Publisher's Synopsis
The Reformation which engulfed Europe in the sixteenth century was one of the most highly-charged, bloody and transformative periods in its history. Ever since, it has remained one of the most contested. Diarmaid MacCulloch is one of the leading British historians of this turbulent and endlessly fascinating era. Many essays in this volume expand upon his now classic Reformation: Europe's House Divided, tracing, for example, the evolution of the English Prayer Book and Bible or reassessing the impact of the Reformation on Catholicism. Henry VIII and his archbishop, Thomas Cranmer, are both central presences, and MacCulloch swiftly dispatches some of the received wisdom about them.