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

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Yale University Press

Description

This prize-winning account of the pre-Reformation church recreates lay peoples experience of religion in fifteenth-century England. Eamon Duffy shows that late medieval Catholicism was neither decadent nor decayed, but was a strong and vigorous tradition, and that the Reformation represented a violent rupture from a popular and theologically respectable religious system. For this edition, Duffy has written a new Preface reflecting on recent developments in our understanding of the period.
From reviews of the first edition:
A magnificent scholarly achievement [and] a compelling read.Patricia Morrison, Financial Times
Deeply imaginative, movingly written, and splendidly illustrated. . . . Duffys analysis . . . carries conviction.Maurice Keen, New York Review of Books
This book will afford enjoyment and enlightenment to layman and specialist alike.Peter Heath, Times Literary Supplement
[An] astonishing and magnificent piece of work.Edward T. Oakes, Commonweal