Welcome to the History of English Podcast, a podcast about the history of the English

language.

This is episode 154, English equality.

In this episode, we're going to look at how the perception of English began to change

in the mid-1500s.

For many decades, people in England had considered Latin and Greek to be the languages of advanced

scholarship and technical study.

English was considered to be too rustic and crude to deal with the sophisticated ideas

associated with the Renaissance.

But in the mid-1500s, some writers were elevating the use of English.

They started to use English beside or even in place of those classical languages when

dealing with technical subjects like medicine and geometry.

English was increasingly seen as the equal of Latin and Greek.

This was also a period when English replaced Latin in the regular church services in England.

And that was another example of the rise of English even though it was met with fierce

resistance.

So this time, we'll explore those developments, and we'll also continue our look at the

brief reign of Henry VIII's young son Edward as King of England.

But before we begin, let me remind you that the website for the podcast is historyofenglishpodcast.com.

And you can sign up to support the podcast and get bonus episodes at patreon.com slash

historyofenglish.

Now let's turn to this episode and the rise in the perception of English in the mid-1500s.

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