Cover not available

In:Voices Past and Present - Studies of Involved, Speech-related and Spoken Texts: In honor of Merja Kytö
Edited by Ewa Jonsson and Tove Larsson
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 97] 2020
► pp. 95–112

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 7
Godly vocabulary in Early Modern English religious debate

 | University of Glasgow
Published online: 5 October 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.97.07smi
The English Reformation of the mid-sixteenth century was characterised by a vigorous public discourse of controversy, mediated by the still-novel printing press. On the one side were those – the godly – who favoured reformed religion; on the other were those – generally exiles – who held to increasingly embattled Roman Catholicism. This chapter compares the outputs of two communities of practice – one Protestant, one Catholic – from a key period in the Reformation’s history: the 1560s. It demonstrates how both sides developed distinctive, ideologically-charged lexicons of theology and insult. It also shows how reformers in particular deployed a coded English vocabulary, including words not usually seen as part of the semantic field of religion, to mark their distinctive discourse community.
Article outline
  • 1.Godly folk in the 1560s
  • 2.Materials and methods
    • Evangelical texts
    • Roman Catholic texts
  • 3.Textual analysis
    • 3.1Reformed texts
    • 3.2Roman Catholic texts
    • 3.3Theological differences
    • 3.4The vocabulary of insult
      • Idolatry*
      • Massmonger
      • Romish
      • Sodomical
      • Superbious
      • Synagogue*
    • 3.5Some further differences
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (26)
References
1969. The Book of Common Prayer. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Batman, S. 1569. A christall glasse of Christian reformation. London: Day (= ESTC S115367)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Becon, T. 1561. The sycke mans salue. London: Day (= ESTC S114654).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cambers, A. 2011. Godly Reading: Print, Manuscript and Puritanism in England, 1580–1720. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Collinson, P. 1983. Godly People. London: Hambledon.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Collinson, P., Hunt, A. & Walsham, A. 2002. Religious publishing in England 1557–1640. In The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain IV: 1557–1695, J. Barnard, D. F. McKenzie & M. Bell (eds), 29–66. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Culpeper, J. & Kytö, M. 2010. Early Modern English Dialogues. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dering, E. 1569. A sermon preached at the Tower of London. London: Day (= ESTC S113566).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dorman, T. 1564. A proufe of certeyne articles in religion. Antwerp: de Laet (= ESTC S110087).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eckert, P. & McConnell-Ginet, S. 1992. Think practically and look locally: Language and gender as community-based practice. Annual Review of Anthropology 21: 461–490. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fitzmaurice, S., Robinson, J., Alexander, M., Hine, I., Mehl, S. & Dallachy, F. 2017. Linguistic DNA: Investigating conceptual change in Early Modern English discourse. Studia Neophilologica 89: 21–38. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gadd, I. 2009. The use and misuse of Early English Books Online . Literature Compass 6: 680–692. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hudson, A. 1981. A Lollard sect vocabulary? In So Meny People Longages and Tonges: Philological Essays in Scots and Mediaeval English Presented to Angus McIntosh, M. Benskin & M. L. Samuels (eds), 15–30. Edinburgh: Middle English Dialect Project.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kopaczyk, J. & Jucker A. H. (eds). 2013. Communities of Practice in the History of English [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 235]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lamont, W. 1969. Godly Rule. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
MacCulloch, D. 1996. Thomas Cranmer. New Haven CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2017. Thomas Cranmer’s biographers. In All Things Made New: Writings on the Reformation, D. MacCullock (ed.), 256–278. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McIntosh, A. 1994. Codes and cultures. In Speaking in our Tongues, M. Laing & K. Williamson (eds), 135–7. Cambridge: Brewer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Milroy, J. 1992. Linguistic Variation and Change. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morgan, J. 1988. Godly Learning. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Norton, D. 2000. A History of the English Bible as Literature. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rastell, J. 1565. A replie against an ansvver (falslie intitled) in defence of the truth. Antwerp: Diest (= ESTC S121762).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smith, J. 1996. An Historical Study of English: Function, Form and Change. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stapleton, T. 1566. A returne of vntruthes vpon M. Jewelles replie. Antwerp: de Laet (= ESTC S105218).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Webster, T. 2003. Godly Clergy. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williams, R. 1983. Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, 2nd edn. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Smith, Jeremy J.
2021. Lexical choices in Early Modern English devotional prose. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 22:2 ► pp. 263 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 1 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue