The Age of Reformation

by Alec Ryrie

The Age of Reformation charts how religion, politics and social change were always intimately interlinked in the sixteenth century, from the murderous politics of the Tudor court to the building and fragmentation of new religious and social identities in the parishes.In this book, Alec Ryrie provides an authoritative overview of the religious and political reformations of the sixteenth century. This turbulent century saw Protestantism come to England, Scotland and even Ireland, while the Tudor and Stewart monarchs made their authority felt within and beyond their kingdoms more than any of their predecessors. This book demonstrates how this age of reformations produced not only a new religion, but a new politics - absolutist, yet pluralist, populist yet bound by law.This new edition has been fully revised and updated and includes expanded sections on Lollardy and anticlericalism, on Henry VIII's early religious views, on several of the rebellions which convulsed Tudor England and on unofficial religion, ranging from Elizabethan Catholicism to incipient atheism.Drawing on the most recent research, Alec Ryrie explains why these events took the course they did - and why that course was so often an unexpected and unlikely one. It is essential reading for students of early modern British history and the history of the reformation.

Genres: History, Religion, Nonfiction, School

328 pages, Paperback

First published June 27, 2009

About the author

Alec Ryrie is a prize-winning historian of the Reformation and Protestantism. He is the author of Unbelievers: An Emotional History of Doubt and Protestants: The Faith That Made the Modern World. Ryrie is Professor of the History of Christianity at Durham University and Professor of Divinity at Gresham College, London.

Reviews

[Chad D · Rating 5 out of 5]

funny, thrilling

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ultimately a concise introduction to the politics and religious turmoil of Tudor Britain and Scotland under the Stewarts (From Bosworth to the accession of James I/James VI).

What Ryrie achieves in 292 pages is deliver an effective summary on how the continental Reformation affected British (and Irish) politics, with due diligence given to the slow mutation from Elective Monarchy to Hereditary Monarchy, which seems to be one of the book's main lines of analysis. British (England + Wales) affairs are thankfully not treated separately from those of Scotland or Ireland, but as an ensemble, which points towards the more 'unified' nature of the British Isles in the 17th century.

There is worthy praise for the treatment given to Scottish politics, highlighting the principal cultural differences, as well as shared history, with its southern neighbour. However, it would have been nice if Wales and Ireland had received this same level of attention (although this is acknowledged by Ryrie in the preface of this second edition).

On a personal note, the use of endnotes instead of footnotes is frustrating, as it is sometimes difficult to know which work from the bibliography is being referenced.

[reagan schwartz]

read in: sophomore year