Bernard looks at the structure of the church, the nature of royal control over it, the clergy and bishops, the intense devotion and deep-rooted practices of the laity, anti-clerical sentiment, and the prevalence of heresy.
Henry VIII's reformation remains among the most crucial yet misunderstood events in English history. This work presents the king as neither confused nor a pawn in the hands of manipulative factions. Henry, a monarch who ruled as well as reigned, is revealed instead as the determining mover of religious policy throughout this momentous period.
A biography that offers a fresh portrait of Anne Boleyn, one of England's most captivating queens. Through a wide-ranging forensic examination of sixteenth- century sources, it reconsiders Boleyn's girlhood, her experience at the French court, the nature of her relationship with Henry, and the authenticity of her evangelical sympathies.