Reviews of Books

Abstract

The constitution of the Church of England, two hundred years after the French Revolution, is still firmly anchored in the Middle Ages. It may be reformed but no other European polity remains technically a Church-State with its sovereign also head of the Church, the Vatican alone excepted. It is not surprising that the Church of England both baffles and fascinates historians. Its identity since the Reformation as an inclusive body built on shifting sands has made it a very difficult institution to pin down. The Reformation period itself, and its aftermath in the seventeenth century, has continued to attract scholars and enthusiasts alike. Discussion of the literature and politics of the Reformation has led to an enrichment of understanding and a high level of debate, but one in which clarity has given way to blurred edges and in which a rich mElallge of ecclesiastical experiences has been reflected in a burgeoning historiography which provides not so much a thoroughgoing revision as an opening of new vistas and layers of interpretation. The nature of Reformation itself has been questioned and not only from the Protestant side. In particular, the role and character of Catholic reform and its relationship with the institutional church has been challenged and reconsidered. Thomas F. Mayer s life of Reginald Pole, the first complete overview in almost a hundred years of the last archbishop of Canterbury to die (more or less) in communion with Rome, shows how complex levels of