Henry the Eighth and the English Reformation

"Abandoning the traditional narrative approach to its subject, this book presents an analytical account that aims to reflect the logic of the conditions, events and policies of Henry's short-lived Reformation. Starting with the fundamental question of the royal supremacy, it goes on to investigate its application to the English ecclesiastical establishment and to the traditional religion of the people. It then examines the extra impetus and the new direction that Henry's regime gave to...
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"Abandoning the traditional narrative approach to its subject, this book presents an analytical account that aims to reflect the logic of the conditions, events and policies of Henry's short-lived Reformation. Starting with the fundamental question of the royal supremacy, it goes on to investigate its application to the English ecclesiastical establishment and to the traditional religion of the people. It then examines the extra impetus and the new direction that Henry's regime gave to the development of a vernacular and literate religious culture and shows how, despite Henry's best intentions, serious religious divisions had emerged in England by the end of his reign." "Dr. Rex's argument takes a fresh look at the familiar documentary sources for the subject and is illustrated with illuminating details from outside the run of familiar textbook material. It offers new insights into, for example, the exploitation of the concept of Christian obedience in Henry's Reformation, the range of rhetoric with which religious change was presented and justified and the development of official religious teaching after the break with Rome." "Finally, it proposes that the coherence of what have often seemed the disparate and inconsistent reforms of Henry VIII is to be found in a systematic attempt to remodel English kingship along the lines of the Israelite kings of the Old Testament. Dr Rex's text offers an admirably clear and elegantly written introduction to one of the central topics in early modern English history."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved