Memory and the English Reformation is a valuable collection of articles that ask whether the Reformation, as people lived and shaped it in the sixteenth century, created a long-lasting memory in the centuries that followed. The book examines the theme of memory in four parts: events and temporalities, objects and places, lives and afterlives, and rituals and bodies. These various perspectives and the overall theme of memory in the English Reformation add greatly to current scholarship. Memory and the English Reformation seeks to understand better the ways in which those who lived during the Reformation reflected on their past while cultivating the movement's memory for following generations.
The strengths in this volume are its scope, diversity, and chronology. The contributors include scholars in a variety of humanities disciplines; thus, the scope of interpretation is interdisciplinary, well balanced, and features a variety of evidence and sources. For example, Johanna Harris (chapter 15) analyzes martyrs’ letters and their apostolic epistolary styling; Joe Moshenska (chapter 7) examines how Protestants gave former church sculptures to children as play dolls; Alexandra Walsham (chapter 6) looks at crosses and other monuments that were destroyed yet repurposed based on new memories that both Protestants and Catholics were forging. As a result of this scope, the evidence moves beyond the writings of the Reformation and looks at topics that would have been well known in daily life for a majority of people living through the movement.
The interdisciplinary nature of this work also contributes to its strength in diversity. While titled Memory and the English Reformation, the book is not exclusive to the Protestant perspective, nor is it exclusive to England. Rather, there is strong interplay between the ways in which Protestants and Catholics viewed the same circumstances while developing their own means of remembering the past and present and creating a memory for the future (chapters 5, 10, 16, and 22). The edition also demonstrates how, for many Protestants, it was not an entirely new world; in fact, they often commemorated the new changes simply by using traditional items or practices with a new emphasis (chapters 7, 8). Additionally, Peter Marshall and Stewart Mottram connect trends occurring in England with trends in Germany and Scotland, respectively (chapters 1 and 11). Both look at the manner in which the English remembered what they were doing vis-à-vis the trends elsewhere and whether people saw themselves as part of a larger event.
The strengths in interdisciplinarity and diversity also connect with the chronological aspect of this volume. In treating the theme of memory, it is essential to consider whether the memory that people were cultivating did indeed last or whether it morphed as new generations had different interpretations for their own situations. Several chapters speak to this, including those by Peter Marshall, Philip Schwyzer, Victoria Van Hyning, Rachel Adcock, and Emilie Murphy (chapters 1, 12, 16, 21, and 22). These chapters are good starting points for the conversation on the true impact of Reformation memory in subsequent centuries. Yet this is also the area in which the edited volume needs expansion. This starting look, though, will surely lead to further discussion, particularly covering the Reformation's lasting memory in the later eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as both centuries saw continued religious revivals.
Memory in the English Reformation is an essential work for any scholar currently examining the English Reformation, in particular, or Tudor culture, in general. While the articles are very specific in their particular foci, all the varying perspectives come together in a very strong collection centered on the theme of memory. Overall, the collection shows that, for people living during the English Reformation, memory was very important. For Protestants, new memories had to change from long-held practices and perspectives; whereas, for Catholics, memory was a continuation of their faith, even in times of turmoil. The essays in Memory in the English Reformation show how memory was cultivated in the present by those who lived during a time of monumental change. They had to make sense of the world around them while ensuring that future generations would remember the Reformation, too, even if people wanted it remembered differently.
