The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion

Eamon Duffy in his 2001 THE VOICES OF MOREBATH: REFORMATION AND REBELLION IN AN ENGLISH VILLAGE has written another valuable Tudor history but one nodtably difficult and knotty for non-specialists to read. Would that some kind soul might condense, reorganize it and reissue it as MOREBATH FOR DUMMIES. Were I that editor, I would retain unchanged (1) its two maps on one page of the maps of southwestern-most 16th Century England; (2) its 12 pages of colored photos; (3) the reproduced woodcuts adorning each of its seven chapters; (4) its list of all parish wardens of Morebath 1520 - 1575; (5) its ample bibliography and finally (6) the book's end notes. *** I would retain (while drastically shortening text) the substance of the following elements: (1) biography of MOREBATH's hero, its parish priest for 54 years (1520 - 1574) Sir (instead of today's "Father") Christopher Trychay (1490? - 1574); (2) highlights of the religious innovations of any and all five Tudor monarchs; (3) the author's conclusions (without detailed appeal to scholarly underpinnings) of how Tudor religious innovations impacted the parish of Saint George in Morebath; and finally (4) Eamon Duffy's general conclusions on the mechanics through which Christianity in England survived and adapted itself to the demands of the increasingly centralized, always at war secularizing, moderninzing Tudor state. ***In THE VOICES OF MOREBATH we meet the Vicar of Saint George's Church and year after year those more active lay parishioners who divided themselves into custodians and collectors of various funds aimed at parish projects. Surprisingly, there were elected representatives of both woman and "maidens" as well as young men and others. We see sheep as the basis of parish revenues and prosperity. We also see lay people with minds of their own knuckling under for five decades to pressure and/or advice from pastor, bishops and King in Parliament. *** Duffy's argument is that the Reformation in England was top-down, imposed on a lay population overwhelmingly content with inherited Latin-language, Saints venerating worship. (Scotland was just the opposite, a popular anti-Catholic movement opposing the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots). *** Read THE VOICES OF MOREBATH for its maps, illustrations and sweeping, insightful generalizations. The price you pay is the effort of cutting though a thick kernel of scholarship. -OOO-