The Voices of Morebath – Reformation & Rebellion in an English Village: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village

Living only about 30 miles from Morebath, I find this account particularly poignant.It is simply a meticulous presentation of all the significant information from the Morebath Churchwardens' accounts between about 1530 and 1580. But what a story shines forth from these dry bones!Firstly the image of social cohesion and natural marriage of sacred and secular before the reformation leaves one yearning for what can never be repeated.Then as it is smashed, at best for dubious religious reasons, always leading to wholesale asset-stripping of the Church by the elites, and always entirely at odds with the wishes and good of the villagers, a feeling of resigned pessimism sets in.This derision and violence against Tradition and the wishes of the common people, in favour of a top down intelligentsia and monied ruling class sets the backdrop for where we are today.I don't feel anger. Just resigned pessimism. That's life. The serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can and the wisdom to know the difference.The people of Morebath didn't waste energy on anger either.They showed courage in sending their best young men off to fight for their Faith in the Prayer Book Rebellion (which killed ten times the number of "Bloody Mary"), then wisdom and serenity after defeat, in accepting what they could not change.This book will have you delving deeper into what happened at the Reformation and the religious and social reasons behind it.In my case it has also brought about a much greater feeling of closeness to my fellow ordinary Christians of all denominations.We ordinary people are not responsible for the divisions in the Faith!(The asset-stripping of English Parishes has not ended.Having asset-stripped all parish legacies in the 1970s, sold off parsonages paid for by parishes, lost £800 million of parish money for clergy in the early 1990s, cut most clergy in favour of a bloated diocesan beaurocracy, stolen most of the revenue parish churches get in fees, centralised diocesan beaurocracies now sting parishes for eye-watering sums in "parish shares" to the diocese every year.The only family silver now left is our parish Church buildings, which are now slowly coming under threat.We should all care about this.These assets belong to us, the parishioners, whatever our religious beliefs.I would urge you to keep an ear to the ground about what is going on at your local Church, and read the information given by "Save the Parish".I'm not an Anglican, but this affects us all.)

Brilliant scholarship with the added bonus that it mentions my farm!

A few years ago I spent a lot of time in and around the relatively isolated hamlet of Morebath. I bought this book having previously spotted it in a Glastonbury bookshop window, and although it tells of several centuries earlier it is still possible to recognise many of the farms and manors in the description. A must for anyone who loves local Exmoor history.

An enjoyable read but please don't make the mistake of assuming that this will give the popular view of the Reformation. Duffy writes from a Catholic perspective and his source material is also giving a second hand view of opinions skewed by the agenda of the original writer.

This is a book of interest to you if you like detail, and want to find out how the changes of the Reformation worked out at local level. The 'voices' of the title speak through the written parish records, which mention not only vestments, prayer books and mending the church roof, but introduce the reader to the many people involved in running the parish. The priest of this parish survives for forty two years, being very careful in his comments about how the great changes of spiritual allegiance affect him personally. Eamon Duffy writes well, with wit and clarity. I enjoyed this book very much, and was delighted to find it on Amazon.

The book very skilfully relates the way a 16th century rector administered his parish against the background of turbulent events which imposed protestantism on a largely catholic population. The author, Eamon Duffy sets the parish in its broader historic and geographic background enabling the reader to understand and sympathise with the priest and his parishioners as they see their traditional and cherished belief system with its local saints swept aside by forces beyond their control. The priest is in every way and admirable figure who sees it as his responsibility to involve all his 32 parishioners in the democratic running of the parish. The book is based on the very detailed accounts which the rector maintained during his more than 50 years in charge. Sir Christopher Trychay is meticulous, honest and at all times conscious of his responsibilities both to his local community and to the wider one, which in the end forces him to accept an alien system. His attitude to the authorities helps the reader to understand why the Reform was effected in such a short time.

brilliant rediscovery of th real story of rhe Reformation and how the Catholic faith was strong and vibrant in pre-Henry V111 England. It explodes the myth of a decadant and oppresive clergy. The laity had a deep and involved part in the oversight of the parish of Morebath which was common at that time. The abolition of the parish structures with its stores, and the dissolution of the monastries had a huge effect (bad) on ordinary people of England. Along with THE STRIPPING OF THE ALTARS and SAINTS, SACRILEGE, SEDITION ,Eamonn Duffy has revisited this disputed part of English history and has done great service to historical accuracy,Matt McInerney.

