Heretics and Believers- A History of the English Reformation

A sumptuously written people’s history and a major retelling and reinterpretation of the story of the English ReformationCenturies on, what the Reformation was and what it accomplished remain deeply contentious. Peter Marshall’s

sweeping new history—the first major overview for general readers in a

generation—argues that sixteenth-century England was a society neither

desperate for nor allergic to change, but one open to ideas of “reform”

in various competing guises. King Henry VIII wanted an orderly, uniform

Reformation, but his actions opened a Pandora’s Box from which pluralism

and diversity flowed and rooted themselves in English life. With sensitivity to individual experience as well as masterfully synthesizing historical and institutional developments, Marshall

frames the perceptions and actions of people great and small, from

monarchs and bishops to ordinary families and ecclesiastics, against a

backdrop of profound change that altered the meanings of “religion”

itself. This engaging history reveals what was really at stake in the

overthrow of Catholic culture and the reshaping of the English Church.