ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the extent to which Sir John Mandeville Book conforms to traditional clerical and lay values and modes, including theology, moralising and anti-clerical satire, and the author's personal tolerance and syncretic approach to religious otherness. Many compilations placed Mandeville in close proximity to works of theology and devotional items, reflecting their readers' tastes and concerns. In any case, Mandeville's Book is well aware of important theological issues and contemporary debates such as that on the salvation of the gentiles, and his audiences were certainly interested in this aspect. Mandeville's aim is not to insult the Greek faith, but rather to condemn his own society in a rhetorical outburst that mirrors the phrasing of many medieval sermonists on the ever popular subject of benefices and Church corruption. The evidence of the compendia suggests that the Book's theological arguments and attitudes were both observed and respected by many of its readers.
