Fire from Heaven: Life in an English Town in the Seventeenth Century. by David UnderdownReview by: Byron NelsonThe Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Autumn, 1993), pp. 749-751Published by: The Sixteenth Century JournalStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2542159 .

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Book Reviews 749

translate. This view not only augments the learned proofs of Marmelstein and Walch of the authenticity of the 1560 Institution; it also accounts for the differences between the French style of 1541 and 1560-granting that no European vernacular

language was capable in the beginning of the sixteenth century of bearing the intel- lectual weight of traditional theology, but that by the end of the century the major vernacular languages were sufficient to the task. Millet's work clarifies Calvin's contribution to this development.

The work does fall slightly short of its goal of dealing with the "whole Calvin"-and does so on its own terms: having shared with Bouwsma the dichot- omous Calvin, Millet fastens on the humanistic rhetor as the creator of theological language without fully drawing back into focus the traditionalistic theologian and

exegete whose work exhibits scholastic and Aristotelian overtones. In addition, while Millet accurately assesses the importance of Agricolan and Melanchthonian rhetoric and logic to Calvin it is certain that he overestimates both the importance of Ramus in the later development of sixteenth-century logic and rhetoric and the directness of the development linking Agricola to Ramus (with Calvin placed in

between). Surely the classical model of Quintillian overshadowed Agricola and Melanchthon in Calvin's mind-while the non-Aristotelian place logic and meth-

odological bifurcations of Agricola, which certainly influenced both Melanchthon and Calvin not only fail to result necessarily in Ramism but, arguably, continue to be influential in their Agricolan form after the rise of Ramism. These criticisms, however, are very slight in view of the size, scope, and finely researched detail of the book, which is both a significant study of Calvin and an important study of six-

teenth-century rhetoric.

Richard A. Muller ........................................ Calvin Theological Seminary

Fire From Heaven: Life in an English Town in the Seventeenth Century. David Underdown. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992. 308pp. $28.50.

This admirable study uses the metaphor of fire to help to explain the phenome- non of Puritanism in seventeenth-century Dorchester. By diligently combing the local records, the author deepens our understanding of the appeal and limitations of Puritanism in English culture. Underdown's admiration for the energy, human- istic achievements, and philanthropic zeal of the Dorchester reformers is matched

by his sympathy for the poor and the laborers who resisted the efforts of the godly to turn the city into an exemplar of reformed piety. Despite his admiration for the

godly reformers, Underdown favors the unreformed mass by stressing his belief in the inevitability of the failure of the Puritan idealists and his affection for festive culture; despite the reformers' virtue, there will always be cakes and ale.

The narrative begins with the great Dorchester fire of August 6, 1613, in which half of the town's buildings were consumed. The devastating fire provided the

reforming party with its clear mandate: "To the godly the message of 6 August 1613 was clear. Fire from heaven: it was their mission, as members of God's

appointed elect, to transform the disorderly, ill-governed town...into a reformed, disciplined, more truly godly community. The fire was indeed a catalyst" (90). The severe physical damage was less important than the "spiritual mass conversion" (5) which resulted from the fire, turning Dorchester into a strikingly "puritan"

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750 Sixteenth Century Journal XXIV / 3 (1993)

town. The story ends, perhaps a bit belatedly, in 1688, with the relief the town felt with the final defeat of the Catholic bogey, and Underdown appends an epilogue, "On to Casterbridge," in a brief attempt to link Puritan Dorchester to the world of Thomas Hardy. But the tale had already ended properly at the Restoration: "After 1662 the vision of a reformed, godly community which had inspired Dorchester's leaders ever since the fire of 1613 gradually faded" (244). And in case the town had missed the point, Charles II was to visit Dorchester in 1665 to issue the "Five Mile Act," designed to restrict the movements of dissenting ministers; issuing this

repressive act in Dorchester was about as lightly symbolic as the blow of a sledge- hammer.

The book forms an implied sequel to the wider-ranging Revel, Riot and Rebellion

(1985), which studied the festive culture of England in the first half of the seven- teenth century. His choice of Dorchester to test his ideas about the contrast between reformist and festive culture was a shrewd one, since he finds as natural a set of antagonists as one could ask for. The party of reform was led for almost half a century by the Oxford-trained divine, John White. Appointed rector of Holy Trin-

ity, Dorchester, in 1605, White took the Calvinist stance that Christ died for the elect

only, but successfully encouraged the philanthropic impulses of the godly and

briskly wielded the twin rods of reform and discipline. Underdown is unsparing of the cowardice of the reform party when the town succumbed to Royalist forces in 1643. "The town's governors had sworn to live and die with Parliament, the clergy to seal the Covenant with their blood. They did nothing of the sort-they ran

away" (203). White (who was to die shortly after) returned in 1646 but could not

regain his former effectiveness, his vision of a godly community now undermined

by the radical ideals so laboriously catalogued in Thomas Edwards' Gangraena. Although plays, dancing, and feasting were already under attack before

