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The Reformation was the seismic event in European history over the past 1000 years, and one which tore the medieval world apart. Not just European religion, but thought, culture, society, state systems, personal relations - everything - was turned upside down. Just about everything which followed in European history can be traced back in some way to the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation which it provoked. The Reformation is where the modern world painfully and dramatically began, and MacCulloch's great history of it is recognised as the best modern account.
A provocative meditation on the role of silence in Christian tradition by the New York Times bestselling author of Christianity We live in a world dominated by noise. Religion is, for many, a haven from the clamor of everyday life, allowing us to pause for silent contemplation. But as Diarmaid MacCulloch shows, there are many forms of religious silence, from contemplation and prayer to repression and evasion. In his latest work, MacCulloch considers Jesus’s strategic use of silence in his confrontation with Pontius Pilate and traces the impact of the first mystics in Syria on monastic tradition. He discusses the complicated fate of silence in Protestant and evangelical tradition and confronts the more sinister institutional forms of silence. A groundbreaking book by one of our greatest historians, Silence challenges our fundamental views of spirituality and illuminates the deepest mysteries of faith.
The first major biography of its subject in more than thirty years makes use of new British manuscript sources to draw a rich portrait of Henry VIII's archbishop of Canterbury who guided England through the Reformation. UP.
"This is Reformation history as it should be written, not least because it resembles its subject matter: learned, argumentative, and, even when mistaken, never dull."--Eamon Duffy, author of The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580
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Although the young Edward VI's death in 1553 led to resounding defeat for his Protestant allies, his reign has a significance out of all proportion to its brief six-year span. For during its course England's rulers let loose an explosive form of Christianity within the realm. In this lavishly illustrated book, MacCulloch underlines the significance of Edward's turbulent and neglected reign. As well as the young king's life and beliefs he takes a fresh look at the ruthless politicians who jostled for position around him and explores the strange afterlife of Edward's attempt at the religious transformation of his kingdom. In this MacCulloch traces a connection through the civil wars of the 17th century up to the present day.
From a prize-winning author, this book charts the course of Christianity from ancient history onwards.
A SUNDAY TIMES, THE TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, SPECTATOR, FINANCIAL TIMES, GUARDIAN, BBC HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR 'This is the biography we have been awaiting for 400 years' Hilary Mantel 'A masterpiece' Dan Jones, Sunday Times Thomas Cromwell is one of the most famous - or notorious - figures in English history. Born in obscurity in Putney, he became a fixer for Cardinal Wolsey in the 1520s. After Wolsey's fall, Henry VIII promoted him to a series of ever greater offices, and by the end of the 1530s he was effectively running the country for the King. That decade was one of the most momentous in English history: it saw a religious break with the Pope, unprecedented use of parliament, the disso...
This collection of essays by leading scholars and researchers in early Tudor studies provides an up-to-date discussion of the politics, policy and piety of Henry VIII's reign. It explores such areas as the reform of central and local government, foreign policy, relations between leading politicians, life at Court, Henry's first divorce and the break with Rome, literature and the government's exploitation of it, and the growth of evangelical religion in Henry's England. Particular consideration is given to the controversies which have arisen about the reign among modern historians, and there is an effort to assess the personality of Henry himself.
Suffolk was one of the most interesting counties in 16th-century England. The scene of the only two successful rebellions in Tudor England, Suffolk also underwent an incredible turnaround from being a haven of Catholic worship in 1500 to becoming one of the strongholds of radical Protestantism less than a century later. That same period saw the shocking ousting of its Duke in 1538, an influential landowner in the county and close confidant of Henry VIII. By investigating the historical background to such dramatic developments, this book throws new light on the relationship between the counties and the central government and on the changing political and religious views at the time of the English Reformation.