Challenging the established history of sixteenth-century English literature, the author demonstrates the presence and significance of a native Protestant literary tradition that emerged out of the radical Reformation during the reign of Edward VI (1547-1553). Standard authorities have assumed a hiatus between the rise of humanism under the early Tudor kings and the renaissance of poetry and drama at the end of the Elizabethan age. The author argues the importance of the mid-sixteenth-century literature that introduced Protestant themes and a plain style and influenced both the Elizabethan flowering and the English literature of the seventeenth century. Drawing on disciplines such as political, ecclesiastical, and intellectual history, art, iconography, and printing, the author discusses the literary achievement of the middle sixteenth century as it manifested itself in a variety of genres, including dialogue and interlude, ethical verse, political allegory, millennial prophecy, and biblical paraphrase. Because the impulse of early Protestantism was toward public reformation rather than private sanctification, satire and comic drama are particularly important in the literature of this period. This book provides us with the first comprehensive study of the literature of the English Reformation. -- from Book Jacket.