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How did popular and elite beliefs about the next world, and about supernatural forces in this world, change and develop as a result of the Reformation?

Following a masterly interpretative introduction, Peter Marshall traces the effects of the Reformers' assaults on established beliefs about the afterlife. He shows how debates about purgatory and the nature of hellfire acted as unwitting agents of modernisation. He then turns to popular beliefs about angels, ghosts and fairies, and considers how these were reimagined and reappropriated when cut from their medieval moorings.

About the author:
Peter Marshall is Professor of History at the University of Warwick and co-editor of The English Historical Review. His recent books include Heretics and Believers: A History of the English Reformation (Yale University Press, 2017).