This prize-winning account of the pre-Reformation church recreates lay people's experience of religion in fifteenth-century England. Eamon Duffy shows that late medieval Catholicism was neither decadent nor decayed, but was a strong and vigorous tradition, and that the Reformation represented a violent rupture from a popular and theologically respectable religious system. For this edition, Duffy has written a new Preface reflecting on recent developments in our understanding of the period.

From reviews of the first edition:

"A magnificent scholarly achievement [and] a compelling read."—Patricia Morrison, Financial Times

"Deeply imaginative, movingly written, and splendidly illustrated...Duffy's analysis ...carries conviction."—Maurice Keen, New York Review of Books

"This book will afford enjoyment and enlightenment to layman and specialist alike."—Peter Heath, Times Literary Supplement

"[An] astonishing and magnificent piece of work."—Edward T. Oakes, Commonweal