Abstract :
Interpretations that solely emphasize either continuity or controversy are found wanting.
Historians still question how the English became Protestant, what sort of Protestants they were, and why
a civil war dominated by religion occurred over a hundred years after the initial Reformation crisis.
They utilize many approaches : from above and below, and with fresh perspectives, from within and
without. Yet the precise nature of the relationship of the Reformation, the civil war, the interregnum and
the Restoration settlement remains controversial. This review of recent Reformation historiography largely
validates the current consensus of a balance of continuity and change, pressure for further reform and
begrudging conformity. Yet ultimately it argues that continuity must form the foundation for any interpretation
of the Reformation, for controversial or dramatic alterations to the status quo only made sense to contemporaries
in the context of what had come before. Challenging ideas, like challenging individuals,
did not exist in a vacuum devoid of historical context. The practical limits of possibility, constrained
largely by the established norms and procedures, shaped the course of English Reformation. As such,
practicality seems a unifying and central theme for current and future investigations of England’s long
Reformation.
