Reformation : Europe s House Divided

£7.00

The house of Europe reshaped - Diarmaid MacCulloch has produced a masterful and magisterial history of a period that is usually called the Reformation but which, as MacCulloch demonstrates, transcends simplistic notions of Catholicism and Protestantism. In the space of 250 years, not only Europe, but also the world as a whole were reshaped through a series of social and political convulsions in which religion played a central role. MacCulloch successfully manages to combine historical and geographical approaches that show how the main players were related to what went before as well as other actors.

Excellent - I would venture to say that this is the best book there is on the subject of the reformation.I particularly liked the way he was aware of the limited knowledge of the general reader. He has taken great care to impart his expertise gradually which is to be lauded. Where topics have been mentioned in passing he provides, in brackets, a page reference where the subject is covered in more detail. This is helpful because the reformation is a broad subject and a lot of topics are covered in the book s 700 pages.He is an eloquent and elegant writer and you really get the sense that this guy knows what he is talking about. He has thoughtfully compartmentalised the book brilliantly as only an expert could do. Obviously in an overview of the subject, everything is touched upon without going into too much detail. But this isn t a bad thing as he has expertly chosen what he thinks is most important for the reader to gain a full understanding of those tumultuous years.It is an excellently structured book, never being desultory or hard to follow. The first part gives an introduction to the subject, the second is the reformation and its aftermath, and the short third part gives an insight on what it was like to live through. This final part also devotes a couple of chapters to attitudes to love and sex during the reformation.If you look at the back of the book, you will not only find references and notes, but Mr Macculloch has also provided a list of further reading that he recommends on subjects that may have piqued your interest.A more panoramic view of the this period will be hard to find.

A point of view - Is it an advantage, as MacCulloch says to not subscribe to any form of religious dogma in trying to describe the Reformation to a world which has largely forgotten or half-understood what it was about (p xxv) ? One wonders whether indeed it is possible not to subscribe to some dogma(ie a belief or system of beliefs held on authority) religious or secular whether consciously held or not, and whether in all cases historians do not have a viewpoint conscious or unconscious lurking in the background to which they bend the story to fit irrelevant preconceptions. Keynes accused practical men who eschewed theory as being slaves to some long defunct economists, one wonders if historians are any different.However this is an excellent book, whatever one may make of the distinctive viewpoint which comes out so strongly in the section on Outcomes. As well as the information concerning the ideas of the Reformers, going well beyond Luther, Zwingli and Calvin to Bucer and Bullinger, not to mention many others, it gives considerable space to the ideas and influence of Erasmus, and Cardinal Pole. As he says Social and political history cannot do without theology in understanding the 16th century. MacCulloch gives succinct and accurate descriptions of the ideas , not exactly for dummies but with a secular audience in mind.How many of us knew that there were one million Christian slaves enslaved by Islamic raiders between 1530 and 1640,roughly equivalent to the trade across the Atlantic? (p 57) That lay people with the dissolution of the guilds lost much control of what went on in church at the Reformation? (p 16)that in the 1930 s the Popes did not excommunicate Hitler because among other reasons it was remembered that doing so to Elizabeth I had been counter productive? (p 334) That England judicially murdered more Roman Catholics than any other country in Europe (p 392).That as late as 1612 (well after the Council of Trent) the Archbishop of Salzburg lived with his concubine and 15 children?(p 447). As used to be said by a Sunday newspaper all human life is here.His history of the Church of England is particularly interesting reflecting as it does all the recent research which has made the old Anglo-Catholic historiography somewhat unconvincing.He makes very short work of any talk of the Elizabethan Settlement being any kind of compromise intended to mollify Catholics (p 289). Nor does he have much time for the Protestant work ethic and while admiring Max Weber whom he describes as a genius sees his work as being influential on discussions of history particularly among those who are not historians. (p 604). In the background of much thought he sees a sense that time is at an end ,and says that without appreciating this the Reformation can often be regarded as a vandalistic, mean-minded or money-grubbing assault on a settled round of devotion and a world of beauty and celebration.(p 551).This book should certainly be read as it cannot fail to amuse, to stimulate,and to inform.However it is a pity that the print in the Penguin edition is so small and may prove a problem for elderly scholars.

Brilliant, enlightening and readable - I disagree with some of the other reviews here that this is bland or a difficult read - I approached it with some tripidation but found it both reassuringly scholarly and yet immensely readable, probably because the author has a distinctive voice which mediates perfectly through the vast amount of material he covers. MacCulloch knows his material intimately and yet manages to convey the complexities without ever resorting to the fatal dumbing down of many authors. As someone with a vague idea of the history of the period, but little knowledge of religious philosophy, I wasn t sure if this would be too technical but actually I found it fascinating and unputdownable. It dropped a star because at some points I felt MacCulloch was trying to cram in too much e.g. the complexities of religious thought across the whole of Europe, but the third section in particular on the differences the reformation made to actual peoples lives in terms of the way they thought about sex and the family, for example, more than made up for some of the intricacies. All together a brilliant read.

Disappointing - There must be room for a great modern book on the Reformation but this isn t it. I am fascinated by this period but I found this book tedious and frustrating. The narrative is more or less chronological but this results in confusion as themes are introduced then abandoned then resumed again. I found it more or less unreadable after a while and this was a real disappoinment since I had such high hopes. Perhaps it is too ambtious to try to compress the whole of Reformation history into one volume.

• The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England,1400-1580
• Reformation Thought: An Introduction
• Thomas Cranmer: A Life
• The Long European Reformation: Religion, Political Conflict and the Search for Conformity, 1350-1750 (European History in Perspective)
• The Penguin History of the Church: Reformation v. 3 (Penguin History of the Church, 3)