Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

‘Plum porridge was much enjoyed as an appetiser to line the stomach before the rich dinner to come. It was a thick broth of mutton or beef, boiled in a skin with plums, spices, dried fruits, breadcrumbs and wine. In the later sixteenth century, flour was added to it to make a pudding or cake. Centuries later, the Victorians would remove the meat and turn plum porridge into the rich Christmas pudding we know today’

‘Because of Advent, tradition demanded that houses were not decorated for the festive season until Christmas Eve. On that day, cloaked and gloved against the cold, adults and children went merrily out in the countryside and into woodlands to gather evergreens such as holly and ivy, which they used to festoon their homes and their local churches.’

‘Henry VIII’s expenses for the first Christmas of his reign in 1509 show that the nineteen-year-old King outlaid the equivalent of a staggering £13.5m. His total revenue for the year was £16.5m. The money went on food, entertainment and gifts. Beneficiaries included choirboys, musicians, actors and servants.’

‘The history of Christmas does not begin with Christ, as our Christmas rituals evolved from pagan rites. Pagan people celebrated the winter solstice - the shortest day of the year. The winter solstice was immensely important at a time when communities could not be certain of living through the winter.‘

‘All this is by the way of warning the reader that almost nothing is known about the early life of Catherine Howard: the date of her birth is open to speculation, her home is unknown, and except for the more lurid details of her childhood which have been preserved in connection with her trial, we know almost nothing about her early friends and environment.’

‘In the Autumn of 1560 it suddenly was made plain that the patience of authority with protestant extremists was becoming exhausted. On September 19, the Queen issued a proclamation against the breaking or defacing of images of antiquity or images of glass in churches unless they were the object of superstitious reverence.‘

‘So ended Elizabeth’s first Parliament. Ecclesiastically it effected very nearly a return to the state of things in the early part of Edward’s reign. It is true that clerical marriage was not legally allowed - Elizabeth never agreed to that, though she took no steps to stop it. It is also true that the actual services ordered were not so similar to the Roman services as those of Edward’s First Book.‘

‘But once he had, so to speak, emerged from his study, his rise to prominence both as preacher and administrator was quick. The reason lay more in the circumstances of the time than in any ambition of his own. Once he was licensed to preach he was eager to do it; but there is no evidence that he was desirous of great responsibility or high office.’

‘There was never a possibility that Elizabeth would continue England’s link with Rome. She was the physical embodiment of her father’s defiance of papal authority. In Catholic eyes she was illegitimate; they believed that Katherine of Aragon’s marriage had never been annulled. Nor could the new queen disappoint her Protestant supporters, particularly in London.‘

‘The new queen, however, had far more in mind than reversing Edward’s reformation - nothing less than returning England to the papal obedience her father had rejected in 1533. She was, nevertheless, cautious and, when parliament assembled in November, promoted changes which only reinstated religion as it had been when Henry died.‘

‘Henry VIII left England with a church settlement which was distinctive and highly personal. It was also unviable once his dominating personality was removed. Yet leaving the country in the hands of a substantially evangelical leadership meant that - whether he had intended it or not - he had put in power men who knew where they were going and would build on what he had achieved.’

‘It is indeed correct that Henry continued to believe in transubstantiation and refused to believe in justification by faith alone, but that only demonstrates that achieving the royal supremacy made him neither a sacramentarian nor a Lutheran. What it did do was effectively make Henry the pope in England’

‘The explanation is almost certainly that the king had been shown a copy of Luther’s Babylonish Captivity. It arrived at the turn of the year and when Henry read it he was profoundly shocked; so shocked that he decided he must refute it himself. What appalled the king was the book’s onslaught on the mass.’

