“The Elizabethan Reformation transformed England.” (xv) “A People’s Reformation provides new perspectives on the English Reformation and the roots of the Church of England.”(6) When Queen Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558, England had experienced “thirty-odd years of religious turmoil. In those decades conformity was impossible.”(xv) Conformity of religion and stability of the state were primary goals of the Elizabethan Reformation. Kaufman declares that “To transform the nation, the bonds between crown, church and people had to be rewoven, into a cloth neither entirely new nor a replica of the old.”(12)
“This book places people of England at the heart of not just the local or cultural, but the political story of the Reformation and its remarkable and transformative effect on the world.”(6) At the end of Elizabeth’s reign England had experienced over forty years of peace. “Elizabeth began a process of Protestant religious change that left great scope for private personal belief, but little room for public disobedience or nonconformity.”(5) During the stability of the Elizabethan Reformation, people “had to create new understandings of authority, subordination, and power.”(5,6)
This book draws upon archival material from across the US and Great Britain. Primary sources are the parish ledgers where collection of dues, expenditures on parish maintenance, purchase of books, communion tables, and pews, and the costs associated with removing inappropriate items are recorded. It examines notices of visitations by the church to the parish and to particular people in the parish. It looks at requirements imposed on individuals to put them back into the good will of the church and the parish community after they have broken acceptable codes of behavior.
Kaufman states that “she takes seriously the scholarship of the past fifty years.” (v) This scholarship points out that “the late-medieval parish hummed with the energy of the laity. What differed in the Elizabethan parish is that this energy had been harnessed and directed by the state.” (87) Michael Braddick stated, “the increasingly centralized English state relied on a system of local agents to expand, maintain, and deepen its power.” (87) Ethan Shagan and Eamon Duffy “clarified the ways in which the old world was destroyed and challenged our understanding of why this destruction occurred.” (12) “The goal of Kaufman’s book is to explore “how a society was able to rebuild after an episode of massive, even violent, change.” (12)
Kaufman explores themes which become apparent in her chapters. “The first main theme is the increasing involvement of the laity in the Elizabethan parish.”(17) A second theme: “The Elizabethan Reformation emphasized results, not process.”(19) A third theme “is the legacy of history and memory of the Reformation.”(20) The fourth theme “is the theme of compulsory community.”(21)The book rests upon five chapters that give different aspects of what the crown and church asked of its people, how the people responded, and how the English Church evolved.
Chapter 1: Bounding the Parish, “investigates new efforts by the state church to make the parish legible, from increasing the frequency and efficacy of visitations to more closely bounding the parish.” (16) The church endeavored to include every English person into a specific parish. They also kept track of the behavior of all the parishioners in each parish to ensure they regularly attended church in their own parish, and how often they took communion. Churchwardens helped identify people who were not following rules. They might also notify church officials of bad behavior on the part of clerics and parishioners who violated acceptable norms. “By enforcing strict notions of residency and by mandating compulsory attendance within these boundaries, the Elizabethan church defined the parish community.”(52)
Chapter 2: Policing the Parish, “explores the policing and governing of the parish, particularly the growth in both power and authority wielded by the churchwarden and the vestry.”(16) Lay men in the parish often vied to be churchwardens. The position required considerable work, but it also provided esteem and responsibility. The Churchwardens were to collect funds and keep the church well maintained. Churchwardens also warned people if they were violating church or parish rules. If a warning did not correct a person’s behavior, then the churchwarden would send a complaint to church authorities. “The English Reformation was policed by its own people.”(88)
Chapter 3: Funding the Parish, “dives into the material culture of the parish, looking particularly at its financial implications.”(16,17) Churchwardens collected tithes, money for the poor, rental fees for pews, and special fees for parish activities. Early in Elizabeth’s reign Churchwardens had to implement the removal of inappropriate items left over from Queen Mary’s reign. Altars had to be removed and replaced with communion tables. Crucifixes had to be removed; pictures of saints had to be painted over. Removal of Catholic features and purchase of necessary Protestant elements took time, money, and effort. Conformity of appearance was important in the parish churches. Nevertheless, different parishes responded in different time frames, sometimes because of a lack of funds. Pews in bench and box forms became an important form of parish revenue.
Chapter 4: Taxing the Parish (134) “analyzes the methods and means by which parochial tithes were reshaped and administered in the Elizabethan parish.”(17) Tithing was an ancient and important form of tax revenue. Custom was often the determinant of what someone owed the parish. If a person customarily paid tithes in money, the parish might suffer a loss of real income due to inflation. Parishes might insist upon payment in grain or animals to offset the loss. These settlements were often contested and went to court. Sometimes the outcome rested on custom not fairness.
Chapter 5: Receiving in the parish (181) “examines the role of sacramental conformity in the English church, looking at both rates of reception and the mechanisms by which conformity was enforced.”(17) Kaufman provides an analysis of conformity to participation in communion over time. There were many reasons why people would take communion with the members of their parish. Doing so demonstrated that they belonged to a community, were in good fellowship with their neighbors, and were showing faith in Christ which was essential for salvation. The 1603 “census reported slightly over 2.5 million communicants in England. The total number of recusants listed was 8,500.” (219) This level of conformity to religious practice was extraordinary. It was remarkable in comparison to the discord of 1549.
The success of the Elizabethan Reformation: maintaining peace; giving people a clear understanding of the beliefs and practices of their state religion; providing a sense of a shared community for the vast majority of English subjects, took place through the collaboration of church and state, and because individual people were able to participate in and benefit from their parish and English society.