The Chronicles of Rome: An Edition of the Middle English The Chronicle of Popes and Emperors and the Lollard Chronicle (Medieval Chronicles)

The two Middle English chronicles presented here record the lives of the popes and emperors of Rome; they are the only surviving Middle English texts devoted principally to such material. The first is the fourteenth-century Chronicle of Popes and Emperors, a translation and abbreviation of Martinus Polonus's thirteenth-century Chronicon Pontificum et Imperatorum; it served as a reference book for clerics and religious institutions, providing some 300 biographies. The second is the Lollard Chronicle, a selection of popes' and emperors' biographies aiming to discredit the papacy and justify the sovereignty of secular authorities in accordance with Wycliffite doctrines; it provides vital evidence for a Lollard reading of history. This volume is the first in a series which aims to publish previously unedited Middle English chronicles of historical or literary importance. Professor DAN EMBREE teaches at Mississippi State University.