Reformation Reputations

David J. Crankshaw is Lecturer in the History of Early Modern Christianity at King’s College London, UK. He has published on the Court of Faculties, St Paul’s Cathedral and ecclesiastical statesmanship. George W. C. Gross is a Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London, UK, where he wrote his doctoral thesis entitled “The Lord’s Anointed”: British Coronations in Religious, Political and Social Contexts, c.1661–c.1714’ (2017).

“Recent trends in English Reformation history … eclipsed the powerful part played by prominent personalities in the making of religious change. Inspired by the quincentenary of Luther’s protest against the papacy in 1517, Reformation Reputations reasserts the value of a biographical perspective on these developments. … all the essays in this valuable volume bear out the editors’ observation … . They highlight the agency that their subjects exercised in crafting their own reputations in the present and for the future.” (Alexandra Walsham, Catholic Historical Review, Vol.110 (2), 2024)“This appears to be the first book, featuring interdisciplinarity, dedicated to exploring the rich history of the Reformations by investigating the topic with reference to reputations. … This well-appointed volume features two dozen figures and tables, along with a twenty-six–page index. Each of the ten chapters is lavishly documented, and there are plenty of provocative suggestions for additional research. The editors and the publisher should be congratulated on a handsome volume that is certain to stimulate considerable discussion.” (Thomas A. Fudge, Journal of Religious History, Vol. 46 (2), June, 2022)“This wide-ranging volume opens with an expansive introductory chapter by the editors that, at 157 pages, is the length of a short book. … The introduction and the essays that follow offer valuable analyses of the ways in which the reputations of English Reformation figures were forged, reworked, and contested in shifting contexts, all the way down to the present day.” (Karl Gunther, Church History, Vol. 91 (1), March, 2022)“Each article and the splendid introduction are first-rate. … Women are not overlooked in the collection. Susan Wabuda reexamines Anne Askew, burned at the stake for heresy by King Henry VIII in 1546, and immortalized in Foxe’s Actes and Monuments. … In an especially intriguing contribution, Rachel Basch considers Margaret Cranmer, Anne Hooper, and Elizabeth Coverdale … .” (Thomas M. McCoog, S.J., Journal of Jesuit Studies, Vol. 9, 2022)“Crankshaw and Gross are writing neither Reformation history nor memory study. They are considering lives remembered across time. Noting that remembering required print, and that printed reputations could provoke printed responses, they provide a very useful table of autobiographical and biographical works through 1718. … This fine collection gives historians of religion much to ponder. As we watch the heroes of the English Reformation swing … we must ask what our parts are in this process of reputation building.” (Norm Jones, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 73 (1), January, 2022)“Each of the essays in this volume offers new understandings of the men and women who shaped England’s religious politics in the sixteenth century. The volume as a whole is a timely reminder of the historical significance of ‘the power of individual agency’ … .” (Mary Morrissey, Renaissance and Reformation, Vol. 43 (4), 2021)

• 1. Introduction: Reformation, Life-Writing and the Commemorative Impulse: The Power of the Individual- David J. Crankshaw and George W. C. Gross.- 2. 1535 in 1935: Catholic Saints and English Identity: The Canonization of Thomas More and John Fisher- William Sheils.- 3. Thomas Cranmer’s Reputation Reconsidered- Ashley Null.- 4. ‘Agents of the Reformation’: Margaret Cranmer, Anne Hooper and Elizabeth Coverdale- Rachel Basch.- 5. Anne Askew- Susan Wabuda.- 6. ‘A Man of Stomach’: Matthew Parker’s Reputation- David J. Crankshaw.- 7. John Whitgift Redivivus: Reconsidering the Reputation of Elizabeth’s Last Archbishop of Canterbury- Felicity Heal.- 8. Anthony Munday: Eloquent Equivocator or Contemptible Turncoat?- Elizabeth Evenden-Kenyon.-9. Polemic, Memory and Emotion: John Gerard and the Writing of the Counter-Reformation in England- Peter Lake and Michael Questier.- 10. Rehabilitating Robert Persons: Then and Now- Victor Houliston.