Getting Along?: Religious Identities and Confessional Relations in Early Modern England - Essays in Honour of Professor W.J. Sheils

Examining the impact of the English and European Reformations on social interaction and community harmony, this volume simultaneously highlights the tension and degree of accommodation amongst ordinary people when faced with religious and social upheaval. Building on previous literature which has characterised the progress of the Reformation as 'slow' and 'piecemeal', this volume furthers our understanding of the process of negotiation at the most fundamental social and political levels - in the family, the household, and the parish. The essays further research in the field of religious toleration and social interaction in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries in both Britain and the wider European context. The contributors are amongst the leading researchers in the fields of religious toleration and denominational history, and their essays combine new archival research with current debates in the field. Additionally, the collection seeks to celebrate the career of Professor Bill Sheils, Head of the Department of History at the University of York, for his on-going contributions to historians' understanding of non-conformity (both Catholic and Protestant) in Reformation and post-Reformation England.

Table of Contents:
Abbreviations, Contributors, Acknowledgements, Introduction, 1 Supping with Satan’s Disciples: Spiritual and Secular Sociability in Post-Reformation England, 2 Confessionalisation and Community in the Burial of English Catholics, c.1570–1700, 3 Fissures in the Bedrock: Parishes, Chapels, Parishioners and Chaplains in Pre-Reformation England, 4 Clergy, Laity and Ecclesiastical Discipline in Elizabethan Yorkshire Parishes, 5 Reading Libels in Early Seventeenth-Century Northamptonshire, 6 ‘For the lacke of true history’: Polemic, Conversion and Church History in Elizabethan England, 7 Putting the Politics of Conscience on the Public Stage in Sir John Oldcastle, part I, 8 ‘When he was in France he was a Papist and when he was in England … he was a Protestant’: Negotiating Religious Identities in the Later Sixteenth Century, 9 A Yorkshireman in the Bastille: John Harwood and the Quaker Mission to Paris, 10 ‘Papists of the New Model’: the English Mission and the Shadow of Blacklow, Bibliography, Index

About the Author :
Nadine Lewycky, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK; and Adam Morton, University of York, UK.

Review :
'In Ronnie Hsia’s review of the collection of essays composed in honour of another University of York Professor, John Bossy, edited by Simon Ditchfield and also published as part of the St Andrews Studies in Reformation History series, Hsia exclaimed that ’a good Festschrift is like a successful birthday party: chosen for their friendship and congeniality, the guests/contributors bring their distinct voices to a common encomium of the person being honoured; they remember themes common to the interest of all and add fresh excitement to a retrospective of a life’s achievements’. Bossy’s contributors were praised for representing such a ’felicitous occasion’ and this can quite confidently be extended to the plethora of ex-students and colleagues brought together to honour their mentor and friend, Professor Bill Sheils. By using ’Getting Along?’ - emphasis on the ’?’ - as a category for analysis, the results within this volume have in fact been far more insightful than much other work on ecumenicity.' Reviews in History 'In their effort to honour the work of their mentor, W. J. Sheils, the editors of this Festschrift have managed to bring together insightful essays which all, in their manner, contribute towards the answering of the question about ’getting along’ and ’getting on’ across confessional divides in early modern England.' History of Women Religious of Britain and Ireland 'So thoughtful, and really very accomplished, is the introduction (forcefully reminding the reader how recent postgraduates still are the future of the profession) and so well assembled are the essays that it is difficult in the space of a short review to do justice to them all.' Catholic Historical Review 'Overall, this is a volume that avoids the dangers of rigidly confessional or nonconfessional views of the period, and instead sustains a persuasive emphasis on the complexities, tensions, and ambiguities of social and cultural interaction between different c