Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Preface
- Note
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Survey
- PART ONE ASSESSMENT
- PART TWO EXPLANATION
- 8 Spiritual motivations: Lutheranism, Calvinism and other faiths
- 9 Non-spiritual motivations: politics, economics and other forces
- 10 Mediate influences: literature, drama and art
- 11 Immediate influences: example, action and oral communication
- 12 Summation of Part Two
- 13 Perspective
- Appendix 1 Maps
- Appendix 2 Graphs
- Bibliography and abbreviations
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Preface
- Note
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Survey
- PART ONE ASSESSMENT
- PART TWO EXPLANATION
- 8 Spiritual motivations: Lutheranism, Calvinism and other faiths
- 9 Non-spiritual motivations: politics, economics and other forces
- 10 Mediate influences: literature, drama and art
- 11 Immediate influences: example, action and oral communication
- 12 Summation of Part Two
- 13 Perspective
- Appendix 1 Maps
- Appendix 2 Graphs
- Bibliography and abbreviations
- Index
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 PeoplePopular Religion and the English Reformation, pp. 262 - 268Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989