; only he might utter the words which transformed bread and wine into the flesh and blood of God incarnate.

    (Duffy 1992: 110)

    The mass was at the centre of medieval Catholicism. It was its central miracle, its image of a reconciled Christendom and a source of constant mediation and prayer. Those entrusted with performing the Eucharistic rite were a class apart. And John Skelton was one of these men.

    It should be relatively easy to write about Skelton's religion. He entered holy orders in 1498 and was rector in the parish of Diss, Norfolk, for most of his life. There are numerous moments in his life when he performed regular clerical duties, including celebrating mass on 1 November 1498 in the presence of Henry VII. The problem is that ‘religion’ as it appears in such works as Piers Plowman, the York Corpus Christi play, or in devotional fifteenth-century verse is simply absent from Skelton's poetry. There is none of the searching vernacular theology that is a marked feature of late fourteenth- and fifteenth-century writing. Skelton's religion is ‘medieval’ in a way that has become unfashionable among scholars who have rightly stressed the vibrancy and popularity of fifteenth-century Western Christianity.

  • 15 - Thomas More, Print and the Idea of Censorship

  • from IV - THE CULTURAL CAPITAL OF PRINT
  • Edited by Vincent Gillespie, J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language at the University of Oxford, Susan Powell, Held a Chair in Medieval Texts and Culture at the University of Salford, and is currently affiliated to the Universities of London and York
  • With contributions by Tamara Atkin , Alan Coates , Thomas Betteridge , Julia Boffey , James Clark , A. S. G. Edwards , Martha W. Driver , Mary Erler , Alexandra Gilespie , Andrew Hope , Brenda Hosington , Susan Powerll , Pamela Robinson , Anne F. Sutton , Daniel Wakelin , James Willoughby and Lucy Wooding
  • Book:
    A Companion to the Early Printed Book in Britain, 1476-1558
    Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    05 April 2014
    Print publication:
    16 January 2014, pp 290-306

  • Summary

    In 1536 Sir Thomas Elyot wrote to Thomas Cromwell in response to a recent proclamation, ‘Ordering the Surrender of Bishop Fisher's Sermon, Books’. Elyot was concerned because he did have books that fell within the scope of the proclamation, partly as a result, he told Cromwell, of his desire to read ‘many books, specially concerning humanitie and morall Philosophy’. Elyot went on to inform Cromwell that,

    As touching suche books as be now prohibited contayning the busshop of Romes authorite, some in deede I have: joined with diverse other warkes in one grete volume or twoo at the moste, which I never found laysor to reade. Notwithstanding if it be the kinges pleasure and yours that I shall bringe or sende theim I will do it right gladly.

    Elyot was worried that because he had been ill he had not had time to search all his properties for prohibited works and that he could therefore be accused of failing to carry out the duties imposed on him by the proclamation. It was perhaps this that led Elyot in his letter to ask Cromwell for more time to comply with the requirements of the proclamation.

    … for as moche as my books be in sondry houses of myn owne and farre sonder, I hartily pray you that I may have convenient respeyte to repayre thither after my present recovery, and as I wold that god sholde helpe me I will make diligent serche, and such as I shall finde, savering any thinge agaynst the kinges pleasure, I will putt theim in redyness either to be browght to you, or to be cutt oute of the volume wherein they be joyned with other, as you shall advyse me …

A Companion to the Early Printed Book in Britain, 1476-1558
  • Edited by Vincent Gillespie, Susan Powell
  • With contributions by Tamara Atkin , Alan Coates , Thomas Betteridge , Julia Boffey , James Clark , A. S. G. Edwards , Martha W. Driver , Mary Erler , Alexandra Gilespie , Andrew Hope , Brenda Hosington , Susan Powerll , Pamela Robinson , Anne F. Sutton , Daniel Wakelin , James Willoughby and Lucy Wooding
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    05 April 2014
    Print publication:
    16 January 2014
  • The history of the book is now recognized as a field of central importance for understanding the cultural changes that swept through Tudor England. This companion aims to provide a comprehensive guide to the issues relevant to theearly printed book, covering the significant cultural, social and technological developments from 1476 (the introduction of printing to England) to 1558 (the death of Mary Tudor). Divided into thematic sections (the printed booktrade; the book as artefact; patrons, purchasers and producers; and the cultural capital of print), it considers the social, historical, and cultural context of the rise of print, with the problems as well as advantages of the transmission from manuscript to print. the printers of the period; the significant Latin trade and its effect on the English market; paper, types, bindings, and woodcuts and other decorative features which create the packaged book; and the main sponsors and consumers of the printed book: merchants, the lay clientele, secular and religious clergy, and the two Universities, as well as secular colleges and chantries. Further topics addressed include humanism, women translators, and the role of censorship and the continuity of Catholic publishing from that time. The book is completed with a chronology and detailed indices. Vincent Gillespie is J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language at the University of Oxford; Susan Powell held a Chair in Medieval Texts and Culture at the University of Salford, and is currently affiliated to the Universities of London and York. Contributors: Tamara Atkin, Alan Coates, Thomas Betteridge, Julia Boffey, James Clark, A.S.G. Edwards, Martha W. Driver, Mary Erler, Alexandra Gilespie, Vincent Gillespie, Andrew Hope, Brenda Hosington, Susan Powerll, Pamela Robinson, AnneF. Sutton, Daniel Wakelin, James Willoughby, Lucy Wooding

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