Voluntary Religion and Reformation Change in Eight Urban Parishes

Abstract

Terminological concerns are at the heart of most recent accounts of the English Reformation(s). Some would like to see the momentous events referred to by a plural rather than a singular, many more endeavour to dissociate terms such as ‘decline’ or ‘discontent’ from the late medieval Church and to discredit any attempts to explain the changes as a result of pressures ‘from below’. The establishment of a new vocabulary, however, has proved rather more elusive. Prevented from labelling late medieval Catholicism as a ‘popular’ religion by a whole series of inappropriate connotations, some have now suggested that historians speak of the ‘vigour, richness and creativity’ of ‘traditional’ religious practices. The search, no doubt, will continue.¹