The Praier And Complaynte Of The Ploweman Vnto Christe

Book Summary

Sixteenth-century English Protestant Reformers Were Hard Pressed To establish a historical pedigree that would provide them with weight and legitimacy for their ideas. Many of those reformers turned back to early fifteenth-century Lollard texts, recycling and reprinting them to serve the needs, both political and spiritual, of the burgeoning English Protestant reform movement. One Lollard text in particular, The praier and complaynte of the ploweman unto Christe, was tapped by the anti-clerical, reformist spirit of English Protestantism for use in the struggle for religious reform. This is an old-spelling, critical edition of The praier and complaynte of the ploweman unto Christe that resurfaced and was reused by English reformers in the third decade of the sixteenth century. Demonstrating the continuity of ideas between the Lollards and the Reformists, Douglas Parker situates The praier and complaynte firmly in the tradition of English Reformist borrowing of texts, and argues for authorship of the sixteenth-century version of The praier and complaynte by William Tyndale. Parker examines the two extant copies of the manuscript, and comments on structure and reformist content, situating it firmly within the Lollard tradition. Full historical, literary and biographical information is included in his introduction along with a full commentary gloss for the translations. This careful, meticulous work is a revealing look at the ideology of the religious struggles not only of the sixteenth century, but of the fourteenth century as well.

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