&

,
Normans: descendants of the Vikings who had settled in Normandy (North-East France) in the 9th century.
⚔
 ⚔

Based on the coronation charter

of Henry I, who had promised “to
abolish all the evil customs by
which the kingdom of England
has been unjustly oppressed.”
 ⚔

1375: Treaty of Bruges: only Calais and a piece of the coast near Bordeaux
Edward III counting the dead on the battlefield of Crécy Place, in Jean Froissart,
Chroniques (Vol. I).
remained. S
 This is a prologue to new testament written by Tyndale in 1525 in Cologne during
the reign of Henry VIII.
At the beginning of 16th century,a new religious movement appeared that aimed
to reform the church of England: The Protestant Reformation. It was led by a
German man,Martin Luther,who preached about the corruption of the Catholic
Church and the need of a reform.Additionally,Luther was critical about indulges and
purgatory.In time,Luther gained popularity and many people joined his course.
These people were called Lutherans.Lutherans found catholic sacraments
excessive and believed that the Bible should be the sole source of doctrine.As they
believe in this,the Bible needed to be translated from non-vernacular languages
into vernacular languages to make it reachable and readable to people.It was
crucial that people know the Bible.Moreover,the first translation was made by
Martin Luther in Germany,and other followed.
In England,Henry VIII ruled and was a devout Catholic so was his wife,Cathrine of
Aragon,daughter of Catholic Kings of Spain.Henry was known as “Defender of the
Faith”for the fame of his book “The Defence of the Seven Sacraments”gave
him.Within this book,he criticized and counter acted the attacks of the Lutherans to
the Catholic forms.Due to this,this first English Protestants took refuge in Germany
and one of the Lutherans` was Tyndale.He was an important figure during the
Reformation of Church in England,his translations were crucial.He started with
translating Gospel and subsequently Pentateuch.In the meantime,Henry VIII
needed a male heir to the throne to avoid from wars like The War of Roses,but it
was not possible with Cathrine of Aragon,thus;he decided to divorce her.Because
England was Roman Catholic territory and Catholic church believed in marriage for
life,Pope simply rejected his quest and did not support him.This led to English
Reformation,thereby;Henry created Anglican Church.The Act of Supremacy was
signed in 1534 and Henry became the Supreme Head of the Church of England.
The text is an argumentative text and can be divided into two parts: the first part
where Tyndale supports that humans are evil recurrently and the second part where
he gives a ray of hope and promotes that Jesus Christ brought humanity
goodness. The text presents the main elements of protestant doctrine and the
notion of sin.
The opening lines mention the fall of Adam and Eve by eating the forbidden fruit
and illustrating how humanity naturally got the origins of sins from him,“are we the
children of warth,heirs of the vengecance of God by birth.”According to Tydnale,
humans were transmitted sin while they were yet in their “mothers`s wombs.”
Besides,humanity is demonstrated as “fruits of sin” and full of “natural poison”
implying that sinful nature of humanity.The author refers to “the evil tree” implying
that just like the venemous fruit is the outcome of the tree and the tree is the evil
one,in this concept of humanity, people are the venemous fruits;they are the
inheritors of Adam and Eve. Later the author makes references to the actions of
humanity. To him, if humanity have the occasion to commit sin they commit it
because they are inclined to do so. Humanity is compared to some animals. One of
them is a “serpent”,which is an animial that is “hated of man”not just because of it
poisons,but also;they are poisonious by nature just like humanity. People are also
compared to “an adder” which is another kind of serpent,”a venomous worm”
and ”a toad” which is a flog that has poison to protect itself. All these animals are
seen as hated.Due to these,humans are tainted by evil and condemned to
punishment. (“convicted to eternal damnation.”)
 In the second part brings a change of perspective.The author starts to idealize
God and Christ and explains how Christ became the salvation. Christ is presented
as “our Father most merciful` `the root of all goodness”.This idea elaborated with
introducing the doctrine of “solo gratia” implying that the only salvation is the grace
