Monday, October 20, 2008

Reformation(s) Papers: document suggestions

In response to a query about documents that support Dickens’s claim that the reformation came from the bottom up besides the Confession of John Pykas, I suggest
  • 3.3 (1st ed.) The Opening of the Reformation Parliament (November 3December 17, 1529) which has the MPs from the House of Commons quite willing to go along with Henry on this. Most of their reasons are more materialistic than Pykas, but they certainly buy into the idea of the corruption of the old church.
  • At the beginning of chapter 3 (1st. ed., and as a separate doc. in the new ed.) John Colet, who preached at the Convocation of English clerics summoned to discuss how to suppress heresy in 1511, attacks his audience for their venality and worldliness.
  • Ditto, William Melton (d. 1528), master of Michaelhouse, Cambridge, preaching in Latin to candidates for the clergy (1510).
  • Ditto, Simon Fish (d. 1531), who framed his attack on the clergy as a plea to Henry VIII to curb corrupt, greedy priests, bishops, pardoners, summoners, and friars.
Some bit of Dickens might be online. But there is also a chapter of Dickens in a collection by Marshall and that and Dickens should be in most university libraries.

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