Conversion, politics, and religion in England, 1580-1625

the long version

The Reformation was, in many ways, an experiment in conversion. English Protestant writers and preachers urged conversion from popery to the Gospel, from idolatry to the true worship of God, while Catholic polemicists persuaded people away from heresy to truth, from the schismatic Church of England to unity with Rome. Much work on this period has attempted to measure the speed and success of changes in religion. Did England become a Protestant nation? How well did the regime reform the Church along Protestant lines? How effectively did Catholic activists obstruct the Protestant programme? However, Michael Questier's meticulous study of conversion is the first to concentrate on this phenomenon from the perspective of individual converts, people who alternated between conformity to and rejection of the pattern of worship established by law. In the process it suggests that some of the current notions about Protestantisation are simplistic. By discovering how people were exhorted to change religion, how they experienced conversion and how they faced demands for Protestant conformity, Michael Questier develops a fresh perspective on the nature of the English Reformation.