Six Ecclesiastical Satires

Book excerpt: This volume would comprise a great unit on anticlerical poetry in late medieval England, collecting Piers the Plowman's Crede, The Plowman's Tale, Jack Upland, Friar Daw's Reply, Upland's Rejoinder, and Why I Can't Be a Nun. These Middle English poems attack ecclesiastical corruption; most of the poems were written by disgruntled Lollards about clerics and friars in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century. Piers the Plowman's Crede deals with a poor man trying to learn the Apostle's Creed from friars, who cannot teach him and only want his money; eventually the man can only learn the creed from Piers the Plowman. The Plowman's Tale casts an anticlerical tale in the mold of one of the Canterbury Tales. Jack Upland, Friar Daw's Reply, and Upland's Rejoinder comprise a debate over the hypocrisy of friars. Meanwhile, Why I Can't Be a Nun decries the sins of nuns in convents. These texts are well glossed and include introductions and copious notes, making them approachable for students of Middle English of any level of experience.