Customer Reviews
England's 'interrupted and difficult' Reformation - By: Mr. Simon J. Kyte, 15 Aug 2008 
Haigh argues there were Reformations rather than one Reformation & that the process was interrupted & difficult. That implies that the populace held to Catholicism - which Haigh argues was a functioning framework - through choice. England already had an anti-Catholic underground in the form of the Lollards but they lacked credibility after the Oldcastle Rebellion (1414).
English Lollardy & imported Lutheranism came out of the closet under the protection of Cromwell, Crammer & Anne Boleyn. The two Universities did most of the legwork through Cardinal's College in Oxford & the White Horse Tavern in Cambridge. The arrival of Bucer from Strasburg & Martyr from Italy (a defender of Zwingli) accentuated this. Stereotyping early critics of the religious regime helped to unify opposition. Bilney was characterised by the authorities as `Lutheran' whilst only sharing some common ground with them such as the prohibition of veneration of images. Although found guilty, Tunstalll kept the case open as Wolsey wanted a repentant conformer not a martyr. Facts about his relapse & subsequent burning in 1531 are confused.
Haigh argues that the preaching of Protestantism remained `limited & patchy'. We need to deal with one of the most contentious claims head-on. According to Haigh, Protestantism did not appeal to women. 30% of men could read but only 10% of women. Why should it be a surprise that there were more male Protestants than female? Certainly, Protestantism had a spatial bias, being concentrated in the Kent, London, Essex & around the Universities. Haigh claims that even in Colchester in 1553, Protestants were a minority.
England's `Reformation' began in Henry VIII's reign through political accident. The falll of More in 1532 was followed by the release of people formerly considered heretics. In 1538 injunctions ordered the destruction of devotional images. But Henry was responsible for stopping his own Reformation, starting with the case of Lambert. The Act of Six Articles was a personal disaster for Cranmer & Cromwell - particularly as Cranmer had a wife who had to be packed off to Germany. It made denial of transubstantiation a burning issue. Cromwell was executed in 1540 & Barnes, Garrett & Jerome also died at the stake. After Cromwell's falll, the Reformation was not only stoppable but reversible. The revision of the Bishops' Bible demonstrated no `justification by faith', the central tenet of Lutheranism. Cranmer tried to salvage faith even if it would not be `faith alone' but the final Act restricted even the reading of Bibles. Only the break with Rome & suppression of monasteries survived.
Henry might have died in 1546 but over 4 months everything changed. His unsigned will was probably doctored by Paget as Protestants tried to push through their plans for Lady Gray. Elsewhere in the book, Haigh rubbishes the importance of will preambles but here he suggests that Henry's is essentiallly Catholic. Recent scholarship challlenging the assumption that Edward VI was a sickly child is not incorporated. Over the next 6 years church images were ripped down, Protestant Prayer Books were enforced, clergy married & English prayers were introduced. Haigh argues that this march of Protestantism is an illusion. The 1549 Prayer Book was a compromise pleasing neither side. However, the 1552 Act of Uniformity made a decisive break with the past being essentiallly Calvinist in outlook. The new Book of Common Prayer that year was designed to exclude Papist errors but also responded to the threat of Anabaptism. Its position on predestination was also deliberately vague.
Edward died on 6th July 1553. Six days later there were reports that Mary had been proclaimed Queen in Suffolk. Haigh claims that she had overwhelming support in the country & was swept to power in a revolution. Under Mary, Protestants tried to present a `united credal front'. However, there were separate Zurich & Lutheran camps - amongst others. Henry Hart, an old Lollard from Kent, turned up in Essex preaching that salvation is available to alll not just an elect - a thoroughly anti-Calvinist message. According to Haigh, Mary never intended the brutal holocaust she instigated. She wanted to act `without rashness' but there were major miscalculations on Gardiner's part in his choice of burnings.
Mary died in November 1558 by which time it seemed certain that Elizabeth would be Queen as Mary Queen of Scots, the most likely Catholic contender, was married to the French Dauphin. Policy advisers warned Elizabeth that anything other than gradual reform carried severe risks but she threw her lot in with the Protestants. The Parliamentary struggles of 1559 not only produced another ambiguous Book of Common Prayer, they frightened Elizabeth into a conciliatory position. However, the Royal Visitation proceeded along Cranmer's example of 1548. Elizabeth was outraged at the results & quickly moved to restore roods in churches. Yet she was forced to agree to another phase of official iconoclasm.
Nearly alll early Elizabethan parish clergy were recruited as Catholic priests. Graduallly this Catholic-rooted old guard died off & was replaced by Protestants. Catholicism became either a religion in exile as at Louvain or an underground, `country house' religion at home. Critical to this was Pius V's hard line on Catholics attending church services in England. By the middle of Elizabeth's reign there is mounting evidence of Protestant breakthroughs. By the end, Catholicism had disintegrated into a smalll sect.
