Martyrs' blood in Reformation England
This thesis analyses how martyrsâ blood was constructed in sixteenth-century English martyrological writings, confessional apologetics and polemics, c. 1520-c. 1625. It uses the topic of martyrsâ blood as a lens onto wider confessional constructions of both martyrdom and confessional theologies. It argues that, despite superficial similarities, Protestants and Catholics constructed martyrsâ blood in very different ways, and that this calls into question recent scholarly trends towards seeing the confessions as having a common conception of martyrdom. Chapter One surveys the treatment of blood and martyrdom from the Bible to the medieval West, demonstrating the main threads on which early-modern constructions of martyrdom drew. Chapter Two discusses Henrician Protestant constructions of martyrsâ blood. Chapter Three focuses on John Foxeâs Acts and Monuments. Chapter Four examines the relatively unbloody rhetoric of English Catholic discussions of martyrdom, from the 1520s to 1570s. Chapter Five looks at the emergence of a rich rhetoric of martyrsâ blood in English Catholic writings from the 1580s to the 1620s. Authors examined include William Tyndale, John Bale, John Foxe, Thomas More, Reginald
Stylianou, Anastasia
BR Christianity ; DA Great Britain
Martyrs' blood in Reformation England. This thesis analyses how martyrsâ blood was constructed in sixteenth-century English martyrological writings, confessional apologetics and polemics, c. 1520-c. 1625. It uses the topic of martyrsâ blood as a lens onto wider confessional constructions of both martyrdom and confessional theologies. It argues that, despite superficial similarities, Protestants and Catholics constructed martyrsâ blood in very different ways, and that this calls into question recent scholarly trends towards seeing the confessions as having a common conception of martyrdom. Chapter One surveys the treatment of blood and martyrdom from the Bible to the medieval West, demonstrating the main threads on which early-modern constructions of martyrdom drew. Chapter Two discusses Henrician Protestant constructions of martyrsâ blood. Chapter Three focuses on John Foxeâs Acts and Monuments. Chapter Four examines the relatively unbloody rhetoric of English Catholic discussions of martyrdom, from the 1520s to 1570s. Chapter Five looks at the emergence of a rich rhetoric of martyrsâ blood in English Catholic writings from the 1580s to the 1620s. Authors examined include William Tyndale, John Bale, John Foxe, Thomas More, Reginald
blood reformation_england analyse blood construct sixteenth_century english writing confessional polemic topic blood lens onto wide confessional construction martyrdom confessional theology argues despite superficial similarity protestants catholics construct blood different_way call_question recent_scholarly trend_towards see confession common conception martyrdom survey treatment blood martyrdom bible medieval west demonstrate main thread early_modern construction martyrdom draw two_discus protestant construction martyr blood focus john acts monuments examines relatively rhetoric english catholic discussion martyrdom five_look emergence rich rhetoric martyr blood english catholic write authors examine include william john john_foxe thomas