Review Essay

THE REFORMATION, THE BIBLE IN ENGLISH (1557-1582),S OME POPULAR PAMPHLETS, AND SOME POPULAR PLAYS OF JONSON AND SHAKESPEARE

DOUGLAS J. MCMILLAN EastCarolina University

Lake, Peter,with Michael Questier. TheAntichrist’ s LewdHat: Protestants, Papists and Playersin Post-Reformation England .New Haven CT:Yale University Press, 2002.Pp. xxxiv +731+ 22illustrations. $45.00 cloth. MacCulloch,Diarmaid. TheBoy King: EdwardVI and theProtestant Reformation .New York:Palgrave Books Division of Saint Martin’ s Press, 1999.Pp. xviii + 284+ 92illustrations. $27.95 cloth. MacKenzie, CameronA. TheBattle for the Bible in England, 1557-1582 . New York andBern, Switzerland: Peter Lang,2002. Pp. xi +338.$65.95 cloth. Marius,Richard. Martin Luther: TheChristian BetweenGod and Death . CambridgeMA: The BelknapPress ofHarvard University Press, 1999. Pp.xv +542+ 16illustrations. $35.00 cloth. Tyndale, William. TheObedience of a Christian Man .Ed.and Intro. David Daniell.Penguin Classics. New York:Penguin Books Division of Penguin PutnamPublishers, 2000. Pp. xxxvi +236+ 1illustration.$13.00 paper.

* ll Žve ofthe bookshere underreview dealwith the Reformation. A The three which Iconsider Žrst dealwith persons key tothat erain the history ofthe Western Church:Martin Luther (1483-1546),William Tyndale (1494-1536),and King Edward VI ofEngland (1537-1553; reigned1547-1553). The twoI consider later inthis essay dealwith English languageand literature as relatedto religion: one with afocus onthe Biblein English translationfrom the Žrst Geneva Version (1557) tothe CatholicNew Testament (1582);and the othertreating the popular

RELIGION and the ARTS 7:1-2(2003): 159-166. c KoninklijkeBrill NV,Leiden ° RELIGION and the ARTS literatureof post-ReformationEngland, mainly inthe formof pamphlets andplays. Among the last, Ihave chosen tofocus here onBen Jonson (1572/3-1637)and his TheAlchemist (1610) and BartholomewFair (1614); andWilliam Shakespeare (1564-1616) and his Measurefor Measure (1604; Žrst printed1623). Each ofthese Žve volumes has much toteach us aboutthe Reformationand the Counter-Reformationof the sixteenth century, especially since recent research has shown that these historical events needto be restudied in order to understand as fully andas clearly as possiblewhat really happened,what the probablecauses were, andwhat the consequences are.The booksdescribed here contributesigniŽ cantly tothe ongoingdebate about the events andpersons relatedto the reforms ofthis period. Further, these booksand others like them help usanalyze our contemporaryreforms andstruggles, which in many ways parallel those ofthe timeof Luther andMore. I amthinking aboutstruggles within boththe CatholicChurch andthe Anglican Communion,among others,between worldwideNorthern (European,North American) and worldwideSouthern (African, Centraland South American, Asian) Christianperspectives. In addition,one can notegrowth worldwide amongPentecostal Christians,and in some areas there is astruggletoo between Christianityand Islam. Tomany observers, like PhilipJenkins in an insightfulessay entitled“ The Next Christianity,”we areabout to experience orperhapsare experiencing reformationsat least as powerful andin uential as the originalReformation. And they have much to offerstudents ofthe relationshipbetween religion,history, and English languageand literature besides.

* ichardMarius’ s Martin Luther: TheChristian BetweenGod and Death is a R new biographyby an authorwho states that his “approachto Luther is essentially nonreligious”(xii). Thus, we have here abiographyakin toour current ecumenical mode,avoiding either astrictly Evangelical orCatholic perspective. The result is apresentationof the known facts as objectivelyas possible.Marius also has chosen tofocus on Luther’s lifeand work through1527, only sketching in the nineteen last years ofhis life.“ Ican say only that tome the later Luther is not as interesting as the man whobroke away fromthe pope,expecting tobe followed by true Christians, only todiscover that the number oftrue Christians as he deŽned them was disappointinglysmall” (xii).

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