Scan barcode
A review by bennought
The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580 by Eamon Duffy
5.0
I was even more impressed and engaged with this book as I was with his more recent 'Fires of Faith.' Well written, chock full of well-placed and interesting facts and analysis, and always using extant information or materials that have been elided or ignored in the past to rethink our understandings of history, Duffy's 'Stripping of the Altars' is essential for anyone who wants to study and understand the context and process of the English Reformation in the sixteenth century.
Although at points it can be a bit slow (especially towards the last 100 pages of the first section), this is an incredibly well-written and -reasoned accounting of the state, practices, and accouterments of traditional religion in England going into the 16th century, and how the various processes of reformation altered, accommodated, and took them apart. It is an absolutely fascinating read (at least it was for me), and was game-changing at the time of its original publication in the early 1990s. Though many of his conclusions have become commonplace and accepted within the academic community, the outdated (and, frankly, wrong) understanding/narrative of the English Reformation still persists in the general populace.
Although at points it can be a bit slow (especially towards the last 100 pages of the first section), this is an incredibly well-written and -reasoned accounting of the state, practices, and accouterments of traditional religion in England going into the 16th century, and how the various processes of reformation altered, accommodated, and took them apart. It is an absolutely fascinating read (at least it was for me), and was game-changing at the time of its original publication in the early 1990s. Though many of his conclusions have become commonplace and accepted within the academic community, the outdated (and, frankly, wrong) understanding/narrative of the English Reformation still persists in the general populace.