An excellent study of a unique historical resource. Not an easy read, but worth the effort. The detail is fascinating and shows how what is normally seen from afar as high politics and religious changes actually affected the rural population of rural Devon

Excellent

Eminent revisionist historian Eamon Duffey of Cambridge is better known for his seminal work "Stripping of the Altars" a dense yet gripping academic work which against all odds gained a popular audience among average intellectual Catholics on both sides of the Atlantic.Whilst researching that work, Duffy stumbled upon documents showing a "family album" account of a poor, remote parish in the west country; and the soap-opera drama of how its pastor and people were affected over two generations by the English reformation. Fascinated, he set this material aside to devote a separate book to exploring it: "Voices of Morebath".The protagonist of Duffy's book is the "Vicar of Bray-ish" pastor of Morebath--- a grumpy, egotistical control-freak; This priest's career is less than edifying, yet one feels sorry for him and for his parishioners as their remote farming village and its little world is torn apart by the tragedy of history which resulted when a selfish king plunged England into spiritual and civil chaos to divorce his childless queen in hopes of siring a male heir on her lady-in-waiting.This is a mesmerizing and often funny account of small-town gossip, sociology, and social change. It's a rare, worm's-eye-view at how the Reformation affected the hearts, minds, and lifestyles of "little people", and in its way is a miniature English "Gone with the Wind"-- a historian's elegy on the loss of christian unity; and with it, wholesome village life.

How big events look on the local ground. I loved this. It's about how the English reformation (remember Henry VIII and all his wives?) and the changes in the practice of religion mandated by ever changing political factions was lived in the tiny parish of Morebath, far from events in London. It is told through entries in fianncial records of the church to which the priest/vicar added narrative and names. Duffy's deep knowledge of both national politics and religious history enables him to explain what those entries mean (he also provides transcriptions and translations of important passages) and how changes in the rules of how piety was to be expressed affected the economic and social life of both church and village. One of his major and illuminating points is that religious practice and daily life were deeply intertwined; villagers and priest alike couldn't conceive of one without the other. This is a thoughtful, detailed look from an unusual perspective at an era about which most of us only know the story of the much-married king.

Doctor Duffy has written an interesting slice of the history of a small English village, Morebath in Devon, during a period of social upheaval which he refers to in his subtitle of "Reformation & Rebellion in an English Village". The slice shows a period of social decay (although some will not see it as that) which starts with coercion and ends with a slow attrition. PBS is presently reshowing Michael Woods' "Story of England" a longer term history of the Village of Kibworth in Leicestershire and the most recent episode covered the period following the destruction of the Plague in the area. Part of the follow up showed how several of the small indentured farmers of Kipworth were "upgraded" to leaseholders by the owner of the village, Merton College of Oxford, and how a portion of the lease rentals were dedicated to the support of a chantry which was to provide for prayers to be said for the victims of the Plague. This practice came to be seen as a threat and wrong to certain powers that be and had to be stamped out. The silenced Voices of Morebath tell that story.

This story of the reformation only reminds me of my own modern experience with our ongoing modern cultural revolution.Like Tudor England we see the centralization of government power at the expense of the simple faith of the people. In this case we see how even a Tudor priest goes through a metamorphosis from deeply faithful to more concerned with secular issues. It's not unlike the secularization that has overwhelmed the west in the last 50 years where a vacuous notion of social justice has displaced the faith and family.In Tudor England we see a self sufficient community under Henry VIII transformed into a more atomized one as the reformation takes hold.