Ever since John Hooper (c.1500-1555), the future Bishop of Gloucester and Worcester, made his famous stand against wearing vestments that placed him in opposition to the leading English clergy, he has been branded in the history of the English Reformation by many as a renegade and a radical. However, this thesis presents Hooper as one who saw himself as a conformist who sought to create the reformed community he desired within the established political and religious customs of his day. To explore this idea, this thesis examines how Hooper imagined a Protestant community for the kingdom of England or elsewhere. It identifies what Hooper considered to be the sources of God’s authority in the community; how that authority was exercised through officials within the community and through godly laws, strong clerical preaching and a universal commitment to vocation. It examines how the people should respond to leaders who brought the successful introduction of Protestantism to their community. Hooper’s vision was advanced in a series of tracts and letters written in Zurich and shortly after his return to England (1547-1551). They were composed at a time when Hooper enjoyed the greatest freedom to articulate his ideas in the company of his mentor, Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575), and refined through his tenure as a bishop in the Church of England. The reformed community that Hooper envisioned was one that was dependent upon a strong magistrate but also required the acceptance and participation of its members in fully embracing their own vocation and reform. Hooper strongly affirmed that leaders – both ecclesiastical and civil – had a duty to model their reformation in accordance with God’s Law, the Ten Commandments. He assumed that the people would abide by the authority of the Decalogue and practice the Protestant faith together. He also believed that living in such a community would usher in a period of peace and prosperity. Hooper’s zeal for reform was demonstrated by his belief that the Reformation required wholehearted embrace by everyone, but he was willing to operate within established English traditions, in order to see his Protestant beliefs realised within the community.

This thesis examines clienteles during the reign of Edward VI, particularly those of the dukes of Somerset and Northumberland, and the role of the county elite in political society in order to reassess politics from the perspective of clientage. Edward's reign has not been extensively studied from this perspective but work by Dr Adams, Professor Guy and others on other periods provided the necessary context to reassess Edwardian politics. The aim was to investigate whether the regime continued to rely on the same core within the county elite employed in the 1520s and 1530s and again in Elizabeth's reign. This has involved extensive archival research since 1996 (in St Andrews, London and the Midlands). I have found that the privy council tried to foster a closer working relationship with the county elite in order to maintain stability and prevent faction during this period of minority government. The regime depended on the same core of gentlemen in the shires to act as commissioners of the peace and to fill the other vital local offices. Even within this group there was an inner-ring. This relationship was a two-way process and the clientage that underpinned early modem society was central to it. This study has also explored the extent to which Somerset's and Northumberland's clienteles were involved in central and local government to reassess how much the dukes operated as courtcentred or county-centred politicians. Both men dominated government in turn and their clienteles were vitally important. These were made up of their servants, family, friends and clients and were mutual self-support groups that reinforced their political and social status. Although principally intended as a political study, this research has come to incorporate military and local history. It has looked at how clienteles operated during periods of stability and crisis (the activities of Lord Seymour of Sudeley, the 1549 rebellions, the October coup, the second fall of Somerset and the succession crisis in 1553) in order to demonstrate how they really functioned.

This dissertation analyses the life and writings of the Tudor clergyman and bestselling author Thomas Becon (1512-1567) as well as communities of production, patronage and pious readership that occasioned, supported and first received his books. Not only does it illuminate new aspects of his life, such as his remorse over his recantation at Paul’s Cross in 1543 and the fact that he was considered for the bishopric of Chester in 1559, but also it provides an account of his extraordinary literary output. Between the early 1540s and the late 1560s, he composed or translated at least 56 works, which by the 1630s had been printed in 126 known editions. He was thus the most widely published vernacular devotional author in England until the later decades of the sixteenth-century. Despite his influence in early modern England, Becon has received little scholarly attention. When his works are studied, they are simply mined for quotations, rather than contextualised and considered in their own right. This dissertation attempts to redress this imbalance by embedding Becon within the communities and contexts that produced and consumed his books. It argues that, as a prolific and highly influential member of the ‘middle management’ of the English Reformation, his life and writings offer a unique and valuable perspective on the propagation, enforcement and reception of religious change in sixteenth-century England. This dissertation not only reconstructs and reconsiders his biography and literary output, but also it shows the contributions that such study makes to broader historical and literary understandings of early modern England, particularly in light of the post-revisionist project, which has focused upon the processes of negotiation, accommodation and resistance that shaped the English Reformation. By illuminating the career of one significant, but largely overlooked reformer, it furnishes new evidence and interpretations for understanding early modern England.

