Women and Religion in England 1500-1720 (review)

292 Short Notices These are important essays, which make a significant contribution to thenfield.They are for the advanced student or researcher, not the novice, but they should stiU be read and studied closely by anyone with an interest in the theological and spiritual world of twelfthcentury Europe. Toby Burrows Scholar' Centre The University of Western AustraUa Crawford, Patricia, Women and Religion in England 1500-1720 (Christianity and Society in the Modern World), London and N e w York, Routledge, 1993, rpt. 1996; paper; pp. 280; R.R.P. US$22.95,£15.99. This is a densely written, intensely readable and lucid study of the ways in which w o m e n experienced religion in the period from the Reformation to the Restoration. Crawford is concerned to explicate the role of w o m e n in the political and social changes which resulted from the multipUcation of possible Christian positions brought about by the Reformation, and the shifting of poUtical values experienced throughout the CivU War, the Parliamentary period, and the Restoration. To achieve this aim the book is divided into four sections. Part 1, 'ReUgious changes 1500-1640', surveys the principal events of the EngUsh Reformation; the differing positions adopted by CathoUcs, AngUcans and radical Protestants concerning women, marriage and the famUy; and the ways in which the three groups interacted during this period. Crawford's grasp of the intimate relationship between reUgion and poUtics is masterly, and her sensitivity to the operation of reUgion as an instrument in the complex gender poUtics of Reformation England informs Part 2, 'Women's reUgious beUefs and spirituaUty 1500-1720'. Here the 'acceptable' stereotype of the domestic, conventionaUy pious w o m a n is contrasted with the 'dangerous' reUgious activities of magic, prophecy and mysticism. Crawford is careful to distinguish between these types of experience, while accepting the conclusion that aU three were likely to render a Short Notices 293 woman's reUgious experience unacceptable to the male leaders of aU Christian denominations. Part 3, 'Women and radical reUgion in the English Revolution', and Part 4, 'Restoration to toleration 1660-1720', bring to a conclusion this satisfying survey. Crawford has produced an exceUent introduction to a complex and difficult subject; effectively reviewed present scholarship, and made a significant contribution to scholarship, particularly in examining the gendered nature of beliefs and institutions, and h o w this impacted upon w o m e n in the early modern period. Carole M. Cusack School of Studies in Religion University of Sydney Radke, Gary M., Viterbo: Profile of a Thirteenth-Century Papal Palac Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996; cloth; pp. xx, 354; 188 b / w Ulustrations, 2 maps; R.R.P. AUS$135.00. Viterbo strove to be one of the independent towns within the Papal States, and was therefore integraUy involved with aU the vicissitudes between the Emperors and the Popes that so bedevUled the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It wooed both sides in the unsuccessful hope of permanent gain. One way the townsfolk did this was to buUd two palaces for visiting emperors and a very large one for the pope. They even hoped to lure the pope away from R o m e to then town—to the Viterbo's lasting benefit. The brutaUty and immodest ambition of the Viterbese was horrendously Ulustrated in 1172 when they utterly destroyed the entire town of Ferento for double dealing. They added its heraldic palm tree to their coat of arms so that 'the palm, usuaUy a symbol of paradise, became a grim warning to outsiders that Viterbo would not allow its interests to be compromised by untrustworthy aUies, and that her territorial ambitions were to be taken seriously'. In the next century, as the military scene forced the popes to spend more time away from Rome, Viterbo was only one of half a ...