The Debate on the English Reformation

Extensively revised and updated this new edition of The debate on the English Reformation combines a discussion of successive historical approaches to the English Reformation with a critical review of recent debates in the area offering a major contribution to modern historiography as well as to Reformation studies. It explores the way in which successive generations have found the Reformation relevant to their own times and have in the process rediscovered redefined and rewritten its story. It shows that not only people who called themselves historians but also politicians ecclesiastics journalists and campaigners argued about interpretations of the Reformation and the motivations of its principal agents. The author also shows how in the twentieth century the debate was influenced by the development of history as a subject and in the twenty-first century by state control of the academy. Undergraduates researchers and lecturers alike will find this an invaluable and essential companion to their studies.