A People’s Reformation
A People’s Reformation: Building the English Church in the Elizabethan Parish by Lucy Moffat Kaufman covers that period of English history where England was transitioning from Catholicism into Protestantism. Kaufman shows that it wasn’t a simple, easy switch from Catholicism to Protestantism. But a hard, back and forth, decades long process. At the end of her preface, Kaufman writes “This story is thus neither dirge nor paean. It is, instead, an exploration of the strategies, the decisions, and the priorities of English men and women in the face of massive change. It is, in the end, the story of a People’s Reformation, and the church they built, together.” (xvi). This sets the tone for the rest of Kaufman’s book as Kaufman will not be downcast and entirely negative about this era. But she will not be singing it’s praises wholeheartedly. The preface promises the reader that they will get a balanced view of the era that Kaufman is covering in A People’s Reformation.
But what is Kaufman’s main idea? In her introduction, Kaufman writes “This book investigates that reknitting of religion and society in the Elizabethan years. It asks, at its core, how society was able to rebuild after an episode of massive, even violent, change.” (12). I believe that a way this is being shown is through the organizations of the chapters which all share a common theme: the parish. Since this book is an examination of the Parish and the English reformation, I wouldn’t think that it is too much of a stretch. Just look at the five chapter names. “Bounding the Parish”, “Policing the Parish”,” Funding the Parish”, “Taxing the Parish”, and “Receiving in the Parish”. All these play a part in Kaufman’s main question about how society was able to come together again after massive change. Kaufman finishes her introduction by saying that “In the end, this is a story about the decisions made in the face of constraints: the demands of the state, the shifts in the economy and demography, the doctrine of the church, and above all, the long legacy of the Reformation.” (22).
In Chapter 1,” Bounding the Parish”, Kauffman writes” This chapter will explore the new efforts by the Elizabethan state church to define and enforce the boundaries of parochial life.” (26). The first chapter introduces us to the world of Elizabethan England parish life. We are introduced to the power of the church in everyday life such as ecclesiastical courts which had as much power if not more than regular courts. “By and large, the secular courts relied on the passive response of local officials in the implementation of justice, while the spiritual courts had an active program of investigation. This chapter sets the pace for the rest of the book.
In the Second chapter” Policing the Parish”, Kauffman writes about a figure of the church that is seldom talked about. The churchwarden was very impactful in Reformation politics. “Without the churchwarden, we have a Reformation by fiat, enacted by an invisible hand of change. In other words, to understand religious change in England, we need a real understanding of its churchwardens, the agents of the state church, and the face of power within the parish.” (54). It is important for the churchwardens to be discusses because of their real responsibility and power that they held in England at this time. It is they who are policing the Parish. This chapter plays into Kaufman’s theme because without understanding who the churchwardens are, it would be hard to understand the English Reformation.
The third chapter of the book is called “Funding the Parish”, and it discusses…. funding. Now what does Kaufman mean by funding. “To understand the financing of a church is, in a sense, to understand the church itself. From massive land sales to ha’penny tithe on eggs, the Elizabethan church raised enormous sums to power twin undertakings of doctrinal ministry and socio-political stability”. (90). Here, Kaufmann looks at the mundane documents to get a closer feel of what life in the Elizabethan age was really like. Kaufman writes, “A closer look at the accounts, and indeed parish finances as a whole, from across England reveals the complex logistics of cultivating a Reformation in the late sixteenth century. It is in the anodyne records of the churchwardens…that we find the lifeblood of the Elizabethan Reformation.” (90). Money was and is very important to keeping a church open and churches In Elizabethan England were no exception. “Maintaining the parish church to the specifications and standards required was manifestly an expensive business.” (115). As we have seen in the chapter, Funding the Parish is done by the church for the church.
The fourth chapter of A People’s Reformation, “Taxing the Parish” analyses…taxing the parish. Stay with me now. Kaufman opens the chapter with the story of the dispute between Sir Ralph Ellerker, a landowner, and the new rector of Rowley, James Gayton. How does this conflict add meaning to the rest of the chapter? Well, it’s because this conflict ties into tithing. James Gayton took Sir Ralph to court because Gayton wasn’t paid tithe the way he wanted (he wanted animals and wool, but Sir Ralph wanted to give him cash). This plays into the rest of the chapter because of the role that tithing plays in taxing the parish. Kaufman discusses this in more detail. ”Thus, the payment of tithes generated lay expectations of clerical service. They created a contractual relationship between minister and parishioner, with the latter expecting the services of the former.” (164). Kaufman paints a picture of how Taxing the Parish comes through religion and the example of Sir Ralph and James Gayton illustrates how society was changing.
The final Parish chapter of Kaufman’s A People’s Reformation is “Receiving in the Parish”. What does Receiving mean in this context? Well, judging from the opening anecdote regarding taking communion, I would assume it would be about receiving communion. Kaufman writes “This chapter approaches the question of the eucharist from two different, equally important, angles.” (183). These angles are the “pace and shape of sacramental conformity” (183) and “the lived experience of the sacrament in Elizabethan England”. (183). These angles show why these changes to the Eucharist were so important. People were willing to fight and die over the Eucharist which shows how important it was to the people of England at this time.
Are there any critiques of Kaufman’s A People’s Reformation? Well, every chapter is organized thematically rather than chronologically. Aside from that, I liked the book. It examines the situation and historical context without flattening the historical characters see throughout the book.
I thought this was a unique and interesting take on the English Reformation. A bottom-up history looking at different parishes. Like James G. Clark’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, this book follows themes rather than a chronological timeline. Besides that, Lucy Moffat Kaufman does a fine job of communicating the period, the landscape and the turmoil of life in an English parish in the Age of Elizabeth I.