The Later Reformation in England 1547-1603 (review)

Reviews 257 MacCulloch, Diarmaid, The Later Reformation in England 1547-1603 (British History in Perspective), Basingstoke and N e w York, Palgrave, 2001; paper; pp. ix, 173; R R P US$18.95; ISBN 0333921399. Studies of the English Reformation are flourishing as shown by MacCulloch's select bibliography, which lists no fewer than 22 major publications in the 11 years since thefirstedition ofthis book in 1990. More popular books like Alison Weir's recent Henry VIII draw huge sales, and w e may anticipate even more interest because the central questions have an uncanny relevance to modern ears: national identity, ideological changes that develop their o w n momentum and get out of hand, the volatile cocktail of politics religion and learning, vehement propaganda, wars, and fascinating windows into the minds of numerous individuals. This second edition keeps to the 'general picture' of thefirstedition, but with the developments, refinements and nuances ofMacCulloch's recent research - principally his Thomas Cranmer: A Life (1996). Not surprisingly the most substantial changes to this edition are in chapter 2 'Protestant and Catholic Failure 1547-1558', a coherent general picture of those crucial 12 years, laid out with a chronological stateliness, and enlivened by neat turns ofphrase, such as the way foreign Protestant refugees 'provided Cranmer both with welcome advice and unwelcome criticism ofhis programme'. The argument is that Edwardian Protestantism was a carefully constituted masterpiece. Cranmer had led a team of 12 divines w h o wrote 12 set homilies, setting out the central themes of the evangelical doctrine of salvation and guidelines for the Christian life. Somerset's government ordered their use in every church. Cranmer again used language as a tool in the 1549 Book of Common Prayer, particularly in the way the liturgy to reiterate that the Holy Communion was a thanksgiving and not a sacrifice or an event of adoration. IfMacCulloch is correct, Cranmer's cautious reforms were not the result ofcomprises between Catholic and Protestant theology, but part of his intention to construct, carefully and without national or international turbulence, an English and European religious commonwealth 'freed of Romish error'. For this reason he allowed the Continental Protestant refugees to London, the 'Strangers', to have almost no influence on the English Reformation. The 1552 Prayer Book was the apogee ofProtestant reform, together with the unratified 42 Articles, but Edwardian religious reform unleashed another wave ofsecular greed on church property, from chantry foundations to bells, episodes 258 Reviews possible based on piety but also possessing 'an element of ambiguity'. These elements of ambiguity are re-examined in the section on Mary's 'struggle for Catholicism'. But here the ambiguities were far more damaging to the Catholic cause than they had been to Cranmer: too much confiscated monastic land was in the hands of Catholic families; papal obedience aroused lukewarm enthusiasm, and the papal legate Reginald Pole was rendered impotent either to rebuild or to reconcile. Incidentally, I think that MacCulloch underrates Pole's knowledge of evangelical views and his sympathy for the Reformers; after all, in Italy he had been Protector of the Benedictine Congregation of Santa Giustina ofPadua whose monks had grappled deeply with Protestant - Catholic theological differences. The last chapter is set in the final years of Elizabeth's reign, by which time, he argues, the Church ofEngland had effectively marginalised both Roman Catholics and dissenting Protestants, 'creating a new orthodoxy'. At this point MacCulloch has set the principled dissent of both R o m a n Catholics and strong Protestants against an unenthusiastic national reception of the Reformation. Contemporary Protestants held gloomy views of 'low temperature' religious : observance, which may well have been an accurate reflection of social realities. Consequently, MacCulloch asks, h o w much influence did the Church have on the populace? ; H e suggests that the explanation may lie with the level of reading literacy . required by Protestantism. There seems to have been a division between the poor, illiterate and ungodly, and the more prosperous, literate and godly section ofthe population. This division did not begin with the Reformation, but nevertheless ; it still may be part of the explanation for Elizabethan 'low temperature' religion, O n the other hand, there were notable signs...