This 1998 study describes the most neglected site of political, religious and literary culture in early modern England: the court pulpits of Elizabeth I and James I. It unites the most fertile strains in early modern British history - the court and religion. Dr McCullough shows work previous to his own underestimated the place of religion in courtly culture, and presents evidence of the competing religious patronage not only of Elizabeth and James but also of Queen Anne, Prince Henry and Prince Charles. The book contextualises the political, religious and literary careers of court preachers such as Lancelot Andrewes, John Donne and William Laud, and presents evidence of the tensions between sermon- and sacrament-centred piety in the established Church period. Additional web resources provide the reader with a definitive calendar of court sermons for the period.

This book examines the intellectual career of Bishop John Fisher (1468-1535), the early sixteenth-century bishop of Rochester and victim of Henry VIII's Reformation, whose numerous writings included one of the most influential refutations of Martin Luther of the century. It places Fisher's writings in the context of contemporary movements of Renaissance and Reformation.

This is a critical edition of John Fisher's Treatise on the Penitential Psalms, sermons delivered in 1507-1508 to the household of Lady Margaret Beaufort, the mother of King Henry VII, who caused them to be published as the first English sermon collection ever printed. Also included is Bishop Fisher's funeral sermon for King Henry and his "month's mind" sermon for Lady Margaret herself, who died shortly after her son. Lady Margaret Beaufort was Fisher's patron and a notable benefactor to the University of Cambridge, where with his guidance she renewed Queens and Christ's Colleges, and founded a third, St John's, which her chaplain Fisher brought to completion after her death. The book features the subtitle "Preaching for Lady Margaret" because she was responsible for bringing the Treatise to general public attention and all these sermons owe their delivery to this remarkable woman, together with the gratitude of John Fisher's modern readers, because Fisher himself rarely sought publication for his English works. They are packed with scholarly reference to patristic and medieval theology, but also to contemporary chronicles, bestiaries and works of natural history and classical authors. This distinguished Treatise and its companion sermons gives the reader a glimpse into Fisher's mind, steeped in and devoted to the learning of his time yet always eager for the new scholarship of the humanists and their discoveries.

John Fisher, 1469-1535 was a figure of European stature during the Tudor age. His many roles included those of bishop, humanist, theologian, cardinal, and ultimately martyr. This study places him in the context of sixteenth-century Christendom, focusing not just on his resistance to Henry VIII, but also on his active engagement with the renaissance and reformation.

God's Ploughman, provides a unique study of the life and ministry of one of early modern England's most significant preachers. Rather than offering a biography or analysis of sermons, the author creates a new genre, the 'preaching life.' The result is an integrative study that situates Latimer's life and ministry within the rapidly changing religious, cultural, and political environment of Tudor England. COMMENDATION "Mike Pasquarello, well-versed in homiletics and historical theology, is perfectly positioned to repossess one of the most significant sixteenth-century English preachers and prelates, Hugh Latimer. Letting Latimer speak can only deepen our understanding of the great age of religious reform and the resistances reformers encountered." - Peter Iver Kaufman, University of Richmond, USA