Introduction

In 1551 Robert Crowley published an allegorical history of the Henrician and Edwardian Reformations, Philargyrie of Greate Britayne.1 This text is an exemplary mid-Tudor history of the process of reformation. It tells the story of Philargyrie, a gold-eating giant, and his two 'religious~ henchmen, Hypocrisie and Philaute. Crowley's poem goes on to describe how the English people, when their misery became too much to bear, 'gao to crye I To god almyght I For them to fyght'. 2 It is the act of responding to this cry of supplication, and defeating Philargyrie, that is reformation in this text. This process of reform is instigated, however, not by the monarch but by Truth who mediates between the people and the king.