''Jack Upland'' or ''Jack up Lande'' (c. 1389–96?) is a polemical, probably

Lollard Lollardy, also known as Lollardism or the Lollard movement, was a proto-Protestant Christian religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Catholic ...

, literary work which can be seen as a "sequel" to ''

Piers Plowman ''Piers Plowman'' (written 1370–86; possibly ) or ''Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman'' (''William's Vision of Piers Plowman'') is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in un-rhymed, alliterative v ...

'', with

Antichrist In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist refers to people prophesied by the Bible to oppose Jesus Christ and substitute themselves in Christ's place before the Second Coming. The term Antichrist (including one plural form) 1 John ; . 2 John . ...

attacking Christians through corrupt confession. Jack asks a "flattering friar" (''cf.'' ''Piers Plowman''s "Friar Flatterer") nearly seventy questions attacking the mendicant orders and exposing their distance from scriptural truth. Two extant works respond to Jack's questions: ''Responsiones ad Questiones LXV'' (before 1396) and ''Friar Daw's Reply'' (Digby 41, c. 1420). The latter text blasts

John Wycliffe John Wycliffe (; also spelled Wyclif, Wickliffe, and other variants; 1328 – 31 December 1384) was an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, biblical translator, reformer, Catholic priest, and a seminary professor at the University of O ...

as one of history's major

heretics Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

. Responding to Friar Daw, an unknown author wrote ''Upland's Rejoinder'', which survives in Digby 41, in the margins surrounding ''Friar Daw's Reply''. ''Upland's Rejoinder'' intensifies the level of invective: Daw is said to recruit the young sons of true-living plowmen to become (paradoxically) "worldly beggars,"

apostates Apostasy (; grc-gre, ἀποστασία , 'a defection or revolt') is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that ...

against true rule, and sodomites. ''Jack Upland'' was printed by itself in an

octavo Octavo, a Latin word meaning "in eighth" or "for the eighth time", (abbreviated 8vo, 8º, or In-8) is a technical term describing the format of a book, which refers to the size of leaves produced from folding a full sheet of paper on which multip ...

edition c. 1536–40 by John Gough (STC 5098).

John Foxe John Foxe (1516/1517 – 18 April 1587), an English historian and martyrologist, was the author of '' Actes and Monuments'' (otherwise ''Foxe's Book of Martyrs''), telling of Christian martyrs throughout Western history, but particularly the su ...

's ''

Acts and Monuments The ''Actes and Monuments'' (full title: ''Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Days, Touching Matters of the Church''), popularly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, is a work of Protestant history and martyrology by Protestant Engl ...

'' (1563, 1570) reprinted ''Jack Upland'' and attributed it to

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...

Thomas Speght Thomas Speght (died 1621) was an English schoolmaster and editor of Geoffrey Chaucer. Life He was from a Yorkshire family, and matriculated as a sizar of Peterhouse, Cambridge in 1566, graduating B.A. in 1570, and M.A. in 1573. At Cambridge he was ...

's 1602 edition of Chaucer's ''Works'' (STC 5080) included ''Jack Upland''. In 1968 P.L. Heyworth published all three works, ''Jack Upland, Friar Daw's Reply, and Upland's Rejoinder'' in an

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

edition..The three works also appear in the 1972 unpublished doctoral dissertation "The Origins of Subversive Literature in English," by John Roger Holdstock, for the University of California, Davis.

Notes

{{authority control 14th-century books Books critical of Christianity English Reformation History of Catholicism in England Literary forgeries Middle English literature Satirical works The Canterbury Tales Treatises

See also

Notes