Fires of Faith

The reign of Mary Tudor has been remembered as an era of sterile repression, when a reactionary monarch launched a doomed attempt to reimpose Catholicism on an unwilling nation. Above all, the burning alive of more than 280 men and women for their religious beliefs seared the rule of 'Bloody Mary' into the protestant imagination, as an alien aberration in the onward and upward march of the English-speaking peoples.In this controversial reassessment, a leading reformation historian argues that Mary's regime was neither inept nor backward-looking. Led by the Queen's cousin, Cardinal Reginald Pole, Mary's church dramatically reversed the religious revolution imposed under the child king Edward VI. Inspired by the values of the European Counter-Reformation, the cardinal and the queen reinstated the papacy and launched an effective propaganda campaign through pulpit and press.Even the most notorious aspect of the regime, the burnings, proved devastatingly effective. Only the death of the childless queen and her cardinal on the same day in November 1558 brought the protestant Elizabeth to the throne, and thereby changed the course of English history.

ISBN 0300152167   Pages 240 ISBN13 9780300152166 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Yale University Press   Weight (grammes) 585 Imprint Yale University Press   Published in New Haven Format Hardback   Height (mm) 229 Publication date 08 May 2009   Width (mm) 152 Library of Congress 2008049807   Spine width (mm) 28 DEWEY 942.054   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Professional / Scholarly DEWEY edition DC22

		List of Illustrations
1		Rolling Back the Revolution		1
2		Cardinal Pole		29
3		Contesting the Reformation: Plain and Godly Treatises		57
4		From Persuasion to Force		79
5		The Theatre of Justice		102
6		The Hunters and the Hunted		128
7		The Battle for Hearts and Minds		155
8		The Defence of the Burnings and the Problem of Martyrdom		171
9		The Legacy: Inventing the Counter-Reformation		188
		Notes		209
		Select Bibliography		231
		Index		239

"Duffy has once again written a book that opens new questions and will be indispensable for future considerations of Mary''s reign."--Scott McGinnis, "Journal of Religion"--Scott McGinnis "Journal of Religion "

 Be the first to write a customer review