Need resources for an assignment

[A. believer]

Hi guys,

In an English Lit. class, I have a term project assignment in which I need to gather diverse resources in regard to the Reformation in England. I'm supposed to search as many places as possible to find these resources, so I thought I'd ask people here. Does anyone have any suggestions of books, articles, or any other kind of source material that might help me get a good broad view of the English Reformation.

Thanks for reading and for whatever suggestions you might come up with.

[pmcleanj]

Start with the Book of Common Prayer, a literary masterpiece that is the great possession of the Anglican Church. Compare and contrast the versions of 1549, 1552, and 1662; which respectively tell the story of a non-Roman but Catholic Anglican faith, the swing toward puritanism, and the resulting Via Media respecting both ecclesiologies.

And the Bishop's Bible, of course. Long passages of it are included in the Book of Common Prayer. Compare and contrast with the King James version, which is a revision of the older Bishop's Bible. Compare also older translations: Wycliffe, Tyndale, Coverdale, the Great Bible, the Geneva Bible. Also look for quotes in Shakespeare taken directly from the Geneva Bible.

Also look at Hooker's Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity

[Inside Edge]

Are you aiming at reading primary sources, interpreting them as part of your own theories or commentary on the time? Or are you looking for sources which explain what was going on at the time, their implications, etc?

Various works by Erasmus (particularly Praise of Folly) or Thomas More can provide good primary source material (both writers created works which commented on or reveal religious attitudes of the time). Not to mention stacks of Royal and Church letters, etc, which may be more difficult to get a hold of. For general reference material, there is, well, TONS. Is there a particular focus of your project?

[A. believer]

Thanks for the suggestions. It's actually kind of strange assignment. It's an undergraduate class, but the professor's goal is to teach students how to do good research. It's kind of vague in my mind exactly how I should go about it, but for the paper we write, she's not asking for us to present and defend a thesis. Just ten pages giving a basic overview. And another ten pages, journaling our research process.

But I chose the topic of the English Reformation because that was one she suggested, and it's definitely something I would like to know more about. We actually read excerpts from all of the sources mentioned by pmcleanj, but I wasn't aware of how revisions following the move toward the Via Media, and that interests me. The conflict between the Catholic Anglicans and the Puritans is what I had in mind as my focus.

I haven't read any Thomas More, but we did read his son-in-law's biography on him. We even watched the movie, "A Man For All Seasons" in class. LOL It was fascinating to me. Although I hold Protestant convictions, I admired the stand he took. It seems to me that God used some pretty crooked means to initiate reforms in England, and it's sure hard to sympathize with Henry. I wonder, if Thomas More had not been martyred, where he would have stood later, though. Would he have continued to stand with the pope? Hmmm.

Anyway, my professor does want us to gather a lot of primary sources, but I'd like some secondary sources to help put them in context for me as well.

[A. believer]

Not to mention stacks of Royal and Church letters, etc, which may be more difficult to get a hold of.

Any suggestions on where I might be able to find these?

[pmcleanj]

Oooh, I just thought of another. Compare the wording of Henry's Act of Supremacy, with Elizabeth's Act of Supremacy, and analyze the implications of the differences.

[Inside Edge]

Well, I might have to eat my words - looks like some searching in Google will yield some results. Although I didn't go through these sites, so I don't know that the ones I've listed here will pertain to the reformation, specifically. My guess is that if I found these inside of 10 minutes, a more extensive search will get you further along.

When I was in University, the internet was in its infancy. Coming up with what little I found in 10 minutes would have take hours staring at microfiche!

http://englishhistory.net/tudor/primary.html

http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/bcp.htm#Other%20BCP's

[IowaLutheran]

Try these:

A History of the Church in England

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/081921406X/ref=wl_it_dp/102-6980461-3664114?%5Fencoding=UTF8&coliid=I31Y5GNOFLWE1E&v=glance&colid=V581XRG2SGOQ

A Study of Anglicanism

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/080063151X/qid=1113946226/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl14/102-6980461-3664114?v=glance&s=books&n=507846