Volume 7, Number 11 · December 29, 1966
That Was the Reformation That Was
By Lawrence Stone
Reformation and Society in Sixteenth Century Europe
by A.G. Dickens
Harcourt, Brace & World, 216 pp., $5.50
Reformation Europe, 1517-1559
by G.R. Elton
Harper & Row, 324 pp., $6.95
One of the more striking features of Christianity has been its perennial tendency to fission. With difficulty held together throughout the Middle Ages, it suddenly split asunder in the early sixteenth century. Not only were a number of new and independent churches thrown up by the earthquake—Calvinist, Lutheran, and Anglican—but through the cracks in the fabric of medieval society there oozed a host of strange new sects with alarmingly revolutionary beliefs and aspirations. The story of this great convulsion has often been told, but never better than in the two books under review. Although the tone and the interpretation differ in many respects, both are fine examples of synthesis and compression and are models of what a good textbook should be.
Review, 4884 words
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