Poet Versus Priest: Biblical Narrative and the Balanced Portrait in English Literature

Author / Editor
Hamilton, Christopher T.

Title
Poet Versus Priest: Biblical Narrative and the Balanced Portrait in English Literature

Published
Christian Scholar's Review 23 (1993): 145-58.

Description
Chaucer's and Langland's depictions of clergy are rooted in the "biblical topos of contrastive portraits for emulation and rejection," reflecting the medieval belief that church reform depended on the renewal of the clergy. Chaucer's Parson and Langland's Will counterpoint the poets' vice-ridden clergymen. By the time of Henry Vaughn, poets had come to see themselves as crucial to reform.

Chaucer Subjects
Parson and His Tale.