Abstract
The spiritual expectations of most sixteenth-century English people seem to have been met quite effectively by the religious opportunities that were available within and alongside the church. No theoretically comprehensive institution, however, can please all of the people all of the time, and a period of significant change presents a particularly challenging atmosphere within which to operate. The Reformation century, not surprisingly, had its share of individuals and groups who preferred to seek spiritual fulfilment beyond the church. They were always a small minority, but their importance in the religious history of the period is indisputable.
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Layfolk beyond the Church
Christopher Haigh, English Reformations (Oxford, 1993) p. 248.
A. G. Dickens, The English Reformation (1964; 2nd edn, London, 1989) p. 314;
J. J. Scarisbrick, The Reformation and the English People (Oxford, 1984) p. 137.
I. B. Horst, The Radical Brethren: Anabaptism and the English Reformation to 1558 (Nieuwkoop, 1972) pp. 138–9.
John Bossy, The English Catholic Community, 1570–1850 (London, 1975) p. 192.
Patrick Collinson, The Birthpangs of Protestant England (Basingstoke, 1988) p. 30.
A. G. Dickens, Lollards and Protestants in the Diocese of York (1959; London, 1982) p. 243; Hudson, Premature Reformation, p. 507.
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© 1998 Christopher Marsh
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Marsh, C. (1998). Layfolk beyond the Church. In: Popular Religion in Sixteenth-Century England. Social History in Perspective. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-26740-8_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-26740-8_4
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