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A University of Sussex PhD thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details i Shifting Targets in Reformation Allegory: Five Case Studies, 1515-1575 Reem Maria Perysinakis Submitted for the qualification of Doctor of Philosophy in English Literature University of Sussex October 2015 ii I hereby declare that this thesis has not been, and will not be, submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree. Signature iii Acknowledgments I wish to extend my gratitude to my primary supervisor, Dr. Margaret Healy, whose patience and guidance throughout the years have been invaluable. My thanks to my secondary supervisors, Professor Andrew Hadfield and the late Dr. Mary Dove, for their helpful suggestions. I am full of gratitude for the kindness and unconditional help I received from some esteemed academics. Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch has always been willing to answer all my questions promptly and in detail and I am deeply indebted to his excellent and indispensible scholarship. My thanks to Professor John N. King for reading one of my chapters, offering feedback and suggestions. I also owe gratitude to Dr. Peter Happé for generously taking the time to answer questions and for offering useful information. Thanks to the British Library, the Warburg Institute, the Bodleian Library and Cambridge University Library. My thanks to Dr. Victoria Buckley for her proofreading, and her consistent encouragement. I extend my warm gratitude and affection to my friend Youla Hatzaki whose support, enthusiasm, and genuine care have given me the will to continue, especially during moments of personal difficulty. Without the patience and perseverance of my family, this thesis would not have been possible. My thanks to my husband, Panagiotis, and my children: Anastasia, Jason and Alexander. This is for my late grandmother. iv University of Sussex Reem Maria Perysinakis Submitted for the examination for Doctor of Philosophy in English Literature Shifting Targets of Evil in English Reformation Allegory: Five Case Studies, 1515–1575 Summary This thesis explores the shifting targets of evil in English Reformation allegory during particularly turbulent social and religious changes, between 1534 and 1575, when the notion of evil was used as a polemical weapon by authors with a progressive reformist agenda. I examine how the concept of evil, as delineated by the philosophy of ‘moral absolutism’, and its associated theological theories, although remained static (good and evil are defined in a diametrically opposed construct, and determined by a deity), the nature of evil (whether evil is something we all have within us or is an external force) changed from a pre-Reformation construct to a Reformation configuration, and the targets of that which was considered evil shifted thereafter. I employ a historicist and intertextual approach, where meaning does not reside in the text. Instead, meaning is produced by my own reading in relation both to each text under scruitiny and to the network of texts invoked in the reading process, which is conducted within the context of each of these texts’ social, political, theological and cultural history. I draw on biographical, political, and theological accounts, alongside literary texts and analysis, focusing on five specific case studies from 1515 to 1575. Plays by John Skelton, John Bale, Nicolas Udall, Lewis Wager and prose by William Baldwin are analysed in conjunction with contemporary literary works and tracts, which include those by William Tyndale, Bernadino Ochino, John Frith, Robert Crowley, Edmund Dudley, Thomas More, John Knox and Anthony Gilby. I examine texts that have received considerable scholarly attention, with the aim of focusing on their polemical targeting of individuals, groups and institutions via allegorical evil characterisation. I argue that scholarship has neglected to engage with a crucial facet of the texts under scrutiny: one that can provide important additional insights into Reformation allegory, and the particularly fractious and contested instances of Tudor history that produced them. v Notes on the text and abbreviations The Early English Books Online texts cited were all accessed through the University of Sussex Library Website. The Unique Resource Locator for all is identical, apart from the individual EEBO citation number, and for reasons of brevity I have simply cited this number in the footnotes and bibliography. The full address is http://gateway.proquest.com.ezproxy.sussex.ac.uk/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88- 2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation: Most online journal articles cited were accessed through the University of Sussex Library Website. I have cited the database in which they are held, the URL (unique resource locator) or DOI (digital object identifier), with the unique number of each article, and the publisher of the journal. If no URL is given, I have looked at the original article in the file copies held in the University Library, British Library or the University of Cambridge Library. Some online journal articles were accessed through the World Wide Web. STC refers to Short Title Catalogue. CSP refers to Calendar of State Papers. BCE refers to Before the Common Era. CE refers to the Common Era. Where possible I have tried to give the original date of publication for each early- modern document cited, but where it has not been possible to establish this with any degree of certainty, I have cited the date of publication of the text I have used. Dates are given New Style (i.e. with each year assumed to begin on 1 January rather than 25 March). vi Contents Acknowledgments .................................................................................................... iii Summary .................................................................................................................. iv Notes on the text and abbreviations .......................................................................... v Contents ................................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................... 34 King, Minions and Evil Vanities of the Court ........................................................ 34 The Young King and His Minions .......................................................................... 36 John Skelton: Character and Work ......................................................................... 46 Morality plays and Magnyfycence: A Textual Analysis ......................................... 54 CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................................... 70 Antichrist ................................................................................................................... 70 Context: Resistance to Authority and Change ........................................................ 72 Antichrist: Tradition and Evolution ........................................................................ 75 John Bale’s Conversion and Ideology .................................................................... 88 Kynge Johan: A Textual Analysis........................................................................... 92 CHAPTER 3 ................................................................................................................. 104 Satire and Evil ......................................................................................................... 104 Baldwin’s Literary Contributions and Historical Context .................................... 105 Social Context: A Notorious Case ........................................................................ 111 Baldwin’s Literary and Political Affiliations ........................................................ 114 Menippean Satire and Beware the Cat: A Textual Analysis................................. 122 CHAPTER 4 ................................................................................................................. 140 Counter-Reformation: Evil Counsel ..................................................................... 140 Context: Social, Political and Economic. .............................................................. 141 The ‘Commonwealth Men’ ................................................................................... 143 Mary’s Accession to the Throne. .......................................................................... 148 The Counsel .......................................................................................................... 151 William Paget, 1st Baron Paget of Beaudesert (1506–9 June 1563) .................... 156 Nicholas Udall and Respublica’s Context............................................................