Peter Marshall, Heretics and Believers: A History of the English Reformation. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017. 652 pages. Reviewed by : Edward Kirsch
Peter Marshall’s Heretics and Believers: A History of the English Reformation is a thoroughly researched history of the Reformation in England that argues the often violent seesawing changes of the English Reformation “were indeed principally about religion” and emphatically not “merely a convenient covering” for disputes over “political power, social domination or economic assets” as asserted by some prior historians. Rather, he argues “religion was interwoven inextricably into the fabric of virtually all other abstractions from the messy interplay of human existence: society, politics, culture, gender, art, literature, economy.” (xi) Peter Marshall is an accomplished Reformation historian and professor at the University of Warwick and well suited to drive this theme home. He won the 2018 Wolfson History Prize for this book – his tenth book on the English Reformation. The Prize is awarded by a panel of leading historians annually for one work published in the United Kingdom reflecting excellence in the writing of history for the general public. Marshall was a good choice for the award. Marshall’s history is accessible to the general reader and engaging as it brings to life the theological disputes and political machinations that comprised the English Reformation with the personal stories of both elites and common English people, vividly bringing forth the humanity of these believers – each of them heretics to others.
Marshall adeptly distills social history and weaves it into a chronological history of the English Reformation that extends from the late medieval period through the reign of Elizabeth I. He makes extensive use of the work of Eamon Duffy to follow the responses of common people to the often inconsistent changes in theology, ritual, law, and practices imposed by the different monarchs and religious elites over a sixty year span. He recounts, for example, that at Morebath in Devon during the 1554 Marion Restoration of Catholic ritual, the church wardens, common parishioners, and Vicar Christopher Trychay worked together to rapidly restore the infrastructure of Catholic worship despite limited means. Morebath parishioners returned precious items hidden from the “iconoclastic storm” of Edward VI’s reign such as images of the Virgin Mary, figures from the old dismantled Rood, and Catholic books. Marshall notes that the “compliance rate” for restoration of ritual objects in parishes across England was “strikingly high” indicating that “many [religious objects] were hidden rather than destroyed in Edward’s reign.” (380)
Structurally, the book is divided into four parts. The extensive Part One entitled “Reformations before Reformation” (119 pages in length) is a strength. Here Marshall argues late Medieval Christianity was a “remarkably dynamic and diverse” world with religious leaders, Lollards, Erasmus, and Christian humanists actively criticizing and seeking to reform the Church which “makes later developments seem, if not predictable, then at least explicable.” (xvii, 119) He concludes the “wellsprings of the Reformation movement” came “from deep within the devotional core of medieval Christianity” rather than merely pent-up resentments against immoral priests, indulgences, and other such issues as portrayed in other histories. (149)
In Part II, entitled “Separations,” Marshall describes how Henry VIII’s obsession in securing papal approval of an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon combined with the “seemingly unconnected” protests of Luther against papal authority and ultimately opened a pandora’s box of “instability and incoherence” dubbed the “Henrician Reformation” by historians. (xvii) Marshall shows that although the Henrician Reformation was top-down and state imposed, common people and parish priests were far from passive in response. These responses ranged from unauthorized preaching of rival theologies to the massive movement known as the Pilgrimage of Grace which mobilized some 50,000 adherents of traditional religion and “wrested a third of the kingdom from the royal grasp.” (253)
Throughout the work, Marshall’s lively storytelling is not hindered by his relatively concise discussions of theology as with some other histories because he typically features anecdotes in which leading protagonists such as Thomas More and William Tyndale, for example, engage in disputes, in one case over Tyndale’s vernacular translation of the Bible, to illustrate theological points. (132-134, 201-202)
In a theme carried throughout the work, Marshall argues the firestorm unleashed by Henry VIII in banning the rosary, lighting of candles, prayers for the dead, pilgrimages and other rituals, and the dissolution of the monasteries served to change the meaning of “religion” itself. As he put it: “what once had been an inherited stake in the ritual life of the community was becoming – for some – an alternative, ideological marker of individual and group identity.” (266) Henry was creating “New Christianities” as the title of Part III of the book suggests as more people read the vernacular Bible and engaged with theology. More and more common people, radical preachers, and others chose increasingly to fashion their “religion” and teach it, rather than merely receive it from authorities whether as royal fiat or medieval Catholic tradition. (270)
In Part III, Marshall discusses developments under the reigns of Edward VI and Mary I. Marshall characterizes 1548, the second year of Edward VI’s reign, as the “tipping point” when England was divided from the Catholic church as a zealous minority embarked on “a festival of destruction” to destroy all religious images, altars, and other infrastructure, altering not only the aesthetics but also imposing a “devotional revolution.” (310, 315) Marshall observes that by late 1553, “Mary’s government had restored the religious settlement of Henry VIII and more, to widespread if far from universal satisfaction.” (366) Further, far from being the “rather stupid” political neophyte described by Geoffrey Elton, Mary could be pragmatic and intelligent, for example, wisely refraining from reclaiming monastic properties for the Catholic church despite the urging of the Pope and Cardinal Pole. (366, 389, Samson 5)
Marshall’s treatment of Mary I’s rise to power is consistent with that of Alexander Samson’s later book Mary and Phillip published in 2021. Both author’s portray an often cunning Mary Tudor who executed a plan for acquiring power and “slipped the net” of Northumberland to raise her forces, belying the notion that she was both uneducated and unprepared as argued by an older generation of historians. (357, Samson 28-32) Both authors note that Mary was sensitive to her subject’s concerns from the outset and ensured her husband Phillip’s “inherent Englishness was a theme of the triumphal royal entry into London.” (377) Both authors also place Mary I in the vanguard of the counterreformation. For example, she ordered the establishment of seminaries to educate boys, especially the poor, to improve the quality of parish priests. Marshall underscores that this reform was subsequently adopted by the Council of Trent “in what is widely considered its most significant reforming measure.” (401, Samson 9)
In Part IV, “Unattainable Prize,” Marshall examines developments under Elizabeth I’s reign. He argues that by 1559 Elizabeth’s government had largely restored the Edwardian church; however, “a watershed had been reached.” (434) Elizabeth viewed this as the end point of the Reformation while the reforming clergy and many lay Protestants saw it as an ongoing process toward perfection in which much remained to be done. (434-435) Puritans, Presbyterians and radical reformers consistently pressed Elizabeth I for further reforms that she largely resisted. Marshall describes Elizabeth as “a Nicodemite queen . . . willing to reign as a queen of Nicodemites. (449) However, the battles over vestments in 1565-67 and other disputes between the Queen and Protestant clergy revealed many of her subjects refused the Nicodemite path resulting in the emergence of Puritan and Presbyterian movements. (476) Marshall concludes that although England was majority Catholic at the time of Mary I’s reign, by the 1580s “quietly conformist Protestants were very likely in the majority in most” of England. (543)
