Hi, I'm Peter Adams, and you're listening to the History of Philosophy Podcast, brought to you with the support of the Philosophy Department at Kings College London and the LMU in Munich.

Online at historyofilocity.net. Today's episode, God's is the Quarrel, the English Reformation.

Imagine if you can, living in a time of intense ideological disagreement, in which the slightest of provocations escalates into bitter dispute, hard for us to relate to, but this is exactly how things were in the 16th century, as is illustrated by the affair of the Queen's candlesticks.

They adorned Elizabeth I's private chapel, along with a cross, which seems harmless enough, but some reformers saw this as an unacceptable gesture in the direction of Catholic pageantry. These candles smelled not of popery, but of popery.

At least four times, the offending decorations were defaced or knocked over by outraged individuals who were putting the protest into Protestantism.

Unfazed, Elizabeth simply had been replaced.

It's small enough episode, but as I say, this was an age in which small things mattered.

Passionate conflicts were pursued over such apparent trivia as the vestments worn by priests, whether the host should be lifted into the air before administering the Eucharistic communion, and whether the person receiving it should kneel.

As for such theological issues as the exact mechanics of the Eucharist, or the way in which God offers salvation to humankind, these were considered far from trivial.

In defense of their preferred answers to these questions, people were willing to languish for months or years in prison to die in agonizing death by being burnt at the state, and of course to inflict these punishments on their fellow Christians.

The general mood was that extremism in the cause of piety was no vice.

Even those who considered themselves moderate, like Elizabeth herself, inflicted savage punishments on those they considered unduly radical.

As we know, none of this was unique to England. We've already discussed such events as the religious wars in the low countries and the St. Bartholomew stay massacre in France.

But the development of the Reformation in Britain was unique, and created a unique context for philosophy in the British Isles through the 16th century and beyond.

The story actually begins well before the rise of Lutheran Calvin.

In episode 296, we covered the late 14th century Englishman, John Wycliffe, who inspired the so-called Lollard movement.

The name was probably an insult, indicating that Lollard was so much nonsensical babble.

The Lollards anticipated the Reformation, rejecting the authority of the established church and questioning the efficacy of its sacraments.

It would be natural to assume that when the ideas of Luther made their way to England, they fell upon fertile soil and so easily took root.

The scholars are divided about the relevance of Lollardy to the success of the Reformation in England.

On the one hand, regions of Lollard activity were often areas where popular Protestantsism flourished.

On the other hand, Lollardy was greatly weakened by the early 16th century, and the earliest Protestant leaders in England did not have a Lollard background.

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