Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-x5cpj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-02T00:10:27.067Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

13 - Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2009

Get access

Summary

One question remains. To what extent may the responses of south-western people to the Reformation be regarded as typical of those of the English people as a whole?

Comparison with other regions is hindered by the emphasis of most modern research upon the clergy and gentry rather than upon the mass of the population. It is further complicated by the differing sources and approaches employed by modern historians, and by the conflicting conclusions that these have sometimes produced. At one end of the spectrum, A. G. Dickens and G. R. Elton have argued that discontent with Catholicism increased markedly in later-medieval England; that Lollardy and anticlericalism were widespread; and that (in consequence) Protestantism rapidly won support in the sixteenth century. At the other end, C. Haigh and J. Scarisbrick have contended that Catholicism was still flourishing on the eve of the Reformation; that Lollardy and anti-clericalism remained relatively rare; and that (in consequence) the progress of Protestantism was both difficult and slow. It is probable that only after many more local studies will a generally agreed picture of English responses to the Reformation eventually emerge. Nevertheless, a brief survey of the principal types of evidence – and in particular of those which are susceptible to some form of statistical analysis – would suggest that a number of general propositions may be plausibly essayed.

There are signs that, in several regions, the Reformation decades witnessed a rising volume of verbal outbursts by laymen against traditional religion and against priests.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Blind Devotion of the People
Popular Religion and the English Reformation
, pp. 262 - 268
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Perspective
  • Robert Whiting
  • Book: The Blind Devotion of the People
  • Online publication: 11 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511522864.015
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Perspective
  • Robert Whiting
  • Book: The Blind Devotion of the People
  • Online publication: 11 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511522864.015
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Perspective
  • Robert Whiting
  • Book: The Blind Devotion of the People
  • Online publication: 11 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511522864.015
Available formats
×