The Quiet Reformation: Magistrates and the Emergence of Protestantism in Tudor Norwich

Abstract

This lucid and highly readable account of the Reformation in Tudor Norwich seizes upon an important emerging issue, one which is likely to be the subject of consid- erable future discussion among scholars of religious change in the sixteenth century: were violent clashes, disruptive controversies, and deep fissures within the community the inevitable accompaniment of the Reformation?For decades, historians have been mesmerized by the movement's less endearing characteristics: bitter enmity and savage destructiveness.More recently, attention has turned to another alto- gether more peaceful pattern of reform.Accordingly, the results of McClendon 's considerable research represent a valuable case study, as scholars go about assessing the innovative notion of a "quiet" reform.Norwich was the largest, most populous, and most economically active of England's provincial towns during the sixteenth century.It was also an important medieval religious center, which, in turn, found itself deeply affected by the Protestant movement.What it did not experience was the rampant confessional conflict that historians have traced for other English urban centers, such as Bristol

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