A People’s Reformation

The Elizabethan settlement, and the Church of England that emerged from it, made way for a theological reformation, an institutional reformation, and a high political reformation. It was a reformation that changed history, birthed an Anglican communion, and would eventually launch new wars, new language, and even a new national identity. A People’s Reformation offers a fundamental reinterpretation of the English Reformation and the roots of the Church of England. Drawing on archival material from across the United States and Britain, Lucy Kaufman examines the growing influence of state authority and the slow building of a robust state church from the bottom up in post-Reformation England. Situating the people of England at the heart of this story, the book argues that while the Reformation shaped everyday lives, it was also profoundly shaped by them in turn. England became a Protestant nation not in spite of its people but through their active social, political, and religious participation in creating a new church in England. A People’s Reformation explores this world from the pews, reimagining the lived experience and fierce negotiation of church and state in the parishes of Elizabethan England. It places ordinary people at the centre of the local, cultural, and political history of the Reformation and its remarkable, transformative effect on the world.

A People’s Reformation offers a reinterpretation of the English Reformation and the roots of the Church of England. Drawing on archival research, Lucy Kaufman argues that England became a Protestant nation not in spite of its people, but because of them – through their active social, political, and religious participation.

“I am hugely impressed by this book. It fizzes with new insights and makes a genuinely substantial contribution to the field. It reframes the subject compellingly, asks questions that have not been asked but should have been, and answers questions that have generally been dismissed as unanswerable. It will become an indispensable point of reference.” Alec Ryrie, Durham University

”Kaufman’s spirited and learned book, both in terms of new knowledge and the historiographical intervention it makes, represents a major contribution to research on the Elizabethan Church.” William J. Bulman, Lehigh University

Lucy Moffat Kaufman is assistant professor of British history at the University of Alabama.