Publisher's Synopsis
There were thousands of Reformations during the sixteenth century: at least as many as the number of towns, cities and rural backwaters, from England to Hungary, from Scandinavia to France, that witnessed some of the most turbulent decades in Europe’s history. It makes more sense to talk in terms of millions of Reformations: the personal odysseys not only of crowned princes and learned theologians but also of countless baffled parishioners. Historians have begun to acknowledge this diversity and chaos. Simplistic, overarching analyses have fallen out of fashion. Wright brilliantly reflects recent scholarly debates and discoveries but brings the story of the Reformation alive by focusing on the people and the ideas that made it happen. Reformers and Reformations is an uncluttered, narrative-driven, intimate answer to that endlessly perplexing question: what was it like to live through a Reformation?