ABSTRACT
Accounts of Middle English prose, in any case relatively infrequent, have generally confined themselves to an outline of its historical development with occasional fuller comments on the more important texts. Style and tone are the usual criteria used to distinguish the historical development, though more recently the audience has been added. The absence of a survey of the various types of Middle English prose with their characteristics has prevented a proper assessment of its contribution to the development of literature and has encouraged undue concentration upon certain texts and authors. Although their final aim, as with all religious literature, may be instruction, their starting point is different. These works do not deal with church services or with aspects of Christian behaviour, but they describe what has happened in human history, particularly the history of the Jews and of Christian peoples.
