Dear John,
I do not know whether this exactly what you are after, but there is
some interesting work on the complex relationship between heresy,
vernacular anti-heresy preaching and a retreat from the use of the
vernacular to combat heresy in the context of English Lollardy.
This, as I remember, leads to people in the mid-fifteenth century being accused of
heresy for owning books, such as Dives and Pauper which had been
written in the vernacular (earlier in the century) to counter heresy.
SPENCER, H.L., English Preaching in the Late Middle Ages (Oxford
1993).
ASTON, M., Faith and Fire. Popular and Unpopular Religion, 1350-1600
(London and Rio Grande 1993).
It might also be interesting to note the language used by Margery
Kempe trying to prove her orthodoxy when on trial in my home city of
Leicester, making specific reference to the words of consecration as
those which none but the priest may say, thus stressing that she accepts
the distinction between the knowledge of the priest and of the laity.
Best Wishes
Miriam Gill
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