Course Resources Archive

This module will explore the spiritual landscape of early modern England after the Protestant Reformation.   It will consider how and why a group of religious radicals, known as the Reformers or the Puritans, were dissatisfied with the religious settlement in England.  The module will explore in close detail changing ideas about religious identity during the early modern period.  The module will develop students’ understanding of the importance of Puritan beliefs in early modern England, and how ideas that were spiritually ‘radical’ had a significant impact on the cultural, political and social events of the period.

The module will explore, most fundamentally, post-Reformation culture in Elizabethan and Jacobean England.  It will consider how a group of dissatisfied Protestants, enraged by the ‘disappointing’ nature of the English Church, came to be known as ‘the Puritans’.  Students will engage with a wide range of primary and secondary texts, to ask were English Puritans united in their beliefs?  What impact did they have on the English Church, political affairs and ‘popular’ culture?  The module will also consider the relationship between these English Puritans and other extreme Protestants outside England, for example those inspired by John Knox in Scotland and John Calvin in Geneva. 

As well as examining in detail the religious debates of the period, this module will provide a useful foundation for students taking Religion, Revolution and Regicide by providing a thorough consideration of Puritan culture.  Were the Civil Wars a result of Puritan revenge?

A student passing this module should be able to demonstrate:

1. A strong knowledge of the Reformation and religious change in the early modern period

2. A clear understanding of the religious, political and cultural beliefs and developments that existed and occurred in early modern England, and more widely, in ‘Britain’ and Europe

3. A developed awareness of the highly nuanced nature of post-Reformation English culture and the ability to use the appropriate terminology to describe this culture

4. An understanding of major historical debates related to the early modern period 

5. An ability to evaluate critically both primary source and secondary materials

6.An ability to identify historiographical issues and critically assess historical debates

The Library Catalogue contains full details of the current reading list for this module. Further details may also be found in the Module Guide.