Jacob Van Maerlant and the Papacy: A Middle English Misreading of Middle Dutch Verse

During the English Reformation, William Barlow and John Foxe found an unlikely champion for translation of scripture into vernacular in Jacob van Maerlant, prolific thirteenth-century Flemish author whose surviving works consist 230,000 lines Middle Dutch verse, whereas a further three substantial are apparently lost. ‘James Merland’, story went, had translated entire Bible but was consequently summoned to pope investigation his work. On examination, approved, astonishment Maerlant’s enemies. A brief account papal summons included treatise that attracted Barlow’s interest; he brought little work, ‘more than .C. yere olde’, print 1530.1 In 1563, version same first edition Actes Monuments, as ‘A Compendious olde Treatise, shewing how we ought to...