Seven conceptualisations of the English Reformation

Ryrie, Alec

Abstract

Acknowledging that ‘the English Reformation’ was a composite event without a single master-narrative, this essay offers seven different perspectives which collectively may be used to provide a rounded view of religious change in sixteenth-century England. First, Catholic Reformation: the abortive attempt at internal reform that instead left a memory of persecution behind it. Second, ‘Deformation’: the Reformation experienced as unwanted change imposed by a hostile state, and the stubborn survival of minority Catholicism. Third, Tudor Reformation: a political power-grab disguised as religious reform, whose radically centralisation, ironically, created a state so powerful that it could not be entrusted to the dynastic randomness of hereditary monarchy. Fourth, Protestant Reformation: the slow process by which a minority of evangelicals were, eventually, able to remake English religion and wider culture in their own image, succeeding even as they believed they had failed. Fifth, Anglican Reformation: the story of how a self-consciously ‘moderate’ strand in English Protestantism came to oppose further changes and ultimately to conceive of itself as a via media between Catholicism and Protestantism, to the bewilderment of many observers. Sixth, radical Reformation: although sixteenth-century England was scarcely touched by Anabaptism, various radical strands, indigenous and imported, did slowly cohere, in perfectionist-mystical, separatist and utopian varieties, and combined with dramatic results in the seventeenth century. Lastly, global Reformation: the story of how England’s Reformation spilled beyond its borders, shaping and being shaped by its nascent colonial empires, and especially having a decisive effect on the other peoples of the British-Irish archipelago.

Citation

Ryrie, A. (2022). Seven conceptualisations of the English Reformation. In K. von Greyerz, & A. Schubert (Eds.), Reformation und Reformationen: Kontinuitäten, Identitäten, Narrative. Gütersloher Verlag (De Gruyter)

• Publication Date: 2022
• Deposit Date: Oct 27, 2021
• Book Title: Reformation und Reformationen: Kontinuitäten, Identitäten, Narrative
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1623926
• Publisher URL: https://www.degruyter.com/partner/gtvh