The Voices of Morebath

Eamon Duffy's monumental The Stripping of the Altars provided a new slant on the English Reformation. Duffy has now dug deeper into the same fascinating period. The Voices of Morebath is the story of a hamlet buried deep in the heart of Devon. The parish priest, Sir Christopher Trychay remained in office through the troubled times of the mid-16th century. During his long tenure he carefully recorded the impact of national events in his ordinary rural community.

Trychay's account is unique because it is not a personal diary but a record of the parish accounts. Sir Christopher, however, was talkative and opinionated so the accounts are laden with the minutiae of parish life. Duffy weaves these otherwise cryptic details into the wider tapestry of events of the time, and by analysing the result shows the devastating revolution that took place in ordinary people's lives. As the drama unfolds we see the folk of Morebath forced from their secure Catholicism into the new religion of King Henry. After Edward's brief reign the villagers breathe a sigh of relief and haul out all their Catholic paraphernalia, grateful that Mary Tudor has restored the Catholic faith. Then it all goes for good once Elizabeth takes the throne.

Duffy has given us history that is absorbing, readable and complete. His own enthusiasm for his topic gives the book a zest that takes it beyond the usual academic tome. Anyone the least bit interested in English history must not neglect this important book. --Dwight Longenecker

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Buried between the site of the altar where he had sung the Mass, and the table where he had celebrated the Supper. - Rated
Thus ended the career of the parish priest of Morebath, there was he buried, between two religions, two social worlds, two distinct weltanschuung. Taken from his parish register, which gives full details of accounts with a full and interesting commentary by him ,Christopher Trychay, who served the parish from 1520 - 1574, this book gives an interesting account of the minutiae of parish life throughout the events of the 16th century.
I wonder whether it is possible to write of the Reformation without one's own loyalties being obvious, indeed other reviewers have clearly revealed their own, but Professor Duffy , himself a Catholic, certainly writes not only with considerable affection for the pre-Reformation world but also with some appreciation for the Elizabethan one which came to supplant it in England.

Many of us do not believe ,unlike our ancestors were led to believe by their historians -indeed Haigh when he first studied the opposition to the Reformation came to the conclusion that what he had been taught at school about its popularity was erroneous -that the Reformation was welcomed by the people of England, and have been puzzled as to how they accepted such a revolution. Looked at from the centre the answer is perhaps the power and luck of Queen Elizabeth and the relentless persecution , well detailed by Philip Hughes' "The Reformation in England Vol III True Religion Now Established " , of her Catholic subjects, but the localities have been more problematic, although even there as in the time of Thomas Cromwell it could be said that careless talk costs lives.(p 167). Duffy shows how gradually, after limited destruction under Henry VIII and massive destruction under Edward VI, restoration under Mary, and further destruction under Elizabeth, the Old Religion in Morebath gave way. Their parish priest stayed with them, no longer using the requiem vestments for which in his early days so much parish money had been saved, and obediently adopting the new ways. He "eased them into a slow and settled conformity to the new order of things"(p190).Under Mary he probably had looked back on the the Reformation as being "arrogant, destructive, and un-English, a disastrous rebellion against God and the faith of our fathers" but when it triumphed again he adapted to the change. He saw his duty as being to God and Morebath.

No doubt like many others, I was given this book as a Christmas gift, and was delighted to have such a readable, scholarly, and beautifully illustrated addition to my library.

Thank you for visiting Morebath - Please drive carefully - Rated
Eamon Duffy brings the village of Morebath in the sixteenth century to life with this excellent piece of research. Using original churchwarden's records and relevant historiography, he reconstructs the life of a community as it's belief system comes increasingly under threat. Duffy's work not only gives us a glipmse into the past, but also shows us the historian's craft in action. So Duffy may become a little wrapped up in his subject matter - his enthusiasm shines out of his work and adds to its appeal, in this case anyway. His love of the period is obvious and is infectious, and he reconstructs the minutiae of village life with gusto, to the point where you too may be sucked into the world of Morebath under the Tudors. No bad thing. It happened to me and I for one was sorry to leave.

This is very much a companion volume to "The Stripping of the Altars", the earlier work grand in scope, while "The Voices of Morebath" focusses on one community and narrows that scope, bringing it under the microscope and revealing it with skill and crystal clarity. Anyone with anything more than a passing interest in early modern history should have this book. What the hell... everyone else should have it too.

A good piece of scholarship, spoilt by nostalgia - Rated
Duffy's Morebath has received more than enough hype to require further praise from me. It is, clearly, an excellent and scholarly account based on a (for the most part) sound analysis of the sources. The problem is that Duffy, as in his more famous Stripping of the Altars, allows his nostalgia for an England we have lost to run away with him. In doing so he creates a somewhat over-simplified picture of English attitudes to traditional religion and the Reformation. It is doubtful that there was as much popular support for the pre-Reformation clergy or as much antipathy towards the process of religious change as Duffy suggests. A more nuanced account would have made use of the hints in the source material of popular discontent with the old order, and showed the multiple ways in which people experienced traditional religion and viewed its destruction during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Elizabeth I.

That said, this book is to be recommended as a good and easily accessible example of the kind of work historians are doing now. Narratives of the lives of kings and queens are increasingly being replaced by stories of ordinary people, some remarkable and others interesting purely because they were ordinary. David Underdown's Fire From Heaven, about seventeenth century Dorchester, makes an interesting comparison with Duffy's Morebath, is in many ways a better work and provides some useful ways of answering the question, 'Why did England become Protestant?' As it shows, popular support for Reformation could - and did - exist, and Protestantism played a meaningful and important role in the lives of many.

empathetic history - Rated
eamon duffy, through his intricate study of sir christopher's (morebath's parish preist's)written acounts of parish life, presents a deliciously partisan and empathetic tale of one man's struggle to fathom the enormity of religious reform in the sixteenth century. a glimpse into the probable reaction of ordinary devon folk to attempts to confiscate church property. duffy shows how the church property belonged to everyone in the parish having been purchased through generous contrbutions to the numerous well-supported parish guilds.

whether morebath is typical of other tudor villages becomes irrelevant as duffy's tooth comb study of sir christopher's acounts reveals priceless, previously-unnoticed details. For instance Duffy's revealation that the small hamlet sent two of it's own to represent them in the 1549 rebellion against the newly imposed prayer book adds creedance to the corner that claims that this rising had predominantly religious motives. on a personal level it sheds light on the desperation of towns like morebath who armed and funded the 6,000 ill fated prayer book rebels.

a fantastic read for historians and non-historians alike. a must for anyone intreged by the english reformation. the centrality of the parish in secular life is portrayed remarkably in this very readable study.

Why DID we all go protestant? - Rated
The long awaited sequel and parallel text to The Stripping of the Altars - an intimate examination of the Reformation in a single Devon parish.

Duffy explores the period 1530-1580 through the churchwardens accounts, minute books, journals and bequests of the remote Devon village of Morebath. If you've already read his "The Stripping of the Altars", this book is like a detective story, trying to answer a single, biting question: if the Reformation in England was so unpopular with the common people, why did it succeed? He comes up with what looks like it might be the answer.

The opening chapters may be heavy going if you haven't already read "The Stripping of the Altars".