In the fifty years between 1530 and 1580; England moved from being one of the most lavishly Catholic countries in Europe to being a Protestant nation; a land of whitewashed churches and antipapal preaching. What was the impact of this religious change in the countryside? And how did country people feel about the revolutionary upheavals that transformed their mental and material worlds under Henry VIII and his three children?In this book a reformation historian takes us inside the mind and heart of Morebath; a remote and tiny sheep farming village on the southern edge of Exmoor. The bulk of Morebath’s conventional archives have long since vanished. But from 1520 to 1574; through nearly all the drama of the English Reformation; Morebath’s only priest; Sir Christopher Trychay; kept the parish accounts on behalf of the churchwardens. Opinionated; eccentric; and talkative; Sir Christopher filled these vivid scripts for parish meetings with the names and doings of his parishioners. Through his eyes we catch a rare glimpse of the life and pre-Reformation piety of a sixteenth-century English village.The book also offers a unique window into a rural world in crisis as the Reformation progressed. Sir Christopher Trychay’s accounts provide direct evidence of the motives which drove the hitherto law-abiding West-Country communities to participate in the doomed Prayer-Book Rebellion of 1549 culminating in the siege of Exeter that ended in bloody defeat and a wave of executions. Its church bells confiscated and silenced; Morebath shared in the punishment imposed on all the towns and villages of Devon and Cornwall. Sir Christopher documents the changes in the community; reluctantly Protestant and increasingly preoccupied with the secular demands of the Elizabethan state; the equipping of armies; and the payment of taxes. Morebath’s priest; garrulous to the end of his days; describes a rural world irrevocably altered and enables us to hear the voices of his villagers after four hundred years of silence.
#1358637 in Books 1999-09-10Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.21 x .69 x 6.14l; 1.25 #File Name: 0300079710264 pages
Review
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Not for a 100 level college coarseBy Ashleyanna really hard read; if your a professor; this book is too complicated for an intro coarse; a 200 coarse maybe... unless your actually a good teacher; and not someone who should be fired but sadly has tenure so you cannot be; and we all have to suffer for it (but that's another story.)5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. The Legacy of Marco Polo !By buddhamanThis book is by far and without question the best book you can buy about Marco Polo ! Larner is learnered and even handed with the facts - of course you'll need to read Polo's " Description of the world first ; and Larners book will decode it for you in a way that will open up Marco's world - few other books come close ; of course Sir Henry Yule's life's work ; which is without equal and lead the way Larners volume; that builds and clarifies in a way Yule's does not.Lastly another work that comes close but from a different angle is " In the footseps of Marco Polo " by Explorers Francis O'Donnell and Dennis Beelefold ; it chronicales their two year 25;000 mile journey as they retraced the entire route of Marco Polo - The first and only team in history to do so - their book is a companion to the Emmy nominated documentary of the same name !58 of 60 people found the following review helpful. Quel Ver c�ha Faccia di MenzognaBy Richard R"That Truth which has the Face of a Lie"; (p.116); this is John Larner's theme as he reviews Polo's famous book; an account of the Venetian's twenty-four year voyage to the Khan's court in China and back again. Larner explains why Polo's book is an extraordinary achievement; not because it is a great diary; nor because Polo was a particularly perceptive observer; but simply because it was written at all when so little hard data was coming from the East; and thus the broad influence it had on the West.In one passage (p.85); that could usefully have come earlier; Larner explains; "...Who is Marco Polo? He is not an adventurer; a merchant; or a Christian missionary; he is rather a minor Mongolian civil servant who during his years in the East has been an observer or student of the topography and human geography of Asia; of its customs and folklore; of; above all; the authority and court of the Great Khan; all seen from a Mongol point of view. Then; having taken early retirement; he has sought an audience for his memories. Marco left Venice in 1271 at the age of seventeen. He returned in 1295; twenty-four years later; aged forty-one. Take these facts; together with a truly remarkable feature of the Book: that in describing the eastern world there is no evidence of culture shock."This is a book for scholars; for those who have read Polo's work. The endnotes and bibliography extend for almost fifty pages; revealing to the novice the existence of an entire academic sub-stratum devoted to the study; debunking; and defense of Marco Polo. Larner analyses Polo's book and its importance; rather than Polo himself or the importance of his voyage. Readers interested in a voyage almost unimaginable in today's small; well-charted world should start with Polo's book itself; whose very simplicity and dryness inspired Larner but may put off newcomers.Several years after returning from the East; Polo dictated the book to a cellmate in a Genoese prison. Thereafter it was translated and copied dozens of times; with each subsequent interpreter adding his own biases atop Polo's simple prose. Illustrators drew fantastic creatures of the East that Polo never mentioned. As a result; many scholars grew convinced that Polo never made it past the Black Sea and the book was a pack of lies. Larner does a credible job debunking these ideas; although he tends to fall so in love with Marco that his own defenses can appear manufactured; as on p.64 when he ascribes an obvious falsehood in Polo's book to his co-writer's attempts to spice up the text. Perhaps Polo lied; or forgot; or the co-writer misheard; but we have no way to know; there is no evidence one way or the other; and this reader wondered whether Larner's attempts to excuse Polo indicated that he had surrendered his objectivity. On another occasion (p.102); he explains away Polo's virulent anti-Muslim prejudices by suggesting these views are not really so extreme and; in any case; were part of the contemporary worldview.The book is a good one; not without flaws; but instructive; interesting; and eye-opening. The maps and color illustrations are gorgeous; and Marco Polo himself is such a compelling figure that it is simply interesting to read more about him than he reveals in his own words
