Undergraduate Course: Reformations: Britain and Ireland 1475-1600 (ECHS10022)
Course Outline
| School | School of Divinity |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course enables students to examine the complex series of reformations which occurred in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland over the course of the sixteenth century. It considers especially the relation between intellectual, social, political and religious forces and the ways in which these combined to shape national and confessional identities, to promote cohesion, and to sow the seeds of future conflict and division. It also looks at the impact of all these changes, both positive and negative, on the lives and beliefs of ordinary men and women, examining them as both passive recipients and active shapers of reformation. |
| Course description |
A: Academic Description
This course enables students to examine the complex series of reformations which occurred in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland over the course of the sixteenth century. In particular, it considers the relation between intellectual, social, political and religious forces and the ways in which these combined to shape national and confessional identities, to promote cohesion, and to sow the seeds of future conflict and division. It does so through the reading and analysing of key texts, both primary and secondary, from a range of different national and confessional perspectives. At the same time students will be encouraged to integrate these perspectives into a wider narrative of Reformation in Britain and Ireland.
B: Syllabus/Outline Content
See below for a prospective outline (precise topics may be subject to change). The course begins with a common pre-Reformation narrative concerning late medieval Catholicism and reform in the four nations. From here it moves on to consider the distinctive features of the different national reformations, particularly considering the way in which Tudor dynastic politics impacted the successive Henrician, Edwardian and Marian Reformations in England, Wales and Ireland. The narrative then links into the Scottish Reformation and the religious settlement of 1560, offering opportunity for comparison with the very different 'Elizabethan consensus' operating in the Tudor realms. The course concludes with an account of different threats to that consensus (e.g. Catholic, Presbyterian) and the consequent divergent paths of national reformation in the latter half of the sixteenth century.
Week 1: Late Medieval Church and Society
Week 2: Heresy and Reform
Week 3: The Henrician Reformation
Week 4: The Edwardian Reformation
Week 5: The Marian Reaction and Marian Exile
Week 6: The Scottish Reformation
Week 7: Establishing the Scottish Kirk
Week 8: The Elizabethan Religious Settlement
Week 9: The Reformation in Wales
Week 10: Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Ireland
Week 11: Convergent and Divergent Reformations
C: Student Learning Experience Information
This Level 10 course follows a programme of one two-hour seminar per week, including a lecture component and seminar discussion. Students' preparatory reading of sources will enable comparative analysis of different aspects of national reformations. Students will also have the opportunity apply their knowledge through weekly blogs and blog comments. Each student will write one main blog (c. 800 words) per semester and will also write weekly comments (c. 100 words) on other student blogs. The blogs and comments will inform class discussion of the texts and will be an important component of summative assessment. Students will be offered formative feedback on their comments in week 6.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students interested in Reformation or early modern religious history would benefit from this course. Visiting students should have at least 3 Divinity/Religious Studies courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Identify and examine contextually key themes in the English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Reformations.
- Compare and contrast different national reformations over the course of the sixteenth century.
- Identify and evaluate continuities and discontinuities between late medieval reform and the various national Reformations.
- Critique historiography on the different national reformations.
- Analyse different social, intellectual, political and religious factors involved in Reformation.
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Reading List
Indicative Bibliography
General Bibliography:
Felicity Heal, Reformation in Britain and Ireland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)
Alec Ryrie, The Age of Reformation: The Tudor and Stewart Realms, 1485-1603 (England: Pearson Longman, 2009)
Alec Ryrie, Being Protestant in Reformation Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013)
Alexandra Walsham, The Reformation of the Landscape: Religion, Identity and Memory in Early Modern Britain and Ireland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011)
English Reformation:
Mishtooni Bose, Fiona Somerset and J. Patrick Hornbeck II, A Companion to Lollardy (Leiden: Brill, 2016)
Patrick Collinson, The Elizabethan Puritan Movement (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990)
Eamon Duffy, ¿The English Reformation after Revisionism¿, Renaissance Quarterly 59:3 (2006), 720-31
Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c.1400-c.1580 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005)
Christina Garrett, The Marian Exiles: A Study in the Origins of Elizabethan Puritanism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1938)
Karl Gunther, Reformation Unbound: Protestant Visions of Reform in England, 1525-90 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014)
Christopher Haigh (ed.), The English Reformation Revised (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987)
Judith Maltby, Prayer Book and People in Elizabethan and Early Stuart England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998)
Peter Marshall, Heretics and Believers: A History of the English Reformation (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018)
Ethan Shagan, Popular Politics and the English Reformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002)
Nicholas Tyacke, Anti-Calvinists: The Rise of English Arminianism c. 1590-1640 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990)
Scottish Reformation:
Jane Dawson, John Knox (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2016)
Jane Dawson, The Politics of Religion in the Age of Mary, Queen of Scots: The Earl of Argyll and the Struggle for Britain and Ireland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002)
Jane Dawson, Scotland Re-formed 1488-1587 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007)
Crawford Gribben and David Mullan (eds.), Literature and the Scottish Reformation (London: Routledge, 2016)
David Fergusson and Mark Elliott (eds.), The History of Scottish Theology. Volume 1: Celtic Origins to Reformed Orthodoxy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019)
Claire Kellar, Scotland, England and the Reformation, 1534-61 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003)
Stephen Holmes, Sacred Signs in Reformation Scotland: Interpreting Worship, 1488-1590 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015)
David Mullan, Scottish Puritanism, 1590-1638 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000)
Welsh Reformation:
Brendan Bradshaw, British Consciousness and Identity: The Making of Britain, 1533-1707 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998)
Ralph Griffiths, King and Country: England and Wales in the Fifteenth Century (London: Hambledon Press, 1991)
J. Gwynfor Jones (ed.), Class, Community and Culture in Tudor Wales (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1989)
Felicity Heal, Reformation in Britain and Ireland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)
Robert Tittler and Norman Jones (eds.), A Companion to Tudor Britain (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004)
Glanmor Williams, Renewal and Reformation: Wales, c. 1415-1642 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987)
Irish Reformation:
Karl Bottigheimer, ¿Revisionism and the Irish Reformation¿, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 51:3 (2000), 581-6
Brendan Bradhsaw, ¿Revisionism and the Irish Reformation: A Rejoinder¿, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 51:3 (2000), 586-91
Brendan Bradshaw and Peter Roberts (eds.), British Consciousness and Identity: The Making of Britain, 1533-1707 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998)
Steven Ellis, Ireland in the Age of the Tudors, 1447-1603: English Expansion and the End of Gaelic Rule (London: Routledge, 2014)
Steven Ellis and Sarah Barber (eds.), Conquest and Union: Fashioning a British State 1485-1725 (Abingdon: Routledge, 2013)
Felicity Heal, Reformation in Britain and Ireland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)
Henry Jefferies, ¿Why the Reformation failed in Ireland¿, Irish Historical Studies 40 (2016), 151-70
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
1. Critical thinking and reflection (developed through lectures, tutorials and coursework essay)
2. Historical analysis and comparative evaluation (developed through tutorials, presentations, blogs and coursework essay)
3. Oral communication skills (developed through tutorials and presentations)
4. Working within a team (developed through small group work in tutorials)
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| Keywords | Reformation,Humanism,Lollardy,Puritans,Presbyterians,Counter Reformation,Henrician,Edwardian |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Simon Burton
Tel: (0131 6)50 8920
Email: |
Course secretary | Mr Jamie Smith
Tel: (0131 6)50 8913
Email: |
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