Susan Doran - Princes, Pastors, and People: The Church and Religion in England, 1500-1700

Princes, Pastors and People traces the religious upheavals that occurred in England during the turbulent years of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The book introduces recent research and guides readers through the major issues that have divided Reformation historians during the last forty years:

Princes, Pastors and People uses a thematic approach to chart the long-term developments across the period in all the key areas including theological and liturgical change, the role of the clergy and the importance of religion in the everyday lives of the people.

This second edition brings the survey up to date to include historiographical developments since the appearance of the first edition and for the first time examines in detail the religious events of the period from 1500 to 1529.

Susan Doran, formerly Reader in History at St Marys College, Strawberry Hill is now teaching at Christ Church, Oxford. Her books include Monarchy and Matrimony: The Courtships of Elizabeth I (1996), Elizabeth I and Religion (1993) and Elizabeth I and Foreign Policy (2000). Christopher Durston is Professor of History and Director for the Centre for Religious History at St Marys College, Strawberry Hill. His publications include James I (1993), Charles I (1998) and Cromwells Major- Generals: Godly Government during the English Revolution (2001).

First edition published in 1991 by Routledge

Second edition published in 2003 by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.

1991, 2003 Susan Doran and Christopher Durston

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Doran, Susan
Princes, pastors, and people: the Church and religion in England, 15001700/Susan Doran and Christopher Durston. 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Church of EnglandHistory16th century. 2. Anglican CommunionEnglandHistory16th century. 3. EnglandChurch history16th century. 4. Church of EnglandHistory17th century. 5. Anglican CommunionEnglandHistory17th century. 6. EnglandChurch history17th century.
I. Durston, Christopher, 1951 II. Title
BR756 .D67 2002
274.206dc21
2002068188

ISBN 0-203-45923-7 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-76747-0 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-20577-8 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-20578-6 (pbk)

To our fathers in memoriam: Ivor Durston and Martin Savitt

The first edition of Princes, Pastors and People appeared in 1991. Although it failed to trouble the compilers of the best-sellers lists, it was on the whole favourably reviewed, and widely used. Since its appearance, the pace of research into religion in early-modern England has if anything accelerated. During the 1990s the long established authorities in the field, including Patrick Collinson, Christopher Haigh, Peter Lake, John Morrill and Nicholas Tyacke, have continued to make important further contributions to our knowledge. But they have now been joined by a number of new big beasts in the historiographical jungle, including Eamon Duffy, Kenneth Fincham, Diarmaid MacCulloch, Peter Marshall, Anthony Milton and Alexandra Walsham. The present authors have also made their own, more modest contributions to the field, Sue Doran writing on Elizabeth Is religion and Chris Durston on aspects of the mid seventeenth-century religious crisis.

This second edition has been completely re-written, updated and significantly enlarged. After some deliberation, the authors decided to retain the books distinctive thematic structure, but the new chapters have been divided into discrete sub-sections to aid readers who wish to concentrate on a narrower chronological period than that covered by the whole book. Important studies are identified in the text and each chapter contains a select bibliography of cited works and further reading and, unless otherwise stated, the place of publication is London. Words and phrases in bold type are explained in the Glossary.

The authors hope this second edition will help a new generation of students to cut their way through the sometimes dangerous, but always fascinating jungle of English Reformation studies.

Over the course of the two centuries between 1500 and 1700 the English Church experienced a succession of dramatic changes. Starting out as a branch of the international Roman Catholic Church, it moved through a series of Reformations to emerge under Elizabeth I as a unique, independent, national Protestant Church. For more than a hundred years after 1559, this new English Church was engaged in the difficult tasks of defining its theological and liturgical character, establishing its traditions and drawing its boundaries. The subsequent chapters of this book will provide a detailed consideration of this long and tortuous process. This first chapter offers a narrative outline of the main twists and turns in the story and introduces the major historiographical debates.

The upheavals of the English Reformation arose initially out of the matrimonial problems of Henry VIII. By 1527 the king wanted to annul his marriage to Katherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn, a woman at his court with whom he had fallen in love. He needed an official annulment not only because Anne had steadfastly refused to become his mistress, but more importantly because he was deeply anxious about the succession to the throne. As the only surviving child of his marriage was a daughter, Mary, the realm was likely to suffer a disputed succession on his death and, if Mary were to marry a foreigner, might even lose its independent status. As early as 1524, Henry had given up all hope of Katherine bearing another child. By the time, two years later, when he became infatuated with Anne, he had already begun to think that his failure to produce a male heir might be a sign that his marriage was sinful. He subsequently became increasingly convinced that it had broken the laws of affinity laid down in the Book of Leviticus in the Bible, because Katherine had previously been married to his older brother, Arthur. In 1527 Henry and his chief minister, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, began negotiations with Rome aimed at securing an official papal annulment, but by 1529 it was clear that the pope had no intention of allowing Henry to put Katherine aside.