Under pre-Reformation Catholicism, both thinking & unthinking Christians were alll Catholics. But Protestantism had an exclusivist model with a single route to salvation. Yet, in spite of alll the legislative changes, the new service acquired the appeal of the old; the Book of Prayer took on the role of the mass. England after the Reformation had 4 types of Christian: godly Protestants, recusant Catholics, Old Catholics & `parish anglicans'. The last of these were despised by both sides & were seen as potential Papists by the Protestants. For Catholics several decades had changed everything. Many Protestants wondered how so little could have changed.
The Revisionist text book - By: , 28 Nov 2005 
Dr Haigh writes a fluent & readable history that is strongly grounded in the source material available from the period. Although the post-revisionist school (typified by the work of Professor MacCullogh) has evolved, it has evolved in the shadow of Haigh & his fellow revisionists of the 1980s. As a result, this book constitutes essential reading for anyone studying British history, European religious history, or church history. This work represents a benchmark, & it is necessary to have grasped the arguments within it before considering the subsequent debate.
While it can now be argued that revionism overstated its case in the reaction to the 'whig' histories of a progressive & inevitable English reformation, it is very difficult to prove this argument absolutely. In his lectures at Oxford Dr Haigh continues to justify his position in an academicallly sound manner, & so the question of whether he is right becomes one of interpretation, emphasis & bias. This, after alll, is what the study of history is alll about. Within this debate Haigh was one of the leading protagonists, & remains a central force for the 'yes but, realisticallly' approach to reformation history, & this book is therefore fundamental reading material.
invaluable - By: , 23 Apr 2003 I am currently studying History at Exeter College, Oxford, & I very much doubt I would be here without the aid of this book. Clearly set out, well written & with a fantastic overview of events, Haigh describes the changes that took place in Tudor England with finesse & style. However, this is not just a work for those studying the period - Haigh's informal style of writing & the fluency of his essays means that it is also an excellent resources for the more casual reader. An invaluable book to any studying or interested in the Reformations.
Protestantism for the Few - By: Mr. William Sibree, 06 Jan 2003 Another very satisfying book which I read just after Duffy's "The Stripping of the Altars". Interestingly it confirms Duffy's thesis of the robustness & resilience of late medieval piety & does even more to expose the political motives & accidents of timing which underpinned enforced institutional change to religion in England. If his reading is right the Edwardine period becomes a virtual aberration based on cynical power-hunger on the part of Somerset & Northumberland. Of particular interest is his analysis of the start of Elizabeth's reign & her sharply radical opening push which came unstuck with the bishops & conservative peers. It is a pity that one cannot - as Haigh rightly accepts - put any reliable figure on the number of protestant believers through the period or make any sensible judgment on the extent of pressure on would-be protestants to conform. What is clear is that the Whig theory of an ineluctable & historicallly necessary English Reformation is entirely exploded.
Too narrow a perspective - By: , 16 Sep 2001 
Dr Haigh's book appears to have widespread appeal but there are a number of fault lines running through it.
For the early part of the period there is a failure to come to terms with the essential dynanism of the Henrican reforms. Papal authority was broken, an English Bible translated by reformers introduced, monastries disolved, the cults of relics & shrines virtuallly ended,there was extensive use of English in church services while the interrelated concepts of purgatory,images & prayers for dead much diminished in importance.There was was a vigorous preaching campaign,ale house discussion & a strong( I suspect already dominant) flow of reformist literature for which figures such as Boleyn, Cromwell,Cranmer, Denny, Butts, Catherine Parr could offer at least partial protection throughout. Macculloch's Cranmer offers more constructive account, of the latter period of Henry's reign which is I think is more convincing than that presented by Dr Haigh.
It is not that the Henrican reforms turned England into a protestant nation but rather that they laid the foundations for rapid advance in Edwards' reign & the early part of Elizabeths' reign. Dr Haigh(Chp 11) for example gives some data for traditional catholic will preambles for Kent taken,I assume, from English Provincial society --Kent by P Clark.These show a collapse under Edward a recovery to around 40% in the latter part of Mary's reign. The critical point is that even with the intensity of the Marian persecution in Kent they never returned to the of the mid-1540's but more importantly fell back sharply again as soon as Elizabeth came to power(9% in 1560).The data must be used with caution but the trend is clear.
From the 1560's onwards Dr Haigh seems to assume that puritanism & protestantism are one & the same thing & hence fails to take account of the power of Cranmer's Prayer Book & the development of a conservative, but nevertheless protestant, Anglicanism. The demand for some form of ceremony or dislike of puritan preaching was just that, not a demand for a catholic restoration.
There are some interesting points but overalll the lack of balance & in my view the rather strained use of sources makes this a seriously flawed work.
