Religion and Uncertainty in Four Midland Urban Centres, c. 1529–1546

Abstract

The 'revisionist' account of late-medieval Catholic religion has proposed its continued vibrancy through the early decades of the sixteenth century. Some 'post-revisionist' comment has challenged the full accuracy of that vitality. Much recent research, furthermore, has returned to the issue of religious allegiance in early-modern urban centres, but again resulting in some ambiguity through different interpretations for different urban locations. Perhaps then we are once again compelled to return to more localized and regional assessments, especially in the light of suggested geographical differences. Two higher-order issues also need attention: how do we mediate for the insistence of royal policy and how do we account for the apparent success of reformed religion in some urban centres in the later sixteenth century? The approach here is then to consider confessional and devotional practices in four urban locations in the midlands, on the periphery of the 'Golden Crescent' during the ambivalences of the Henrician polity between 1529 and 1546.