In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation generated multiple reform movements and political transformations in Europe. Within this general period of reform, political and cultural changes from the Tudor era (1485-1603) created a separate English Reformation. The English Reformation evolved from the different agendas of the early Tudor monarchs and occurred in two distinct waves: an initial, more moderate Henrician Reformation and a later, more complete Edwardian Reformation. Henry VIII and Edward VI's attempts to redefine monarchy through a new State and Church identity drove English church reform during this period, giving these religious shifts distinct political roots. Cultural artifacts were prominent indicators of these differing political goals, and Henry VIII and Edward VI adjusted and removed images and texts according to their propaganda methods. These royal manipulations of culture are well-documented, but historians have overlooked important components in the communication process. Lay responses to imagery changes ranging from compliance to rebellion demonstrate the complex relationship of images, monarchy, and reform. Examining images' function as propaganda with questions of intent, reception, and comprehension in royal communication is imperative for assessing the impact of royal messages on Tudor culture. Analyzing Tudor art as a form of political communication that disseminated idealized political representation reveals a strong visual discourse between the King and the English people. Images held key powers within royal discourse to create and disseminate propaganda of a kingship.

This thesis examines the general economic and intellectual climate of the mid-Tudor Commonwealth as a background for a specific study of the financial reforms instituted by Edward VI's government while the Duke of Northumberland controlled the Privy Council. The philosophy behind these measures parallels the principles expressed in A Discourse of the Commonweal of this Realm of England, a treatise written in 1549 by Sir Thomas Smith, Secretary to King Edward. In 1551-1552 the implementation of financial reform fell to Sir William Cecil, also King's Secretary and Northumberland's key administrator on the Council. In establishing the link between Smith's ideas and Cecil's policy, this thesis draws upon letters, Council records and Smith's written works to reveal the process by which thoughts became deeds in the mid-Tudor Commonwealth.

From the second half of Henry VIII's reign through that of his son Edward VI, roughly 1530 through 1553, England was in turmoil. Traditional (Catholic) religion was methodically undermined, and sometimes violently swept away, in favor of a biblically based evangelical faith imported and adapted from European dissenters/reformers (Protestants). This thesis elucidates the process of parish-level religious change in England during the tumultuous mid sixteenth century. It does so through examining the unique dynamics and complexities of its local reception in a previously unstudied corner of the realm, the Suffolk parishes of Boxford, Cratfield, Long Melford, and Mildenhall. This thesis asserts that ongoing alterations in religious policy under Henry VIII and Edward VI reflected an evolution in both governmental tactics and local attitudes toward the locus of religious authority. Contrary to the view that the Reformation was done to the English people, the parish-level evidence investigated herein shows that, at least in Suffolk, the reformation was only accomplished with their cooperation. Furthermore, it finds that while costly, divisive, and unpopular in many parts of England, religious change was, for the most part, received enthusiastically in these four parishes. Two types of primary sources inform the historical narrative and analysis of this thesis. First, the official documents of religious reform initiated by the crown and Parliament tell the story of magisterial reformation, from the top down. Second, the often-mundane entries found in churchwardens' accounts of parish income and expenditure illuminate the individual and communal dynamics involved in implementing religious policy on the local level, from the bottom up. As agents operating between the distinct spheres of government authority and local interest, this study finds that churchwardens wielded significant power in the mediation of religious policy. The churchwardens' accounts are also supplemented throughout by analysis of selected parishioners' wills, which provide insight into personal beliefs of key individuals and hint at the formation of early religious affinity groupings within parishes. Chapter One summarizes the development of the pre-Reformation Sarum liturgy, its Eucharistic theology, and its relation to the late-medieval doctrine of purgatory. It also describes the richly decorated interiors of pre-Reformation English parish churches and their function as centers of community spiritual life. This provides a gauge through which to understand the extensive changes wrought to church liturgy and fabric during the Reformation. Chapter Two focuses on the unsettled nature of religious policy during the second half of Henry VIII's reign and how it set the stage for more severe changes to come. Chapters Three and Four examine the reign of Edward VI, which saw the most radical efforts at evangelical reform ever attempted in England. In these three chapters, official changes in religious policy are interwoven with analysis of local reaction in the four Suffolk parishes, revealing some surprising local responses and initiatives. The conclusion presents a summary of the historical narrative and analysis presented in the preceding chapters, suggests possibilities for further research, and offers closing thoughts about the local experience of negotiating religious change during this period.