‘A People’s Tragedy : Studies in Reformation’ by Eamon Duffy. (Bloomsbury, 2020)
A
brief review by Philip Harvey, first published in The Melbourne Anglican, July
2021.
Irish historian Eamon Duffy’s latest essay collection reiterates his lifetime project to ‘catch the conscience of the king’. His forensic analysis of the people and events that shifted the English realm from a Catholic to a Protestant nation in the 16th century both honours and laments what he sees as the losing side in that political see-saw.
Like his great sparring partner Diarmaid MacCulloch, Duffy introduces new material and insights to such central subjects as late medieval pilgrimage, the dissolution of the monasteries, the collapse of the shrine network, and the extremes of polemic on all sides. His style flows and his arguments never wander.
Central to Reformation dispute is Bible translation. Duffy’s concise and lively histories of the Catholic Douai, Protestant Geneva, and 1611 state-approved Anglican versions incisively illustrate the way words matter in debate, how each side vied for authority with their own Bible. Priest, elder, pastor, or minister? Word choice could be a matter of life and death. Vernacular translation hinges on how translators want them read: argument is inevitable.
Readers of Hilary Mantel will thrill to his stout defence of Sir Thomas More. Duffy joins the debate about how far fiction can go with historical sources. For him, Mantel has Robert Bolt’s man-for-all-seasons More in her sights, reversing the roles of saint and villain so Thomas Cromwell is the more sympathetic figure. Whatever your view, Duffy shows powerfully how literature influentially changes our ideas about historical figures, for good or ill. Reading Duffy, we can say the same of historians.
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