SOURCE: Powell, Susan. “John Mirk's Festial and the Pastoral Programme.” Leeds Studies in English 22 (1991): 85-102.

In the following essay, Powell contends that Mirk's motivation for his texts was as “teaching aids” for priests.

Within a century of John Mirk's writing his sermon collection, the Festial, it had been copied in whole or part many times, it could be found in two separate versions as well as a major revision, and it had been printed by Caxton as his first sermon collection. Indeed, it was to remain in print until 1532 and to retain its popularity even later. This paper will demonstrate that Mirk's original aim, that the work should serve as the preaching component of a programme of pastoral publication, remained relevant throughout the various metamorphoses of the Festial.¹

John Mirk and the Gi; John Mirk and the festial =~ Sfestial

From its first appearance, probably in the 1380s,² the...