The Summoner and the Abominable Anatomy of Antichrist

Author / Editor
Fletcher, Alan J.

Title
The Summoner and the Abominable Anatomy of Antichrist

Published
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 18 (1996): 91-117.

Description
Attests two early-fifteenth-century analogues of SumP and describes several echoes of Wycliffite antifraternal sentiment in SumT: concern with letters of fraternity and trentals (i.e., commissioned masses for the dead), venal preaching, fraternal claims to be the salt of the earth, and challenges to the Church by peasant and aristocratic classes combined. Chaucer articulates Lollard views in the Summoner's materials, but he does not affirm them.
Revised in Alan J. Fletcher, Preaching, Politics, and Poetry in Late-Medieval England (Dublin: Four Courts, 1998).

Chaucer Subjects
Summoner and His tale.
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.