The Henrician Reformation
For discussion:
1. Did the Henrician Reformation display any consistent religious aims?
2. The early English evangelical movement owed as much to Lollardy as to continental reform.’ Discuss.
Readings:
R Rex, Henry VIII and the English Reformation (1993, and 2nd ed. 2006) - excellent short work with a clear (revisionist) line - a work of original scholarship despite the format. Interesting on Lollards.
-------, ‘The Crisis of Obedience: God’s Word and Henry’s Reformation’, Historical Journal (1996) - follows up theme of obedience as key to Henrician Reformation.
-------, ‘The New Learning’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History (1994) - helpful on pitfalls of terminology.
P Marshall, Reformation England 1480-1642 (2003), ch. 2 - guide to recent historiographical controversies.
C Haigh, English Reformations (1993), ch 3 (on early Protestants); chs 7-9 (on Henrician policy) - revisionist textbook: sees religious policy as essentially subservient to political (especially foreign policy) developments.
G. W. Bernard, ‘The Making of Religious Policy, 1533-1546: Henry VIII and the Search for the Middle Way’, Historical Journal, 41 (1998) – the title says it all.
-------------, The King’s Reformation: Henry VIII and the Remaking of the English Church (2006) – controversial thesis, putting Henry in driving seat.
D MacCulloch (ed), The Reign of Henry VIII (1995) - important essay by MacCulloch on Henry’s religious attitudes.
Ryrie, ‘Divine Kingship and Royal Theology in Henry VIII’s Reformation’, Reformation, 7 (2002) – another interesting attempt to work out Henry’s perceptions.
P. Marshall, ‘The Other Black Legend: The Henrician Reformation and the Spanish People’, English Historical Review, 116 (2001), also in Marshall, Religious Identities – how it looked from overseas.
GR Elton, Reform and Reformation (1977) - worth picking through chs 7-9, 12-13 for account stressing centrality of Thomas Cromwell and unsympathetic to revisionist concerns.
G Redworth, ‘A Study in the Formulation of Policy: the genesis and evolution of the Act of Six Articles’, Journal of Ecclesiatical History (1986) - case study of the beginnings of the Henrician ‘reaction’ of the 1540s.
RW Hoyle, ‘The Origins of the Dissolution of the Monasteries’, Historical Journal (1995) - important for assessment of government’s motives over the dissolution.
P. Marshall, ‘Papist as Heretic: the Burning of John Forest
JK McConica, English Humanists and Reformation Politics (1965) - controversially claims Erasmianism the guiding principle of Henrician Reform.
JJ Scarisbrick , Henry VIII (1968) - magisterial biography: chs 10 and 12 give insight into Henry’s own attitudes to his Supremacy.
P Marshall, ‘The Rood of Boxley, the Blood of Hailes, and the Defence of the Henrician Church’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History (1995) - attempts to draw some conclusions from a cause celebre of 1538.
------------, ‘Forgery and Miracles in the Reign of Henry VIII’, Past and Present (2003), also in Marshall, Religious Identities – broadens out from above case study to consider scope of government’s attack on the miraculous.
M Dowling, ‘Anne Boleyn and Reform’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History (1984) -brings a key figure into the spotlight; convincing.
------------, ‘The Gospel and the Court: Reformation under Henry VIII’, in P Lake and M Dowling eds. Protestantism and the National Church (1987) - expands the argument to highlight other reforming figures at the court.
AG Dickens, The English Reformation (2nd ed 1989) - ch 3 argues strongly for continuity between Lollardy and Protestantism; ch 5 gives sympathetic account of early Protestants; chs 7, 9 describe Henrician developments.
------------, ‘The Early Expansion of Protestantism in England 1520-
JF Davis, ‘Lollardy and the Reformation in England’, Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte (1982) and in P. Marshall (ed), The Impact of the English Reformation 1500-1640 (1997) - the most passionate advocate of the ‘continuity’ case.
---------, ‘The Trials of Thomas Bylney and the English Reformation’, Historical Journal (1981) - case study of an enigmatic figure on the margins of Lollardy and Protestantism.
S Brigden, London and the Reformation (1989) - ch 2 contains some of best recent work on the first Protestants.
------------, ‘Youth and the English Reformation’, Past and Present (1982) and in P. Marshall (ed), The Impact of the English Reformation 1500-1640 (1997) - early Protestantism as a protest movement of the young.
P. Marshall and A. Ryrie (eds), The Beginnings of English Protestantism (2002) – chs. 1-4 on complexities of early Protestantism.
M Aston, ‘Lollardy and the Reformation: Survival or Revival’, History (1964), and in her Lollards and Reformers (1984) - points to interesting themes in early Protestant printing.
G Walker, Persuasive Fictions (1996) - esp. ch 5: sceptical about the potential, or even the existence of organized heretical groups.
R. Rex, The Lollards (2002) – lively revisionist account minimising their significance.