There is no ‘set text’ for this module, but there are a number of general works dealing with religion and the Reformation in the later part of the sixteenth century which will usually provide useful context and orientation, and a pathway into the more specialist reading on individual topics. It is sensible to start with one or more of these each week.

 

Haigh, Christopher, English Reformations: Religion, Politics, and Society under the Tudors (Oxford, 1993)

Heal, Felicity, Reformation in Britain and Ireland (Oxford, 2003)

MacCulloch, Diarmaid, The Later Reformation in England (1990 and 2^nd ed. 2002)

Marshall, Peter, Reformation England 1480-1642 (2003, 2^nd ed. 2012 and 3rd ed. 2022)

Marshall, Peter, Heretics and Believers: A History of the English Reformation (New Haven and London, 2017)

Ryrie, Alec, The Age of Reformation: The Tudor and Stewart Realms, 1485-1603 (London, 2009; 2^nd ed. 2017 and 3rd ed. 2024)

 

For a brisk overview of the period as a whole, see Peter Marshall, ‘Settlement Patterns: The Church of England, 1553-1603’, in Anthony Milton (ed.), The Oxford History of Anglicanism: Volume I (Oxford, 2017), ch. 3.

 

You are also encouraged to make use of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ONDB), accessible through the Library’s electronic database pages: this supplies reliable short biographies, and further reading suggestions, for a host of individuals from the period.

 

Readings are listed alphabetically, and all are worth consulting, but for each week particularly significant or helpful texts are marked *