A review by lrenkate
The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580 by Eamon Duffy

2.0

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.

Aspects of Duffy's book is unconvincing (mainly because of his obvious bias), but ultimately it is largely convincing - at least that we need to look at the Reformation with more than just hindsight.