White's arrival, the Puritan reformers succeeded in curbing such abuses as sexual license, excessive drinking, absence from church, public swearing, and teenage pregnancies; more positively, the reformers encouraged reading, education, and the relief of the deserving poor. White's reforming zeal inspired the animosity of two groups. It threatened the older conception of community and neighborliness typified by Matthew Chubb, who long served Dorchester in a variety of civic func- tions and favored community harmony. Secondly, the unreformed poor, including the generally illiterate shoemakers, tailors, butchers, and tapsters, found White's reforms distinctly unappetizing. Underdown finds their embodiment in Roger Pouncey, the head of a family of butchers and incorrigible scofflaws who were

perennially at odds with the reformers. Fire From Heaven presents a richly drawn set of characters in a well-told narra-

tive of the appeal, and inevitable failure, of idealism and reform among the unre-

generate human race. Underdown is clearly reaching out to a larger reading audi- ence than any study of Puritan reform is likely to find, since unfortunately nearly any discussion of Puritanism tends to be for the elect alone. Readers sympathetic to White's earnest reforms may be annoyed that the book ends with laughter: "Puritans efforts to reform them had always foundered in a chorus of mocking laughter" (265). The Ranters and the Restoration comic playwrights may have understood the irresistible appeal of laughter better than John White, but the

laughter alone cannot sweep away the importance of White's reforming mission. Dorchester's soul-searching declined, and although the reformist energy and

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Book Reviews 751

altruism were lost, a greater sense of toleration and civility was restored. Admira- tion for Underdown's solid, charming, and accessible study should temper any minor complaint about the tone of the conclusion or the uncertainty about where the story properly ends. The strength of the book lies in its recognition of the cycli- cal nature of reforming and letting things alone.

Byron Nelson .......................................................... West Virginia University

The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England c. 1400-c. 1580. Eamon Duffy. Yale University Press, 1992. 654 pp. n.p.

Eamon Duffy's The Stripping of the Altars takes its place besides A.G. Dickens' The English Reformation as a landmark book in the history of the Reformation, and with this book the author assumes commanding rank in the revisionist camp. Like other revisionist authors, Duffy challenges what has come to be called the Foxe- Dickens thesis, but unlike others he sets himself the task of describing both the old

religion (Part One) as well as the changes that established the new (Part Two). The

chronological sweep of almost two centuries means that familiar facts are orga- nized in enlightening ways. For example, the author provides a long-needed description of the evolution of primers for the "lush affectivity" of Latin manu-

script books of hours through transitional works like Hilsey's reformed Primer and on to the "starker, graver times of the Reformation" (447). There will be many, of course, who will reject Duffy's revisionist thesis, but no historian can ignore his

description of the rites and devotions swept away in the stripping of the altars. Herein lies the great strength of the book. Until now our understanding of pre-Ref- ormation liturgy has been limited to the skeleton of the Sarum texts and technical commentaries. Now we have flesh as well. By moving beyond textual sources to visual evidence preserved in parish churches (much of it never before published), Duffy is able to exploit two strata of evidence for which he reconstitutes "tradi- tional religion." In the process, he challenges a number of widely-held preconcep- tions. In his description of the cult of the dead, for example, old cliches are stripped away to reveal a world in which liturgy, social customs, and mortuary provision establish an enduring bond between the quick and the dead. Duffy challenges a number of other preconceptions as well-that the calendar year should be divided into sacred and secular time (a useful correction of the Phythian-Adams thesis); that there was a sharp dichotomy between "popular religion" (a term he disavows) and the religion of the elite; that the saints were models (he identifies them as

power-brokers); that shrines exploited the gullible (he argues that the people actu-

ally domesticated the shrines). He also challenges, as others have done, the

premise that changes in preambles and mortuary provision of will reflected

changes in belief, but he goes well beyond the usual challenge by rightly demand-

ing a more rigorous definition of a Protestant will than heretofore accepted. All these challenges are substantiated by a wealth of evidence.

The readability of the book stems in part from the wide range of specific detail, and Duffy's masterful command of his sources is evident in the way in which the detail is seamlessly woven into the fabric of the argument. The author is equally at home with literature (lyrics as well as drama) as with wills and churchwarden accounts. Indeed, the style makes the work as readily accessible to students as to scholars. I know of no comparable treatment of prayers and devotions of Horae

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