Reformation responses in Tudor Cheshire c.1500-1577

Abstract

The focus of this dissertation is the county of Cheshire during the momentous religious changes of the sixteenth century. It aims to show that it is unrealistic to expect a monolithic reaction to such change: as in any county a combination of factors came together resulting in a variety of responses. It also seeks to discredit a number of myths which continue to proliferate about local people and events of this time. The prominence given by both contemporaries and subsequent scholars to Catholic survivalism in the neighbouring county of Lancashire has tended to overshadow the position in Cheshire; indeed some studies have conflated the two. A central aim of this dissertation has been to demonstrate that the two counties responded differently, and to seek to explain why this might have been. A chronological approach has been adopted because it was felt that this would afford a cohesive structure. Within each time period certain continuities and recurring themes will become apparent, however. This is, in part, a function of the sources used, since many of these records derive from institutions or practices which continued fundamentally unaffected throughout the period. This was markedly also a time of radical change, and the abolition of some existing institutions and the introduction of new procedures produced new types of records which demonstrate the local impact of some of those changes. The focus of much Reformation scholarship has now moved away from regional studies towards a more thematic approach, representing one strand of post revisionism. One outcome of the local study in this dissertation has been to demonstrate how new regional studies can contribute to a variety of debates by offering fresh insights and conclusions from a re-consideration of familiar evidence and an examination of evidence which may not be widely known