"In the medieval system the Pope and Bishops ruled the Church, the Monarch and Lords ruled the State. However, in England from the late fourteenth century with the rise of Lollardy, this division was increasingly challenged by the laity's insistence on their right to choose not only between different systems of Church governments but also between different forms of religious belief." "Church and People traces the laity's struggle to achieve supremacy in the English Church and shows how the political and social developments between 1450 and 1660 were decisively influenced by this conflict, as Monarch, Church and Parliament sought to use lay disaffection to further their own political ends. This edition contains a new bibliographical essay."--BOOK JACKET.