Persecution and resistance: In pursuit of religious dissidents in sixteenth-century England.
Item
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Title
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Persecution and resistance: In pursuit of religious dissidents in sixteenth-century England.
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Identifier
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AAI9986316
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identifier
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9986316
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Creator
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Covington, Sarah Amy.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Stuart Prall
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Date
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2000
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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History, European
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Abstract
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Over the course of the sixteenth century, a number of diverse religious groups emerged in England as a result of the reformation, presenting the Tudors with the problem of heterodoxy in the realm and outright challenge at times to crown legitimacy. These groups, all of whom were subject to the acceptance or rejection of monarchs who themselves each held different and shifting religious views, consisted of anabaptists, evangelicals, mainline protestants, or Catholics; and while members of the groups professed obedience, the perception by the government of their loyalty could be quite different, and result in periodic attempts at persecution. This study will argue that such persecution, while initiated from above and successful in some ways, was a more inconsistent process, however, than has previously been claimed, dominated as it was by individuals whose hold on power was itself unstable. Relying on the ability and willingness of mid-level functionaries to carry out their decrees, and facing an opposition that manipulated its persecuted status through various strategies, such authorities found themselves subject to a number of obstacles which forced them into positions of negotiation, compromise, or even inaction when it came to directing religious policy. This instability is especially evident when one looks at religious persecution from the inside, and examines the entire stage-by-stage process through which a religiously suspect individual first came to the attention of the authorities, and was apprehended, incarcerated, tried, convicted, and executed; by examining these stages in depth, this study seeks to uncover the extent to which governments found their success at enforcement heavily qualified by the resistances they faced throughout society, and the ability of dissidents to use imprisonment, flight, or even execution to their own advantage. Throughout the century the process of ensuring religious conformity was thus fraught with tension between high authorities, mid-level functionaries, the wider population, and the dissidents themselves---all of which reveals a more complicated picture concerning the nature of obedience, dissent, and authority and in Tudor England.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
