English Reformation of the Sixteenth Century by W.H. Beckett
William Henry Beckett [1847-1901] intended this book to be a sketch of the history of the English reformation. He covers John Wycliffe and the Lollards, the Oxford reformers and progress of the movement under Edward VI, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I. This volume contains numerous portraits which I have made available at various resolutions. This title is in the public domain.
William Henry Beckett [1847-1901], The English Reformation of the Sixteenth Century with Chapters on Monastic England, and the Wycliffite Reformation. London: The Religious Tract Society, 1890. Hbk. pp.312. [Click to visit the main download page]
Contents
- Introduction
- Destruction of Monasteries
- Attempts at Reformation
- Advance in Monastic Reform
- The Institution of the Friars, a Further Advance in Reform
- Bishops and Parochial Clergy
- The Spiritual Awakening
- The Great Plague and its Consequences
- The England of Wycliffe’s Days
- John Wycliffe
- The Early Followers of Wycliffe, or Lollards
- Lollard Literature
- The Later Lollards
- Oxford Reformers
- Contemporaries at Cambridge
- The Reformation Parliament and Convocation 1529-1536
- Reform of Doctrine
- Early Reformation Literature
- The Protectorate, 1547-1553
- Reformation Liturgies and Manuals of Spiritual Instruction, 1534-1553
- Reformation Preachers
- The Dark Days of Mary
- The Triumph of Spanish Policy, 1555-1558
- The Elizabethan Compromise
- Doctrines of the English Reformation
- ‘The Romanist Martyrs’
- Chonological Summary
- Appendix I
- Appendix II
- Appendix III
- Appendix IV
Introduction
When on the 29th day of April, in the year 1509, the young Prince Henry Tudor, at the ago of eighteen, succeeded to the throne left vacant by the death of his father, Henry VII., the country of which he became monarch was already in a transition state. ‘Old things were passing away, and the faith and the life of ten centuries were dissolving like a dream. Chivalry was dying, the abbey and the castle were soon together to crumble into ruins, and all the forms, desires, beliefs, convictions 0£ the old world were passing away, never to return.’ Had Henry VIII. never reigned, there would have been a history of religious reform in England. The notorious divorce question did but confirm and hasten tendencies which were already at work. [Continue reading]