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The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details.

The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. I C onsider the case of two northern European kings of the first half of the sixteenth century : Gustav Vasa of Sweden, and Henry  of England. Both kings maintained a ferociously tight grip on their kingdoms, yet both were constantly aware of the weaknesses of their positions ; in particular of dynastic rivalries and of the ruinous cost of warfare. In the wake of the German Reformation, Protestant ideas seem to have made little impact in either realm on a popular level, but fairly soon these two kings realised the potential political advantages which the reformers' ideas offered to them. Over a period of a few years, they gradually took control of the Church in their respective kingdoms, eventually extinguishing all Roman jurisdiction, and seizing large quantities of ecclesiastical property, notably that of the monasteries. Parts of the evangelical programme were put in place ; in particular, both kings licensed the use of vernacular Scripture and portions of a vernacular liturgy. A minority of the urban population in both countries came to sympathise with evangelical ideas. However, Protestant doctrine as such never appealed to the kings themselves ; nor, judging by the popular rebellions which religious change sparked in both England and Sweden, did it appeal to the majority of their people." The kings halted the process " E. I. Kouri, ' The early Reformation in Sweden and Finland c. - ', in Ole        of reform, leaving many of the evangelicals' hopes unfulfilled. Both kings had appointed archbishops who were committed although moderate reformers ; but while these men were allowed to remain in office, both of them were largely isolated in the last years of their masters' reigns. In neither country was there a clearly Protestant settlement of religion until the old kings eventually died, and far more vigorously evangelical regimes under their sons finally established Protestant Churches in law -with the old archbishops in the vanguard.This striking series of parallels between the Reformations effected by Gustav Vasa and by Henry  is worth drawing attention to for its own sake, especially in the light of recent scholarship which has emphasised the differences between the Reformations in England and on the continent.# However, it also highlights a problem. If the parallels between England and Sweden were so close, why were the eventual Protestant settlements so different? The Swedish church ordinance of  was Lutheran ; while Edward ...

During the last decade of Henry VIII's life, his Protestant subjects struggled to reconcile two loyalties: to their Gospel and to their king. This book tells the story of that struggle and describes how a radicalised English Protestantism emerged from it. Focusing on the critical but neglected period 1539–47, Dr Ryrie argues that these years were not the 'conservative reaction' of conventional historiography, but a time of political fluidity and ambiguity. Most evangelicals continued to hope that the king would favour their cause, and remained doctrinally moderate and politically conformist. The author examines this moderate reformism in a range of settings - in the book trade, in the universities, at court and in underground congregations. He also describes its gradual eclipse, as shifting royal policy and the dynamics of the evangelical movement itself pushed reformers towards the more radical, confrontational Protestantism which was to shape the English identity for centuries.

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