England's Catholic Reformation
Alec Ryrie
62.01
7 October 2020
19 November 2025
England’s Catholic Reformation is the reformation that sixteenth-century England nearly had: a reformed and renewed English Catholic Church, its new schools and revived parishes matched with a firm smack of discipline.
It almost happened; its leading prophets – Cardinals Thomas Wolsey and Reginald Pole – both came close to being elected pope.
Instead, as these possibilities evaporated, they left behind them a toxic residue which has poisoned England’s relations with its neighbours down to the present.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/catholic-reformation
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
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