2012/11/15 by Alexandra Walsham · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Reformation and Early Modern Christianity #Philippine History and Culture #Medieval Literature and History
paper · doi:10.1017/s0018246x12000362
openalex publication_date 2012/11/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
ABSTRACT This article is a revised and expanded version of my inaugural lecture as Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge, delivered on 20 Oct. 2011. It explores how the religious upheavals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries reshaped perceptions of the past, stimulated shifts in historical method, and transformed the culture of memory, before turning to the interrelated question of when and why contemporaries began to remember the English Reformation as a decisive juncture and critical turning point in history. Investigating the interaction between personal recollection and social memory, it traces the manner in which remembrance of the events of the 1530s, 1540s, and 1550s evolved and splintered between 1530 and 1700. A further theme is the role of religious and intellectual developments in the early modern period in forging prevailing models of historical periodization and teleological paradigms of interpretation.