This is a judicious account of how the reformations – Protestant and Catholic – of the mid-sixteenth century were negotiated in the University of Cambridge. Based on careful research in university and college archives, and employing clever use of wills and financial records, Ceri Law probes ways in which college authorities, Fellows and students responded to the conflicting reformations of the period. She argues convincingly that this was a complex process drawn out over time, and that it is unwise to see Cambridge as necessarily more Protestant than its sister university of Oxford. Or to put it another way, forces of conservatism and Catholicism were just as entrenched in some Cambridge colleges as they were in Oxford. This adds more nuance to the story that has previously held sway regarding the role of Cambridge in the vanguard of the English Protestant Reformation. This, in turn, fits well with recent shifting accounts of the muddled nature of the reformations, also encompassing a greater awareness of the problems that Elizabeth's ‘Church of England’ experienced in the 1560s and ’70s.

Nothing is as clear cut as it once seemed: Catholicism still reigned supreme in many colleges just as much as in many parts of the country; moderate neighbours still talked with other moderate neighbours across the religious divides. This is a wise, ‘common sense’ account of the reformations that recognises that all was never black and white, and certainly not to contemporaries. Part of this argument lies in seeing how institutions like university colleges were bound together by loyalties that were not so easily broken by religious strife, an argument that might usefully be extended to the Inns of Court and also to many cathedrals. Scholars who parted company on religious grounds could still feel loyalty to each other and the organisation to which they belonged. Pressure points came with outside interference, notably crown visitations, but also noble courtiers dangling patronage as the universities were ‘gentrified’ in the latter half of the sixteenth century.

One central theme to this account relates to the importance of royal commissions and visitations in bringing Cambridge under greater central control. Edward, Mary and Elizabeth all appreciated the critical role of education in their endeavours. Thomas Cromwell's visitations of both Oxford and Cambridge in 1535 brought about curriculum reform. Somerset's Visitors to Cambridge in 1549 sought to gain greater uniformity and obedience to new religious practices, and with the aid of Protestants from the continent add new personnel to the cause. Such people were deposed under Queen Mary and a visitation in 1556, followed soon after by another in 1557, tightened control of university preaching and chapel practice; reformers tried to resist citing college privileges, but such arguments were now long out of date. The appointment of William Cecil as Chancellor of Cambridge under Elizabeth brought with it careful scrutiny of college affairs and a visitation in 1559, which was followed by a royal commission in 1564. The affairs of both Oxford and Cambridge had never been so closely scrutinised before, nor perhaps again until the 1630s. Yet while these visitations confirmed royal intentions regarding greater control, they were not entirely successful; inertia amongst the colleges ensured that orders were not necessarily carried out with great zeal. Books were bought and burnt, libraries restocked, chapels re-equipped – as financial records confirm – but the pace of change in some colleges, such as Gonville and Caius, was remarkably slow.

An obviously prominent theme reveals changes in personnel at critical points: Catholics who left in the 1540s, Protestants who left in the 1550s, and those of either hue who returned then and later. Useful appendices add detail on those scholars who left their colleges between 1546 and 1575, and also those who appear in records of seminary priests. While certain colleges did lose heavily at certain points, such as St John's College in 1558, others are shown to have been relatively little affected. And what is just as striking is the fact that many Fellows did not necessarily leave the country, nor did they leave immediately on some crisis. Fellows vacillated and were able to survive in their colleges for some years; hence the account takes us to 1575. Whilst great attention has traditionally been afforded to what happened under Mary, a strength of this book is the appreciation that we need to know much more about what happened in the early years of Queen Elizabeth. And this again is a story of twists and turns, for whilst many Catholics left – and we now know many dioceses were affected by huge losses of clergy – others also remained in an attempt to mediate the reformation for their congregations. Nor were the authorities necessarily rigorous in searching out dissidents.

Heads of colleges are alternately heroes and villains in this story, but again while we easily recall celebratories who were ejected in these turbulent years, there were also people like Andrew Perne of Peterhouse, John Pury of Corpus Christi College and Philip Baker at King's, who eased the passage for their colleges into the reign of Elizabeth, or John Redman who served Trinity equally well under Henry viii and Edward vi. This book throws up many areas for further research, whether in individual college histories, through more biographies of the scholars, or in the connections noted between Cambridge and the court, and with the diocese of Ely. Close ties with the chapter and new diocese of Peterborough were forged later in the sixteenth century, but Ely was always home to many Cambridge heads and its bishop was Visitor of three of the colleges. This stimulating book points to more stories to be both intertwined and unravelled.