Among the more persistent myths concerning the history of the English language there is the one connected with the exceptional role of Chaucer’s writings and of the King James Bible in the development of the national standard. Important though these texts were, the former at the time of its creation coexisted not only with the works of Gower and Langland, but also with the linguistically much more influential official and religious writings, while the latter was a derivative once removed of the original translation of the Bible into English by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale. The present article views the complex picture of the interaction between various 14th–16th century English religious writings and other devotional and non-devotional texts, considered against the general background of the English history of the period specified.