Book excerpt: English literature from Chaucer to Milton was produced in a culture where accusations of heresy were frequently made, and where the meaning of orthodoxy was unsettled. The essays in this book show the ways in which ideas about heresy and orthodoxy had their impact, sometimes fatally, on writers. The various movements - Lollardy, Bible Protestantism, Calvinist orthodoxy, and antinomian heresy - produced vital, often eloquent or satiric, writing from all sides in the recurring debates. The literary genres - where these issues are important - include autobiography, romance, history, theology, drama, and poetry.