This handsome volume illustrates the truth that each generation faces the challenge of making revisions to their history while presenting a recognisable story. The main headings include the late medieval church, Martin Luther, Calvinism, the radical Reformation, Rome, the British Isles and the Reformations’ legacies. References to Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, the global scene and relations with Jews and Muslims appear in appropriate places. As Marshall explains in the preface,
[o]ur approach is traditional to the extent that we believe that the actual content of ideas mattered, and had the power to motivate individuals to act in ways that were not always in their own material best interests. But, equally, . . . ‘religion” was not what it has since become in much of the modern West . . . To study the impact of the Reformation, therefore, is necessarily to pursue the political, the social, the cultural. (p. vi)
The authors generally make good their claim to incorporate the complexity which recent scholarship has brought to the fore. Simon Ditchfield's chapter on Roman Catholicism is delightfully refreshing, starting with the global church before turning back to the European scene. The story begins with the first bishopric of Portuguese Indies established in 1534 in Goa and the devotional spread of relics and inculturation of Marian piety. It includes such vignettes as the coming of Christianity to the Kingdom of the Kongo, whose ruler was baptised in 1491; by the time of the death of his successor in 1543 about half the kingdom had been baptised. Ditchfield also points to ‘the ways in which the experience of evangelization outside Europe affected the practice within it’ (p. 161). Alexandra Walsham's foray into describing key legacies is done with a light touch and perceptive eye. She gives significant attention to the mix of ‘toleration, pluralism, and patriotism’ and ways that the Reformations influenced ‘economic relations and the rhythm of everyday life’. A more novel aspect of her chapter is the extensive treatment of ‘material cultures and environments’. Peter Marshall's Britain manages to give Scotland and Ireland more than cameo appearances while presenting the traditional basics with new and sometimes macabre humour; for example, the first English Lutherans to die ‘were victims of the salt fish about which Erasmus complained. . . . [I]mprisoned in the cellar under Cardinal College where the salt fish was stored . . . three of them perished over the course of a sweltering summer’ (p. 187). His vignettes include the contrast between the discreet Catholicism of Anne of Denmark and the ‘flamboyantly and provocatively’ visible practice of Henrietta Maria (p. 223).
There is not sufficient space to give equal attention to all the chapters. Brad Gregory's radical Reformation provides a good reminder both of the extreme diversity of those people grouped under this heading, and fine thumbnail sketches of specific ones. Bruce Gordon's late medieval church gives important grounds for seeing the continuities as well as discontinuities of the period. Lyndal Roper's Luther emerges with the force of its protagonist. She also affirms that ‘[p]erhaps the area in which the Reformation had its greatest impact was that of marriage and sexual relations’ (p. 60). Carlos Eire's chapter on Calvinism is traditional in its depiction of Calvin and the rigours of the consistory, not fully integrating the work of Robert M. Kingdon and his school and other social historians. Occasionally there are places where prescription and description are confused, for example, the frequency of communion (p. 87). This coffee-table history maintains the OUP high standards for lavish illustrations (320 of the 440 in colour), all chosen with imagination and an eye for contributing to the historical narrative. A bibliography and index are included.
