Table of Contents

Contents: Introduction; Sin and Salvation; The medieval doctrine of salvation; Martin Luther's theological breakthrough; Zwingli and the early Swiss reformers; Imparted and imputed righteousness; Predestination; Sin and salvation in the thinking of the radical reformers; Popular ideas on sin and salvation; Sacrament and Ritual; The sacramental tradition; The Reformation of the Sacraments; Baptism; The Eucharist; "By this book": Authority and Interpretation; Biblical Authority and the Church; Humanism and the Bible; "Sola Scriptura"; The authority of the Spirit; The vernacular Bible; The True Church in the Protestant Tradition: Theory and Organisation; The Reformation doctrines of the True Church: theory and practice; The Lutheran state church; The True Church in the Calvinist tradition; The Gathered Church in the doctrine of the Radical reformers; The clergy: priests or ministers?; Church and State: the Protestant Churches and Secular Authority; Church and State in the Lutheran tradition; Church and State in the Swiss Calvinist tradition; Church and State in Calvinist Germany; The radical reformers: the separation of church and state; The One Catholic Church and the nation-church; The Revolution of the Saints?; Social discipline and the reformation of manners; The common weal: poverty and social welfare; Literacy, Education and the Popular Response to the Reformation; Print and Protestantism; Oral culture and the spread of the Reformation; Faith and reason; Literacy and education; Visual culture, visual literacy and iconoclasm; Liturgy and the Articulation of Belief; The Reform of the Liturgy; The Eucharist; Baptism; Confirmation; Repentance and reconciliation; The Solemnisation of Matrimony; Death and burial; Singing the ritual: music and liturgy in the Protestant tradition; Shaping ritual: architecture and the visual appearance of worship; Ritual and Society: The Reshaping of Popular Religious Practice; Baptism; Ritual purification: childbirth and the churching of women; Repentance, confession and the Eucharist; Marriage and the ritual control of sexuality; Death, burial and the ritual community; The ritual of everyday life; Popular Belief and Folk Culture; Popular religion and the cults of the saints; The Pursuit of the Millennium; Witchcraft and witch persecution; Anti-semitism; Conclusion.

About the Author

Nigel Goose is a leading scholar in the fields of early modern English urban history and historical demography, and has published extensively on these topics over the past 20 years. He is currently Professor of Social & Economic History and Director of the Centre for Regional and Local History at the University of Hertfordshire. Lien Bich Luu is a specialist in the history of immigration to England in the early modern period. She has written extensively for academic journals. She is lecturer in history at the University of Hertfordshire.

Reviews

"Fascinating and timely, this important book of essays restores the experience of immigration to its proper place as a vital part of England's history." -- Penelope Corfield, University of London.
"Indeed, the book deserves to be read by anyone with an interest in the history of the early modern period." -- Judith Spicksley, Local Population Studies, No. 76, Sprin 2006.
"...Goose gives an admirably thorough, authoritative, and balanced account of the important contribution made by these aliens to English economic developments in this period." -- Paul Slack, Population Studies, Vol. 60, No. 2, 2006.
"This wide-ranging volume overflows with ideas for further research. Its relevance is forcefully underlined by a recent headline in The Times (December 18, 2005), heralding a 'new Baltic state of East Anglia'; many migrants are arriving now from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to work in Eastern England. We have been over this ground before." Joan Thirsk, English Historical Review. Vol. 121: No.491 (April 2006).