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England and the Continent in the Sixteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2016

G.R. Elton
G.R. Elton*
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Extract

There are those who would deny a distinction between England and the continent of Europe, alleging that the island is in every respect—politically, socially, culturally—a part of Europe. This is an opinion that could be held only by those whose knowledge of the continent is derived from books and from visits, anyone who has actually ever lived there knows how fundamental those differences are. Or perhaps one should say, how fundamental they were; possibly they have in the last thirty years been disappearing together with an England that was real, and apparently unchangeable, at any rate down to 1939. It may also be argued that those differences have not always existed, time out of memory: medieval England, part of one European church, may have displayed more likeness to the rest of Christendom than difference. An island ruled for so many centuries by Danish, Norman and Angevin princes perhaps demands to be treated as part of those continental dominions. I am certainly familiar with arguments of this kind from historians concerned to understand the medieval English church or the Norman Conquest and its consequences. Yet even then there were real differences, and if the novel (and very persuasive) thesis that England never knew a ‘true’ peasantry survives detailed scrutiny those differences may well come to matter more throughout English history than any superficial resemblances in religion, in language, or in the social habits of the upper classes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History Subsidia , Volume 2: Reform and Reformation: England and the Continent c1500-c1750 , 1979 , pp. 1 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1979 

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References

1 Macfarlane, A.J., The Origins of English Individualism (London 1978)Google Scholar.

2 In my view, the differences, real as they were, between the various component parts of Europe are far less considerable than those between Europe and England, so that it becomes legitimate to treat the continent as an entity and contrast it with what the Germans like to call ‘the island realm’.

3 Doctor and Student, ed Plucknett, T.F.T. and Barton, J.L., Selden Society (London 1974)Google Scholar.

4 Parkyns, John, A prof table book teaching of the laws of England (London 1555: the first English edition of a book originally published in law French in 1528)Google Scholar.

5 Compare Baker’s, J. H. introduction, in vol 2, to his edition of The Reports of Sir John Spehnan, Selden Society (1978)Google Scholar, for the fullest demonstration of the revolution in the law. For the points touching Davies and Coke I owe much thanks to discussions with Mr.Pawlish, H. whose researches are refuting the doctrine of English legal insularity setup by Pocock, J. G. A., The Ancient Constitution and the Feudal Law (London 1957) esp. cap 2Google Scholar, and Kelley, Donald R., ‘History, English Law, and the Renaissance’, PP 65 (1974) PP 24 seqCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Compare William Marshall’s translation (1535) of Marsiglio of Padua’s Defensor Pacts which kept emphasising the sovereignty of a parliament quite unknown to the author translated.

7 Fenlon, D.B., ‘England and Europe: Utopia and its Aftermath,’ TRHS, 5 ser., 25 (1975) PP 115 seqGoogle Scholar.

8 The juxtaposition of More and Machiavelli is the theme of Ritter’s, Gerhard Die Dämonie der Macht (1947)Google Scholar: it appears to have become widely accepted among German commentators.

9 Clebsch, W., England’s Earliest Protestants, 1520–1535 (London 1964)Google Scholar.

10 Elton, G.R., ‘England und die oberdeutsche Reform’, ZKG (1978) pp 3 seqGoogle Scholar.

11 Davies, J.F., ‘Heresy and Reformation in the South-East of England, 1520-59’, unpubl diss, Oxford D Phil (1968)Google Scholar.

12 Lake, P.G., ‘Laurence Chaderton and the Cambridge Moderate Puritan Tradition, 1570-1604’, unpubl diss, Cambridge Ph D (1978)Google Scholar.

13 A good example is provided by the efforts made to devolve the decision in the vestiarian controversy upon Henry Bullinger.

14 Elton, G.R., Reform and Reformation: England 1509-1538 (London 1977) pp 196–200Google Scholar.