Reginald Pole was many things: royal cousin, humanist scholar, Cardinal, reformer, and the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury. His place in the story of England's Reformation has always been contested, in particular with regard to the vilified reign of Mary I. As historical thinking on the Marian Restoration has altered, so too Pole's reputation has […]

Born in 1500 into the highest circles of the English aristocracy and then lifted as high in the Church, Reginald Pole’s life was spent steering a perilous course through the storm of the European Reformation. After a brilliant scholarly career in Italy, he chose refuge there from Henry VIII’s regime and its anti-papal policies. His […]

Born in 1500 into the highest circles of the English aristocracy and then lifted as high in the Church, Reginald Pole’s life was spent steering a perilous course through the storm of the European Reformation. After a brilliant scholarly career in Italy, he chose refuge there from Henry VIII’s regime and its anti-papal policies. His […]

Institute of Historical Research Seminar Using the rich seam of local records (detailed churchwardens’ accounts, vestry minutes and surviving wills), this paper tells the tale of religious divisions in the London suburban parish of St Botolph’s Aldgate. The changes to parish worship and finance during the reign of Edward VI were almost entirely reversed during […]

Michael Questier (Durham University): Rome and the Anglicans – and their Histories of the Reformation Histories of the post-Reformation Church of (and in) England are, as is well known, often incompatible with each other. Much of the relevant scholarly output of recent times has been taken up with trying to resolve existing contradictory interpretations of […]