The legend of a Protestant Geoffrey Chaucer persisted, continuing at least through the late twentieth century and probably further. This chapter explores why and how did this legend persist in the absence of the texts that gave rise to it. Chaucer's treatment of friars in the Summoner's Tale would seem to be a kind of protest against ecclesiastical abuses. Of course, protest does not equal Protestant. He was critical of the Church, of course, but his only overt mentions of Lollardy initially seem negative. In the few references to Church doctrine from Chaucer's works that might have a Lollard cast, the poet's position remains equally unclear. What seems clear, however, is that whether or not Chaucer was a proto-Protestant, he operated within an environment, both textual and cultural, in which himself and others engaged with ideas that were seen by many as heterodox and even dangerous.