Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1956 Popular Literature and Social Protest, 1485-1558. Francis Edward Abernethy Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Abernethy, Francis Edward, "Popular Literature and Social Protest, 1485-1558." (1956). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 137. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/137 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. POPULAR LITERATURE AND SOCIAL PROTEST, 1 AS5-1558 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by Francis Edward Abernethy B. A., Stephen F* Austin State College, 1949 M. A., Louisiana State University, 1951 June, 1956 ACKNOWLEDGMENT I wish to express my deepest appreciation to my advisor, Dr. Waldo F. McNeir, for his generous assistance and helpful criticism during the writing of this dissertation and to Dr. Walter Richardson, whose excellent course in Tudor history provided background and inspira­ tion for this work. I would also like to thank Drs. John E. Uhler, Robert B. Holtman, Joan C. Miller, and John H. Wildman for their critic­ ism of this paper. For material aid, thanks to beneficent relatives, the appointments committee of the English department, and the Wild Life and Fisheries Commission, especially Messrs. E. J. Fairchild, Iyle St. Amant, Harry Shafer, Donald Geagan, and Victor Lambou. For sage counsel and worthy example set, my. appreciation is extended to Messrs. Harry Heseltine, Thomas Brasher, and Harold Davis. And to my wife, who has maintained our family in felicity and comfort in spite of the rigors of the past three years, goes the essence of all my gratitude.. TABLE OP CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDGMENT.......................... ii ABSTRACT................................. iv CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION................... 1 CHAPTER II: RELIGION AND THE REFORMATION ... 27 CHAPTER III: THE AGRARIAN MOVEMENT........ 78 CHAPTER IV: INFLATION AND THE DEARTH 119 CHAPTER V: VAGABONDAGE AND THE P O O R ........ 148 CHAPTER VI: CONCLUSION.................... 197 LIST OF WORKS CITED........................ 211 VITA ...................................... 218 ABSTRACT , The changes in the character of the English nation under the rule of the pre-Elizabethan Tudors were accompanied by an increased awareness of social and political problems on the part of the people of the realm. This new social consciousness was reflected in contem­ porary popular literature. Through a study of that literature, an attempt will be made to discover and understand the national reaction to the changing statescape and to evaluate the place of such literature under the early Tudors. Tudor England before 155® was troubled with four major social issues: the Reformation and the dissolution of the monasteries, the agrarian revolution and its accompanying evils — enclosure and dis­ possession of the tenantry, increased sheep farming, and increased rents and fines — debasement of the coinage and inflation, and the problem of the poor. These same social issues, or their consequences, remained to trouble the Elizabethansj but the voices of social protest were not so vociferous in the latter half of the sixteenth century. Popular literature from 1485 to 1558, both reflecting public opinion and attempting to mould it, attacked all four of these major social problems, usually taking the conservative position and resisting the fundamental changes which were taking place in the functions and pat­ terns of society. Much of what was written merely condemned existing conditionsj some writers suggested remedies for the existing evilsj and all of them acted as forces in different degrees influencing and iv reflecting the temper of the times. The progress of popular protest literature during the period 1485-1558 was dependent upon the development and improvement of print­ ing and the leniency of the reigning sovereign. It took some time before Tudor printers were able or ready to undertake the publication of ballads and tracts, but by the 1520* s popular literature was grow­ ing in importance, and its influence was brought to bear on the major social problems. There was a spurt of popular literary activity at the outset of the English Reformation around 1530 which lasted through the dissolution proceedings. Possibly Henry relaxed censorship in order to allow anti-Catholic literature to win him supporters in the supremacy question. Much of that literature which was circulated in the pre-Edwardian 1540's was against Catholicism or the remains of Catholicism in the Henrician established church and was usually anon­ ymous and cast in the form of supplications. The state of the poor and the agrarian revolution were receiving more and more attention during the 1540's. Protest writing reached a climax during Edward’s reign, accelerated by inflation, rioting vagabonds, an increasing number of agrarian dispossessed, and an established church which had failed to fulfill the expectations of most active reformers. Medieval customs, price levels, and beliefs which had been slowly vanishing during the first fifty years of the century were now rapidly disap­ pearing} and the social commentators, the spokesmen for the people, became frantic in their search for something of value to take the place of lost ideals, for something stable to hold on to, and for a solution to the glaring social evils of the day. The stability which they thought would be enjoyed when Mary ascended the throne soon proved v to be negative; and because of her severe censorship of the press, the Marian reign became the Dark Ages for sixteenth century popular literature, little remaining to mark the train of popular discontent. Most of the major social problems were settled to some degree during Elizabeth’s reign, and crown restrictions on printing were relaxed. Social problems still existed, of course, and protest literature throughout the century continued in its role as popular spokesman for the English middle class* vi CHAPTER I Introduction It would be a satisfying simplification if one could say that the first Henry Tudor jerked an errant England to its feet, caned discipline into it, and then, like a good father, sent it on its way with enough money in its pocket to prevent it from falling into its old unprincipled ways. A statement such as this, however, would fail to recognize that "errant” England, for the most part, was ready for some sort of discipline and was ready to accept Henry VII as its legal guardian. After almost half a century of family feud, and, at times, general anarchy, the majority of the people were willing to be ruled by a powerful monarch. That they made a wise choice, we can see in retrospect. Henry secured prestige, both financial and polit­ ical, for England. He developed trade abroad, increased the size of the navy, and advanced the power of the parliament. He secured for England and the English people honor overseas and self respect at home. But most important of all, he gave the people of England a sense of security, a feeling that what would be built one day would not collapse the next because of shifting political sands. This sense of security brought with it increased activity, polit­ ical, religious, and social5 and the course of this action tended to move farther and farther away from the values, attitudes — and vir­ tues — of pre-Tudor England. Moved by a growing sense of national­ ism, the people of the realm threw off the yoke of Roman Catholicism 2 and abolished religious institutions which had existed for centuries. The ages-old cooperative system of agriculture and custom tenure gave way to new methods of land holding and management and increased enclosure and sheep farming. Coinage values were arbitrarily lowered by the second Henry Tudor, and with this debasement came a sky-rocketing inflationary period which doubled and tripled prices which had not changed for over 150 years. And accompanying these changes — and, in some instances, caused by them — was an alarming increase in the number of beggars and vagabonds who frequented the realm. All social changes are attended by problems caused by those who cannot adjust to change or who have been injured by it. It was thus in pre-Elizabethan Tudor England. The major social problems during the period from 1485 to 1558 were those arising from the changes just mentioned, and popular social critics centered their attention on religion and the Reformation, the agrarian problem, debasement and the dearth, and vagabondage and the poor. These changes in the character of the English nation under the rule of the early Tudors were accompanied by an increased awareness of social and political problems on the part of the people of the realm. This new social consciousness was reflected in contemporary popular literature. Through a study of the popular literature of that period an attempt will be made to discover and understand the reactions of that great amorphous mass, the middle class, to the changing statescape and to evaluate the place of such literature under the early Tudors. Popular literature we shall define as the bulk of that writing which was not addressed to the courtly and the 3 intellectual, which was couched in such a language that it would be easily understood and appreciated by the average reader, which was not too long to be printed on broad-sheets or in quartos, and which was properly spiced with humor, invective, or rhyme in order to hold the interest of the general.