A vibrant, passionate account of pre-Reformation Catholicism. A wonderful tour de force of 'revisionist' counter-Whig Reformation history, although I know Duffy opposes the term! Duffy movingly captures the splendour of traditionalist religion before the 1530s break wit Rome, and conveys the cataclysmic impact of the fundamental religious changes in the following decades, affecting the treasured traditions and rituals of an entire nation.

Stripping of the Altars | Dominicana Stripping of the Altars | Dominicana

This prize-winning account of the pre-Reformation church recreates lay people's experience of religion in fifteenth-century England. Eamon Duffy shows that late medieval Catholicism was neither decadent nor decayed, but was a strong and vigorous tradition, and that the Reformation represented a violent rupture from a popular and theologically respectable religious system. For this edition, Duffy has written a new Preface reflecting on recent developments in our understanding of the period. This prize-winning account of the pre-Reformation church recreates lay people’s experience of religion in fifteenth-century England. Eamon Duffy shows that late medieval Catholicism was neither decadent nor decayed, but was a strong and vigorous tradition, and that the Reformation represented a violent rupture from a popular and theologically respectable religious system. For this edition, Duffy has written a new Preface reflecting on recent developments in our understanding of the period.

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Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic. The magazine is now reaching many UK parishes and its globals subscription base continues to rise. Two books in one, really. Would have been better perhaps, in two volumes, and certainly easier to read whilst walking around with a baby on the hip. Anyway. It's a masterpiece of scholarship, bursting with detail, but accessible.

Washing of the Altar – The Episcopal Church Washing of the Altar – The Episcopal Church

Pre-Reformation Catholicism was, he argues, a deeply popular religion, practised by all sections of society, whether noble or peasant. A key point that Duffy makes is that there is no substantial difference between the beliefs and practices of the clergy and the elite and that of the masses. He effectively refutes Jean Delumeau's contention that there was any significant distinction between the religion of the educated elite and of the illiterate populace. [4] Earlier historians’ claims that English religious practice was becoming more individualised (with different strata of society having radically different religious lives) is contested by Duffy insisting on the continuing ‘corporate’ nature of the late medieval Catholic Church, i.e. where all members were consciously and willingly part of a single institution. Duffy's account of rumours of Henry's return to traditional religion following fall of AB/fear felt by Protestants only serves to indicate how, for Henry, the new reformist doctrines/acts were indelibly tied to his personal needs (succession etc) rather than true belief. Duffy renders this world with so much affection and so little interest in even-handedness, that the omissions in his account — chiefly, the structural problems of the indulgence economy — seem beside the point. His concern is not with those structural issues; it is with the libel of “superstition” thrown at people who, even at their most superstitious, simply did their level best to interpret and reinterpret what was nothing less than the official teaching of their church. Besides, the very history of the Reformation in England, with its progress and reversals, seems to speak quite clearly that today’s superstition is yesterday’s dogma. And vice versa.

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Of course, 90% of it had no foundation at all in the Bible, and some of the saints had started as pagan gods and goddesses. Famously there were enough relics of Splinters of the True Cross in Medieval Europe to build a fleet of ships. This book is patently both a monument of scholarship and a labour of love. . . . A marvellously human book which has, in turn, the ability to restore life to the human beings whom it considers. One decisive historiographical shift of the past decade has been to take religion seriously again, in its own right, as a motivating force. Nobody has entered into that work with more empathy, and more affection, than Eamon Duffy."—Ronald Hutton, Journal of Theological Studies This is a remarkable and significant work of historical 'revision', which cannot be dismissed as a product of nostalgic longing for a Catholic past."—Anne Murphy SHCJ, John Pridmore, The Way

The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England

This prize-winning account of the pre-Reformation church recreates lay people’s experience of religion, showing that late-medieval Catholicism was neither decadent nor decayed, but a strong and vigorous tradition. For this edition, Duffy has written a new introduction reflecting on recent developments in our understanding of the period. The book is very thorough, wills, church warden accounts, devotional literature, visual art, are among the source material used. Religious practices in many different towns and regions are mentioned. And this is a long book, probably not to be read as a basic introduction to the English Reformation. And has emerged as a leading text in defence of the Late Medieval church. Although scholarship at the time had focused on Catholicism as a weakening religion within England, merely requiring a catalyst, Duffy argues that it was an important and powerful part of daily life before the Reformation. This argument rejects the notion that the English Reformation was inevitable, instead seeing it as a movement imposed from above by the English crown. Revisionist history at its most imaginative and exciting. . . . [An] astonishing and magnificent piece of work.’ In Anglican Churches, this ceremony is also performed at the conclusion of Maundy Thursday services, "in which all appointments, linens, and paraments are removed from the altar and chancel in preparation for Good Friday." [6] A stripped altar in an Anglican church on Good Friday

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They remain true even if the truth is rejected, as it was in Christ’s time, is, and will be. We do not have “progress” in the profane sense; we do not have a progressive revelation. We have the truth of Christ, at the center of history and of our being, now and forever. He is what lifts us out of our mundane sinful lives, and conducts our attention to what is changeless, pure, and in every sense, higher. We return to this, or try to get away. The book does eventually turn to the "stripping of the altars" of the Reformation. The book then shows how much (sometimes it was not much as all) resistance to these changes by Henry VIII and his court actually occurred. Often, Duffy points out, people were unwilling to give up the religion they had cherished for their whole lives, and were eager to restore their traditional practices once Mary came to to power. The march towards a Protestant England is restored in the end by Queen Elizabeth, and Duffy takes this as a moment to write poignantly about what has been lost. This shows his hand a bit, and reveals he might be writing from a less than historically neutral place, but overall I felt his interpretation of much of the evidence was largely objective. Some of the analysis slanted towards a highly pro-Catholic rhetoric, but otherwise the book presents a comprehensive understanding of Pre-Reformation England. Duffy's book is in every sense a substantial achievement. It is lengthy, carefully argued and researched, and illustrated with photographs of direct relevance to the argument. The tone is vigorous and alert, with occasional lyrical passages, and the author writes with clear sympathy and imaginative understanding about the disappearing world of medieval Catholicism. The book will mark a turning point in how several aspects of the English Reformation are considered by historians and the educated public. It will . . . contribute to an eventual shift in popular opinion and attitudes concerning the Reformation."—Robert Ombres, Moreana This is a quite remarkable, indeed brilliant, study, which puts flesh on the bones of the so-called 'revisionist' interpretation of the English Reformation. . . . This is essential reading for all those who wish to understand late medieval religion and the means by which it was undermined against the wishes of the vast majority of its practitioners."—Christopher Harper-Bill, Theology Interesting- Duffy makes a link in Kent between established lollard tradition and the presence of Protestants (more accustomed to these ideas!!!)