ABSTRACT
A lawyer of the Middle Temple, Christopher St German was born about 1460 and died in 1541. Although he did not publish his first work until he was nearly seventy years old, St German was a productive writer during the last decade of his long life. He was in the habit of publishing anonymously which has created additional labour for scholars, but recently John Guy and Richard Rex have argued persuasively for St German’s authorship of all of the texts discussed below.1 Many of St German’s literary efforts, and the portion of his writings upon which the current study will focus, address issues of Church-state relations in Tudor England. Throughout these works St German pursues a twofold agenda. First, he seeks to validate the authority of the king in Parliament over virtually all aspects of English ecclesiastical life, with the exception of the preaching and sacramental functions of the clergy. Second, he endeavours to spur the civil authorities into action to rectify what he feels are abuses within the English Church, highlighting the discord and ensuing danger to the temporal and eternal well-being of English subjects to which the abuses give rise.
