‘Al Myghty And Al Mercyable Queene’

Extract

Learned critics have so learnedly and so critically examined and analysed Chaucer, both the man and his works, that it is easy for us to forget that we have more in common with him than many even of his greatest critics have. For like us he was a Catholic. More fortunate than us, he lived at a time when England was Catholic. It was in Chaucer's own lifetime that the Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury spoke for all special inheritance, and her own Dowry, as we are commonly called, ought surpass all other Christian nations in the fervour of our praise and devotion.’