This collection of new essays constitutes the proceedings of the Sixth York Manuscripts Conference, held at the University of York in July 1991. The guest of honour on that occasion was Dr Ian Doyle, to whom this volume is dedicated, in deep appreciation of the extraordinary contribution he has made to the study of religious texts and their histories of transmission.

Dr Doyle's lively introductory address is followed by eleven studies which range widely over the different types and genres of religious literature which were produced in late-medieval England, paying attention to both verse and prose, and representing the three literary languages of the time, English, French and Latin, though concentrating on texts in English.

Discussions are provided of the Ancrene Wisse, the South English Legendary, Anglo-Norman saints' Lives, Middle English penitential lyrics, the Lay Folk's Catechism, Piers Plowman, Wyclif's Latin sermons, the English sermons in MS Sidney Sussex 74, Osbern Bokenham's Middle English collection of the lives of female saints (the Legendys of Hooly Wummen), and the Middle English religious texts in the 'Lincoln Thornton' manuscript.