pickA 900-page history of the English Reformation is a bit daunting, but this book turned out to be well-written, nuanced, and (obviously, I guess) quite comprehensive. It took me forever to get through it -- reading it felt like a marathon at times -- but I'm really glad I picked it up. Highly recommended if the history of religion or the Tudors is your bag.
It turns out there are some drawbacks to absolute monarchy: “The fate of the country, at this crucial juncture, hinged on shrewd political investment in the precocious religious enthusiasms of a twelve-year-old boy.“
(Pictured: aforementioned twelve-year-old boy, Edward VI)
This is quite the sentence, and a reminder that this phase of my English history reading project is really just about unearthing new reasons to be outraged by Henry VIII: “Remarkably, at the very moment he was murdering the mother of a cardinal, Henry was contemplating a compromise with the Pope.“
Find you someone who loves you as much as medieval historians love having a go at Henry VI.
This book invites readers to take a new look at one of the best-known and most widely discussed epochs of English history: the Reformation of the sixteenth century. It does so by retelling the story of what happened to English people, of all sorts and conditions, in the course of a long and traumatic national quarrel about the correct ways to worship God.
#FridayReads #FirstLineFridays
Heretics and Believers: A History of the English Reformation | 
2y