Reading and Writing during the Dissolution: Monks, Friars, and Nuns 1530–1558 - Softcover

Erler, Mary C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1316601935 ISBN 13: 9781316601938

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2016

Synopsis

In the years from 1534 when Henry VIII became head of the English church until the end of Mary Tudor's reign in 1558, the forms of English religious life evolved quickly and in complex ways. At the heart of these changes stood the country's professed religious men and women, whose institutional homes were closed between 1535 and 1540. Records of their reading and writing offer a remarkable view of these turbulent times. The responses to religious change of friars, anchorites, monks and nuns from London and the surrounding regions are shown through chronicles, devotional texts, and letters. What becomes apparent is the variety of positions that English religious men and women took up at the Reformation and the accommodations that they reached, both spiritual and practical. Of particular interest are the extraordinary letters of Margaret Vernon, head of four nunneries and personal friend of Thomas Cromwell.

About this title

About the Author

Mary C. Erler is a professor in the English department at Fordham University, New York and is the author of Women, Reading and Piety in Late Medieval England (Cambridge, 2002).

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1316601935
• ISBN 13: 9781316601938
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 216