A major reassessment of England's break with Rome

Traces the history of the Reformation, with a focus on how it unfolded in England. Highlights the life of Henry VIII and his quest for a male heir to the throne.

A fascinating and lavishly-illustrated detective story about the allegorical painting Edward VI and the Pope.

In this compilation of essays, experts in the field provide an in-depth look at the long-lasting impact of the Protestant Reformation. Readers will gain new insights into the legacies of theology, spiritual formation and personal worship, catechism and preaching, and the missions and martyrs of the Reformation. Celebrating the Legacy of the Reformation will inspire and challenge readers to learn from the past for the sake of the future.

"A superb anthology of primary sources relating most directly to sixteenth-century Reformation movements. The initial selection is from the late fourteenth century and the final two from the mid-eighteenth century. The fifty texts here are wide and well focused. They are drawn from forty-one authors with diversities across many categories— birth, occupation, gender, religious orders, and 'the rest married women of middling and noble rank.' Fifteen are Roman Catholic with twenty-six coming from Lutheran, Reformed, and radical movements. King notes that genres include 'treatise, lecture, pamphlet, letter, speech, devotional work, martyr testament, diary, memoir, and autobiography.' So this is as representative a group of documents as one can imagine, spanning 400 years and conveying essential insights that fueled Reformation thought. "In addition to the judicious selection of pieces, the book is clearly organized. It features perceptive, focused descriptions of each selection conveying its backgrounds and contexts, and providing insights for readers to help in understanding and comprehending the content and importance of the piece. This is an immense benefit. King gives true texture and brings her masterful teaching instincts to bear on the selections. Her annotations in themselves are an instructive guide through Reformation movements. The selections are short but well-focused. They are accessible in form, and thirty-eight of the fifty pieces have been newly translated by King from a number of languages. Spelling, punctuation, and diction of pieces that have appeared in earlier English editions (sixteenth through nineteenth centuries) have been modernized. The New International Version (NIV) has been used for biblical quotations in the narratives. In short, every effort has been made—and has succeeded—in providing a reliable, accessible, and truly useful anthology to serve a number of functions. "This book has many excellencies. It can be highly recommended as a well-conceived collection of well-constructed presentations and as an eminently useful textbook." —Donald K. McKim, in Renaissance Quarterly

When Henry VIII died in 1547 he left a church in England that had broken with Rome - but was it Protestant? The English Reformation was quite different in its methods, motivations and results to that taking place on the continent. This book: * examines the influences of continental reform on England * describes the divorce of Henry VIII and the break with Rome * discusses the political and religious consequences of the break with Rome * assesses the success of the Reformation up to 1547 * provides a clear guide to the main strands of historical thought on the topic.

The king's own involvement reflected these opposed reactions: he was interested in the Germans as alliance partners and as a consultative source in establishing the theology of his own Church, but at the same time he was reluctant to accept all the religious innovations proposed by the Germans and their English advocates.

"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

In one of his most fascinating books, Anglo-French writer Hilaire Belloc presents in bold colors the twenty-three principal characters of the Protestant Reformation. He focuses primarily on those figures who changed the course of English history, analyzing their strengths, mistakes, motives and deeds. With brief and vivid chapters, Belloc paints the portraits of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I, Thomas More, Mary Tudor, Thomas Cromwell, Mary Stuart and many others. He illustrates how the motives of Protestant leaders were rarely religious in nature, but usually political or economic. Belloc, who served in Parliament from 1906 to 1910, underscores his study of these powerful personalities with the fact that Christendom was once a single entity under the authority of the Catholic Church. Until the Reformation, he argues, each country viewed itself as a part of the whole. Many European princes, however, resented the power of the Pope. The Reformation, aided by the rise of nationalism, was a means for them to shake off Papal authority and to rule their territories independently. It also gave European monarchs control over the Church and its property in their realms, including the taxes that would normally be sent to Rome.