The Quiet Reformation: Magistrates and the Emergence of Protestantism in Tudor Norwich.(Review)

The Quiet Reformation: Magistrates and the Emergence of Protestantism in Tudor Norwich. By Muriel C. McClendon (Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1999) 340 pp. $55.00

The divisive, often bloody, nature of religious reform in early modern England is well known. Yet, in Norwich, Tudor England's second city, McClendon discovers an unusually "quiet" Reformation--one marked by civic officials' profound disinclination to police conscience and their practice of de facto religious toleration. McClendon is careful to clarify that "toleration" does not imply a belief in religious freedom or an anachronistic appreciation for religious diversity. Rather, it represents a …