The Stripping of the Altars
Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580

Hugely, hugely detailed book that does a very nice job of critiquing what had been the prevailing viewpoint of the English Reformation: that medieval Catholicism had petered out, with disinterested clerics and semi-pagan peasants only revitalized by the influence of Protestant reform. It's an inaccu......more

First he rebuilds for us the way the English Medieval churches worked, packed tight with altars, figures of saints, rich reliquaries (caskets) for alleged saints' bones and teeth, elaborate roodscreens to hide the high altar, paintings and jewelled and embroidered banners. Churches must have looked......more

Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England c. 1400-1580. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. In The Stripping of the Altars, Eamon Duffy lays down a formidable challenge to long-held notions of the Protestant Reformation in England. He upsets a conventional narrati......more

This 600-page behemoth is the best book on the Reformation I have ever read. Duffy enchants you with the profoundly powerful spiritual life of Late Medieval English Christianity and then takes you through the royal roller coaster that was the Tudor dynasty. The typical story of the English Reformati......more

Very informative. Intense reading. Lots of details. Skimmed portions that had no relevance to my research but overall it was insightful in shedding light into middle ages Catholicism. The chapter on Mary I was particularly illuminating -- and went some little way in restoring her reputation.......more