Authority & Dissent in the English Church: The Prosecution of Heresy and Religious Non-Conformity in the Diocese of Winchester, 1380-1547 (Texts and Studies in Religion)

This work examines the prosecution of religious hetrodoxy in England, specifically in the diocese of Winchester, from the begining of Wycliffe dissent through the endof the Reformation under Henry VII. A comparison of legal proceedings against religious dissendents during the Lollard period and then during the Henerician Reformation sheds light on the nature of religious deviance, why it was suppressed, and how such suppressive measures may have affected popular faith during the final 15 years of Henry's reign. Thus, the Henrician Reformation was the first expression of religious individualism and religious pluralism in the early modern age.