How the English reformation was named : the politics of history, c. 1400-1700

## Abstract How the English Reformation was Named analyzes the shifting semantics of “reformation” in England between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. Originally denoting the intended aim of church councils, “reformation” was subsequently redefined to denote violent revolt, and ultimately a series of past episodes in religious history. But despite referring to sixteenth-century religious change, the proper noun “English Reformation” entered the historical lexicon only during the British civil wars of the 1640s. Anglican apologists coined this term to defend the Church of England against proponents of the Scottish Reformation, an event that contemporaries singled out for its violence and illegality. Using their neologism to denote select events from the mid-Tudor era, Anglicans crafted a historical narrative that enabled them to present a pristine vision of the English past, one that they endeavored to preserve amidst civil war, regicide, and political oppression. With the restoration of the monarchy and the Church of England in 1660, apologetic narrative became historiographical habit and, eventually, historical certainty. Cover How the English Reformation was Named: The Politics of History, c.1400–1700 Copyright Dedication Table of Contents List of Figure and Table Gratis Epigraph Introduction Overview The Semantics of “Reformation” Methodology Chapter Outline 1: In Head and in Members: Discourses of Reformation, c.1414–1563 Introduction Conciliar Imaginaries Conciliar Disparities No Conciliar Reformatio Liturgical Reformation 2: Dangerous Positions: Debating Reformation, 1553–1603 Introduction Reformation “[by] Force of Arms” Reformation as Present Necessity Marian Historiography Elizabethan Historiographies Resisting Reformation 3: That Damned Dialogue: The Reformations of Jacobean Britain, 1603–25 Introduction The Hampton Court Conference The Articles of Perth The Luther Centenary Jacobean Historiography 4: This Present Reformation in England: From Civil Wars to Apologetic Consensus, 1625–60 Introduction Ecclesiastical Convergence Historiographical Divergence Reformation Now “Reformation” without End Our English Reformation The English Reformation 5: Reformed Catholics, True Protestants: Tudor Religious History in Restoration England, 1660–85 Introduction More Semantics of “Reformation” Defining the English Reformation Debating the English Reformation Protestant England? Conclusion Beyond Pietist Mythology A Long Fifteenth Century International Historiographies Ending a Chapter of British Historiography Bibliography Abbreviations Printed Sources Index How the English Reformation was Named analyses the shifting semantics of 'reformation' in England between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. Originally denoting the intended aim of church councils, 'reformation' was subsequently redefined to denote violent revolt, and ultimately a series of past episodes in religious history. But despite referring to sixteenth-century religious change, the proper noun 'English Reformation' entered the historical lexicon only during the British civil wars of the 1640s. Anglican apologists coined this term to defend the Church of England against proponents of the Scottish Reformation, an event that contemporaries singled out for its violence and illegality. Using their neologism to denote select events from the mid-Tudor era, Anglicans crafted a historical narrative that enabled them to present a pristine vision of the English past, one that endeavoured to preserve amidst civil war, regicide, and political oppression. With the restoration of the monarchy and the Church of England in 1660, apologetic narrative became historiographical habit and, eventually, historical certainty.