Reformation Reputations : The Power of the Individual in English Reformation History

"This book highlights the pivotal roles of individuals in England's complex sixteenth-century reformations. While many historians study broad themes, such as religious moderation, this volume is centred on the perspective that great changes are instigated not by themes, or 'isms', but rather by people - a point recently underlined in the 2017 quincentenary commemorations of Martin Luther's protest in Germany. That sovereigns from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I largely drove religious policy in Tudor England is well known. Instead, the essays collected in this volume, inspired by the quincentenary and based upon original research, take a novel approach, emphasizing the agency of some of their most interesting subjects: Protestant and Roman Catholic, clerical and lay, men and women. With an introduction that establishes why the commemorative impulse was so powerful in this period and explores how reputations were constructed, perpetuated and manipulated, the authors of the nine succeeding chapters examine the reputations of three archbishops of Canterbury (Thomas Cranmer, Matthew Parker and John Whitgift), three pioneering bishops' wives (Elizabeth Coverdale, Margaret Cranmer and Anne Hooper), two Roman Catholic martyrs (John Fisher and Thomas More), one evangelical martyr other than Cranmer (Anne Askew), two Jesuits (John Gerard and Robert Persons) and one author whose confessional identity remains contested (Anthony Munday). Partly biographical, though mainly historiographical, these essays offer refreshing new perspectives on why the selected figures are famed (or should be famed) and discuss what their reformation reputations tell us today." Preface and Acknowledgments 6 Conventions 10 Contents 11 Notes on Contributors 13 Abbreviations 17 List of Figures 21 List of Tables 25 1 Introduction: Reformation, Life-Writing and the Commemorative Impulse—The Power of the Individual 26 Prologue 26 Heroes and Heroines 30 Culture War 52 Making Reformation Reputations 70 The Commemorative Impulse: Monuments and Epitaphs 110 The Fallen Celebrity: Defending the Indefensible 123 Memorialization in Film 130 Reformation Reputations Made and Marred 137 2 1535 in 1935: Catholic Saints and English Identity: The Canonization of Thomas More and John Fisher 183 Postscript 203 3 Thomas Cranmer’s Reputation Reconsidered 213 Introduction 213 No New Athena 213 New Insights into Tudor Evangelical Conversion 218 New Insights into Cranmer’s Patristic Methodology 223 The Influence of Cyril of Alexandria (c.376–444) Upon Cranmer 227 Appendix 1 239 Appendix 2 240 Appendix 3 241 Appendix 4 242 Appendix 5 244 4 ‘Agents of the Reformation’: Margaret Cranmer, Anne Hooper and Elizabeth Coverdale 246 Introduction 246 Clerical Marriage 247 Historiography 248 ‘Agents of the Reformation’ 249 ‘A Most Sober, Chaste, and Godly Matron’: Becoming the Bishop’s Wife 259 ‘In the Time of Her Adversitie’ 263 Conclusion 270 5 Anne Askew 277 A ‘Life’, Reconstructed Partially 279 Beyond Smithfield 294 A Legacy Refashioned 300 6 ‘A Man of Stomach’: Matthew Parker’s Reputation 313 Introduction 313 Parker’s Lifetime Reputation 319 Parker’s Posthumous Reputation 326 Conclusion 338 7 John Whitgift Redivivus: Reconsidering the Reputation of Elizabeth’s Last Archbishop of Canterbury 358 8 Anthony Munday: Eloquent Equivocator or Contemptible Turncoat? 384 Anthony Munday: His Formative Years 386 Munday’s Roman Adventure: The English Romayne Lyfe 387 Munday’s Life After Rome 389 Munday’s Reputation During His Lifetime: His Confessional Allegiance 390 Munday’s Reputation During His Lifetime: His Literary Abilities 392 Munday’s Reputation in Current Academic Debate: Was He a Roman Catholic or a Protestant Author? 396 Conclusion 402 9 Polemic, Memory and Emotion: John Gerard and the Writing of the Counter-Reformation in England 414 Introduction 414 The Appellant Critique 418 Gerard and Weston Respond 420 Conclusion 431 10 Rehabilitating Robert Persons: Then and Now 441 Introduction 441 Jesuit Missionary, Educationist, Diplomat 442 Royal Proclamations: Traitor and Equivocator 446 Persons in Print: Polemic and Devotion 448 Catholic Detractors: The ‘Hispanized Camelion’ and the ‘Polypragmon’ 450 Protestant and Catholic Historians: The ‘Black Legend’ and the Politician 453 Jesuit Historiography: The Heroic Tradition 456 ‘Early Modern British Catholic Studies’ 457 Index 468