‘For centuries the word “reformer” has been synonymous with “Protestant”, despite the word “Protestant” only being coined in 1529 and then to describe a specific German group which protested on a specific issue. Not for decades would “Protestant” pass into general European currency. What is more, organised denominations which would come to be called Protestant are not found before the mid 1540s.‘

‘One did not have to be devout to be engaged by the ceremony attached to the great festivals of the church. Palm Sunday was effectively a Christian rite of spring and the ceremonies of Easter day were especially impressive. Rogationtide processions were masterminded by the church to invoke God’s mercy, but were effectively fertility rites to bless the fields and a way to assert and protect parish boundaries‘

Circe realising how difficult mortal babies are is hilarious. She made 20 cloth diapers and thought that would be enough... it only lasted a day xD she thought sleep was the easiest and most natural thing for mortals, but turns out he will only sleep if she walks around while holding him.

‘Conform or face dismissal: Grindal was in no more doubt than his old mentor Martin Bucer that when the issue was stated as plainly as that the conscientious pastor should conform and remain pastorally available. But within the Tudor polity such stark choices were rare: evasion was often possible and perhaps legitimate.‘

I am loving this so far! It has been a while since I have deliberately made time to listen to an audiobook. You can tell how much I am enjoying an audiobook by how fast I get through it, I started this yesterday and am four hours in out of twelve so far. The narrator is excellent too and really adds to the book.

I have heard great things about this book and so finally going to give it a go.

‘The early Elizabethan Church was an enforced coalition of contrary religious traditions and tendencies, crudely distinguishable as very protestant, not-so-protestant and crypto-papist. The terms and symbols of the coalition were contained in the Act of Uniformity and the Royal Injunctions of 1558, as interpreted by the bishops in a number of informal resolutions.‘

‘Grindal’s interest in the strangers, which went far beyond the line of duty, was that of a co-religionist. Although it would be anachronistic to call him a Calvinist, Grindal’s theology was not in conflict with Geneva. He enjoyed and reciprocated the confidence not only of Calvin (who died in 1564) but of Calvin’s successor as virtual bishop of Geneva for guidance, Theodore Beza’

‘The Elizabethan statutes of supremacy and uniformity, which embodied the fundamental elements of the new religious settlements, implied, in substance if not in every detail, a return to the ‘state of religion’ which had prevailed at the time of Edward VI’s death. This was equally the significance of the first episcopal appointments of the reign’

‘Grindal was one who looked back to the reign of Edward with approval and nostalgia. As bishop of London he would rebuke a group of schismatics for behaviour which condemned ‘the whole state of the Church reformed in King Edward’s days, which was well reformed according to the word of God’, and which slighted the memory of the many good men who had shed their blood for it.‘

‘These details of family history illuminate the formation of Grindal’s mind on matters of religious and social policy. As an Elizabethan bishop he regarded poverty, the oppression of landlords, ignorance, irreligion, disobedience and lawlessness as related symptoms of a general disease in the body politic, for which the only remedy was preaching and education.’

'The overriding impression is of a queen who ran hot and cold and found it impossible to reach a firm decision on anything, and especially whether she wanted to marry Francis. Yet, it must be emphasised that, while the queen’s reputation was seriously undermined by the way she dealt with the marriage negotiations, the French royal family’s perseverance indicates that they remained desperate to maintain the alliance'

‘Catherine’s obvious desperation to advance the marriage negotiations eventually gave Elizabeth the upper hand in her relations with the French royal family. Far from a feeble bride who needed the protection of a strong prince, she was able to adopt a traditionally male persona and appraise young Francis on the basis of his appearance. The French rulers had no option but to accept this'

Actually listening to the audiobook but can’t find it on here

‘Scholars have explored this notion of Elizabeth’s “grandeur” and her representation as the equal of any king. Indeed, Carole Levin has pointed out that English writers perceived her as both the king and the Queen of England, especially in the last few years of her reign. La Mothe Fénélon did not go that far, but he never wavered from his conviction that she had just as much right to rule as any other monarch'

‘The first seven years of Elizabeth’s reign are traditionally characterised as a time when France and England strove to establish a strong and stable alliance. Yet, elements of distrust and defiance caused the French side to develop an image of Elizabeth as a rather deceitful and belligerent queen.'