The Repressor of Over Much Blaming of the Clergy

This two-volume work is valuable for both religious and linguistic history. A vernacular text written in a period of division within the Church and widespread popular religious discontent, it provides a record of the arguments that fuelled this division. Reginald Pecock (c.1392-c.1459) recounts the attacks made by Lollard reformers and provides well-composed answers to them. A firm believer in papal supremacy, Pecock insisted on proving doctrine by reason, a position which laid him open to the charges of heresy that dogged his career and eventually led to his disgrace. Editor Charles Babington’s introduction to this edition, published in the Rolls Series in 1860, gives biographical and contextual information, and a summary of the works contained within both volumes. In Volume 1, Pecock outlines eleven points of attack and his general answer to them, specifically dealing with vindications of images and pilgrimages, and the revenues of the clergy.