The Reformation - Tapa blanda

This book looks at the Reformation without automatically assuming that sixteenth-century Church reform led inexorably to schism between Catholics and Protestants. It considers sixteenth-century people's religious life and the religious experience of individual Christians. It addresses questions which preoccupied church leaders of the time, such as the 'Primitive Church' and the origin and characteristics of 'authority' in the Church.

For most people, the Reformation remains the cornerstone of modern history: the point at which the western world decisively changed course. The problem with that perception (whatever its merits) is that it happened, therefore it was bound to happen.

One of the strengths of Edwards' book is the impression it is able to convey of the different paths available to contemporaries and of the reasons for the ultimate entrenchment of the confessional divide.

The focus of the book is on the period 1500-1550 but it ranges more broadly, back to the mid C14, forward to the start of the C17. It covers all the 'staples' of the subject but does so in a refreshingly novel interpretative framework.

The geographical scope covers primarily Western 'Catholic' Europe, with some treatment of its outposts in Eastern or 'Orthodox' Europe, the Americas, Africa and India.