This collection of essays has been assembled as a tribute to the
eminent ecclesiastical historian Dr. Margaret Aston, Fellow of the
British Academy. Many of the contributors are themselves
distinguished scholars of the late medieval and early modern
Church. The twelve essays reflect the extraordinary breadth of Dr.
Aston’s interests, reaching beyond history into the cognate
disciplines of literature, theology, art history and codicology.
Colin Richmond’s personal appreciation is followed by Anne
Hudson’s engrossing study of how John Wyclif gained access to
the books that he used and cited. Essays by Ann Eljenholm Nichols,
Elizabeth Eisenstein and Richard Marks all focus, in different
ways, on the relationship between religious text and image. Three
biographical essays – by Jeremy Catto, Alison McHardy and
Maureen Jurkowski – describe widely varying careers in the
late medieval church, from the archbishop of Canterbury to an
obscure Lollard preacher. Lollardy is the subject also of Norman
Tanner’s essay on the conciliar treatment of heresy and the
condemnation of Wyclif’s teachings, while Ian Forrest
considers the role of defamation and heresy in late medieval social
life. Andrew Hope compares reputation and reality in the career of
the early Tudor reformer John Colet, and John Bossy examines the
devotional compositions of the Elizabethan nobleman, Lord Henry
Howard. While providing ample testimony of Aston’s influence,
these essays are also of considerable – even seminal –
importance in their own right, and deserve a place on the shelf of
any serious student of the period.