This volume seeks to address a relatively neglected subject in the field of English reformation studies: the reformation in its urban context. Drawing on the work of a number of historians, this collection of essays will seek to explore some of the dimensions of that urban stage and to trace, using a mixture of detailed case studies and thematic reflections, some of the ways in which religious change was both effected and affected by the activities of townsmen and women.

This collection of essays seeks to explore some of the dimensions of the Reformation in English towns, and to trace some of the ways in which religious change was both effected and affected by the activities of townsmen and women.

Close examination of the divided religious life of Norwich in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, with wider implications for the country as a whole.

This analysis of the secular impact of the Reformation examines the changes within English towns from the mid-16th to the mid-17th century.

The English Reformation remains deeply controversial. While there is a growing perception that the English experienced a "long Reformation, that it was a protracted process rather than an "event", very significant historiographical differences remain over the pace of change, the means ofimplementation, and the degree of enthusiasm with which the English people experienced the dismantling of their medieval Catholic culture. How widespread was the appeal of early Protestantism in England, and what, if anything, did it owe to native roots? How effectively was religious change enactedin the localities, and how did local communities react to the swings of official policy? In what sense was England a "Protestant nation" by the early seventeenth century? How much continuity remained with the Catholic past?The contributions in this book identify and, in different and sometimes contradictory ways, attempt to resolve these and other questions. It is structured in three sections that combine a themat

A consistent, indigenous English doctrine of scriptural perspicuity correlates with a commitment to the availability of the vernacular scriptures in English and supports the English roots of the Early English Reformation (EER). Although political events and figures dominate the EER, its religious component springing from John Wyclif and streaming throughout the tradition must be recognized more widely. This book critically surveys the doctrine of scriptural perspicuity from the beginning of the Church in the first century (noted as early as John Chrysostom) through the seventeenth century, examining its impact on the current debates concerning competing hermeneutical systems, reader response hermeneutics, and the debates in conservative American Presbyterianism and Reformed theology on subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith, the length of «creation days», and other issues.

How were cultural, political, and social identities formed in the early modern period? How were they maintained? What happened when they were contested? What meanings did “community” have? This path-breaking book looks at how individuals were bound into communities by religious, professional, and social networks; the importance of place--ranging from the Parish to communities of crime; and the value of rhetoric in generating community--from the King’s English to the use of “public” as a rhetorical community. The essays offer an original, comparative, and thematic approach to the many ways in which people utilized communication, space, and symbols to constitute communities in early modern England.