Abstract
The mystics produced works of devotion for serious-minded people; but the moralists appealed to the crowd. Conduct has always been insisted on by religious teachers in England; and in tracts, sermons and interludes the public has been invited to follow the way of righteousness and contemplate the horrors of sin. The mediaeval literature on these subjects is far from being uniformly dull. It abounds in illustrations, anecdotes and parables, and often contains character sketches equal to those of modern essayists.
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© 1963 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Smith, H.M. (1963). The Literature of the People. In: Pre-Reformation England. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-00406-5_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-00406-5_10
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-00408-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-00406-5
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