The most readable of this year's crop of anniversary books ... Eamon Duffy [is] the doyen of Reformation historians

Christopher Howse, Spectator Books of the Year, 2017

Another blockbuster arrives from the professor (emeritus) of Christian history at Cambridge ... a galaxy of clever offerings ... This is a must read for any serious student of Reformation and post-Reformation England.

Jack Scarisbrick, Catholic Herald

Energy, insight and sheer quality

Spectator

Characteristically stimulating and provocative ... Skilfully excavates the powerful passions unleashed by a cataclysmic movement that continues to shape how we live today

Tablet

The essays, superbly written, range across themes of Catholic eschatology and anti-Protestant devotional publications to appreciations of 17th-century Quakerism. Duffy, a Cambridge history professor, brilliantly recreates a world of heroism and holiness in 16th-century England.

Ian Thomson, Observer

Much of ... scholarship puts Protestantism on the right side of history, and sees the process and consequences of early modern religious contest from the perspective of those who might be considered to be its winners. This important new book turns these assumptions on their head ... an important rereading of the character and experience of reformation.

Crawford Gribben, Irish Times