For many years, historians have conceptualized the religious events of the early modern age as one particular “Reformation” or “Counter-Reformation.” However, this view has now lost its allure with most scholars acknowledging the folly of trying to unite all these events into one connected and discernible shift in thought or practice. Consequently, many have tried to conceptualize this time in terms of regions (e.g., English reformation, German reformation). However, this new collection of essays helps to demonstrate that historians need to go even further and acknowledge that broad geographical approaches often present a mixed and complex picture of competing thoughts and beliefs.
Lutton and Salter do exactly that in this collection exploring the religious changes across the late medieval and early modern period using a very particular local focus. Specifically, seven chapters focus on the changes in piety in the English county of Kent, and the eighth explores the Low Countries. A detailed look at Kent is especially revealing as it has been a region long thought to be the most consistently and “precociously Protestant” (14). The editors also choose to expand the time period being considered (1400–1640) to demonstrate the connectedness and continuity of influence between the late medieval and early modern periods.
In the introduction, the editors discuss the rationale for their approach. They state that their work is a “cultural history” but not “The Cultural history” of the time period of 1400 to 1640 (6). They want to demonstrate the different evidences for the transition of the piety of townspeople and villagers during this time. One interesting part of their approach is not to concentrate on the parish as the sole context of the pieties being examined.
The volume is divided into three major parts with the first one focusing on “Orthodoxies and Heterodoxies.” The first essay by Robert Lutton focuses on two towns in Kent, Cranbrook and Tenterdon. In his survey, Lutton takes aim at the entrenched view of the pre-English reformation laity as having a coherent and consistent system of piety grounded in Catholicism. He discusses just how these transitions in beliefs occurred from Catholic to Protestant by examining wills, church warden accounts, and specific families.
Andrew Hope takes a look at two individuals of this time period—the martyrs Elizabeth Barton and Joan Bocher. While he argues that their own passions were quite different, he explores their backgrounds and influences that had quite a bit in common.
The next division deals with the evidences found in influence of the institutions of this period. Sheila Sweetinburgh explores the influence of shifting thoughts on Purgatory on the donations to charitable causes during this time. She discusses how the laity were able to adopt and adapt their ideas about giving to their new Protestant beliefs. The next essay by G. M. Draper focuses on a reevaluation of the medieval school system. He takes issue with the thought that schooling during this period was sporadic and inadequate until spurred on by reformers in the sixteenth century. Paula Simpson writes an interesting essay dealing with the resistance to tithe payment in Canterbury relying on the evidence of ecclesiastical court records. In her essay, Simpson argues that many social factors influenced this behavior including the rise of inflation.
Annemarie Speetjens takes the reader outside of Kent for a discussion of the changing piety in the Low Countries. She not only discusses the changing piety revealed in religious organizations, but she also revisits and challenges the historiography that encompasses it.
The final three essays concentrate on the evidence of material culture for the changing of piety. In this section, Claire Bartram discusses the representations of funeral monuments during the Elizabethan period and how this art form related to changing attitudes toward beliefs and practices. One of the editors, Elisabeth Salter, takes a look at the devotional reading of the time period. She examines Psalters and prayer books to demonstrate how the advent of printing did help influence religious belief and devotion. Emily Richards finishes the volume by a close examination of a fifteenth-century Carthusian manuscript. In her essay, Richards explores how the monastic life conversed with the active lay life through the use of this text.
Overall, this is an excellent addition to the discussion of Reformation studies. The authors challenge their readers to take a wider look at all the influences and processes of piety by actually taking a narrower one. The authors rely upon a wide and diverse variety of historical sources to make their cases. Therefore, this book is useful for not only its discussion of the transition of piety but for the construction of historical arguments. Certainly, this book raises questions about trying to generalize about the influence and changing attitudes and beliefs toward religion in the late medieval and early modern age.
