the reformation

Question 1

what historian wrote the article about the reformation of the generations?

Answer 1

Alexandra Walsham

Question 2

when did Thomas Parr live?

Answer 2

1483-1635

Question 3

what did poet John Taylor write about the death of Thomas Parr?

Answer 3

called his extent of life a ‘monument and almost miracle of nature’ - he highlights in his poem published in commemoration of his death that he lived through the ‘protracted and idiosyncratic Reformation’

Question 4

during the early modern times, what percentage of the population was 21 or younger?

Answer 4

40% to 50%

Question 5

what is the main premise of Alexandra Walsham’s argument?

Answer 5

that how generations are biologically and culturally connected can be used as a heuristic tool for analysing the causes and reception of the reformation

Question 6

what example does Alexandra Walsham give when discussing generational analysis as a heuristic tool?

Answer 6

The Seven Ages of Man by John Amos Comenius

Question 7

what does the seven ages of man by John Amos Comenius say?

Answer 7

different ages have different characteristics, temperaments and instincts - Walsham uses this to support her argument that these generational boundaries correspond typologically with particular eras of human history

Question 8

what does Walsham believe about age?

Answer 8

it was both a biological fact and a cultural construct

Question 9

what are the contradicting characteristics of youth?

Answer 9

-innocent, ignorant
-prone to sin, insubordination, idleness

Question 10

what are the contradicting characteristics of seniority?

Answer 10

-wisdom, gravity, experience
-folly, depravity, senility

Question 11

what is the problem when is comes to analysing cases of age (Primary sources)?

Answer 11

you can’t fully analyse this as records will always be inaccurate - fiction and fact are inextricably linked

Question 12

what did catholic supporters claim?

Answer 12

that is was the ‘old religion’ - they claimed that its age was a testament to its truth and legitimacy

Question 13

what were the writers called who wrote anti-protestant writings?

Answer 13

Thomas Harding and John Rastell

Question 14

what did Thomas Harding and John Rastell write about protestants?

Answer 14

they castigated protestants as a new-tangled upstart religion fuelled with ‘gross absurdities’ and ‘rotten rags’ - taunting the youth of the religion by teasing ‘where was your church before Luther?’

Question 15

what did protestant propagandists claim about their religion?

Answer 15

that their church was the real incarnation of the primitive religion of christ - the reformation had not brought a new church but instead resurrected an apostolic and abrahamic one

Question 16

what did the catholics blame the spread of protestantism on?

Answer 16

the ‘fickleness of youth’

Question 17

what catholic writers scrutinised the age of reformation pushers?

Answer 17

William Peryn and Miles Huggarde

Question 18

what did William Peryn and Miles Huggarde call protestant reformers?

Answer 18

branded prots as a movement of ‘lewd laddys’ and ‘beardless boys’ - suggests both a religious opposition but also an opposition to the inversion of the natural hierarchy beginning to take place due to the young protestant reformers preaching their theology

Question 19

what is an example of protest opposition to the catholic insults?

Answer 19

grammar school boy from Worcester, John Davis composed ballads against the catholic clergy with provocative titles - for example, ‘come down, for all your shaven crowne’

Question 20

what writing celebrates the inversion of the natural hierarchy and patriarchal structures?

Answer 20

John Foxe’s, Actes and Monuments - which dwells on youth who outshine old theology and are excused of lecturing elders because it is divinely inspired - emphasising the medieval hagiographical trope of the puer senex architypes - the godly child transcends to the stage

Question 21

what was believed amongst communities about children and religion? give an example.

Answer 21

it was believed that they could have spiritual insights
11year old ‘wise virgin’ Martha Hatfield - she had trance-like visions which made her famous in puritan London in 1653, once a pamphlet had been made describing her