of God. Since “we are plucked out of Adam…and grafted in Christ”, thanks to the
grace of God just like a plant God took humanity away from the evil of Adam and
brought goodness through Jesus Christ.The idea of being chosen is also introduced
in the lines “his elect and chosen” because even before we were born God has
chosen them.In addition of “solo gracia” also we encounter “solo christo” because
God “reserved us unto the knowledge of his Son.” He was sent as a mediater
between God and men.Through this and “holy gospel”(in which life and death is
introduced),people learnt goodness. By way of the holy gospel people are injected
with “belief” and it corresponds with doctrine of “solo fide” in which protastants
support being saved through faith. In contrast to Catholics,Protestants believed that
good works are only evidence whereeas Catholics believed that good works can
save you and faith is not enough if the Seven Secraments are not respected. The
cult of the Protestants is directed specifically to God and Christ, who saved
mankind through his sacrifice, and does not give importance to Virgin Mary or
any Saints. Other differences with the Catholic Church are the disbelief of the
existence of the Purgatory and the misrecognition of the authority of the Church in
the Pope. With the sacrife of Jesus “the blood of Christ”,God has already saved
them and redeemed them from their original sinful roots. This emphasized the role
of faith in Christ and importance of reading the Bible for protestants. While Adam
resulted as damnation,Christ resulted as salvation.
To conclude, this text shows the ideas defended by Protestantism during the
English Reformation. Those ideas are quite different from the ideas of Catholicism
as it is introduced above. The author, Tydnale, was a reformer who wanted the King
to understand how important it was to illiterate people to read the bible in their own
language so as to be saved.Protestant believed that it is their only way out.In the
text Jesus Christ and Adam are examplified and compared in the aspects of how
they ended up and its consequences on humanity.Also by making specific
references to some venomous creatures,the idea elaborated.However,a notable shift
occurs in the second part,where Tyndale makes references on Jesus Christ.Through
doctrines of “solo gracia”,”solo christo” and “solo fide” the author transfers his
ideas and uplights his Protestant faith.
 This is a poem titled `Decease Release`,written by Robert Southwell around the year
1594. It is written as if the speaker was Mary,Queen of Scots,entral figure of the Catholic
Counter-Reformation.
Back then in 16th century,England was divided in Protestanism and Catholic
Reformation.Elizabeth,the Virgin Queen,the daughter of Anne boleyn of England,was
claimant to the English throne as a protestant.Her reign was productive in English
literature and is famous for the flourishing of English drama; William Shakespeare. The
Elizabethan Settlement,described as the “Revolution of 1559” , was a response to the
religious divisions happening in England since the creation of Anglican church through
Supremacy Act.She became the supreme governor of the church.In order to consolidate
the protestant faith,Elizabeth set out a Second Act of Supremacy and Act of
Uniformity.Elizabeth tried to secure conformity to Anglican practice by sending
commissioners around the country but there were some conflicts during her reign such as
low countires,threat of Spanish invasion and more to the point,Mary,Queen of Scots.Mary
was the only survived child of the marriage that happened between James VI and Marie
de Guise.While there was Elizabeth with Protestant faint,on the other hand,there was
Mary with catholic faith and Catholics in England thought that the legitimate heir was
Mary.Indeed,she had clearer rights than Elizabeth. Mary faced challenges as she was
born right after her father`s death.Later on,she got married to Dauphin Francis from
France.After Francis`s premature death,she made a second marriage and got married to
her cousin,Henry Stuart.Just like Mary,he also had rights on England, Scotland but
fewer.Moreover,she got married to James Hepburn,who was suspected by burning
Henry`s house,2 months later. After this marriage,Mary was forced to abdicate and she
fled to England,where Elizabeth was ruling at that time. This was an un fortunate choice
while also she had a chance to fly to France since she became a prisoner of Elizabeth for
17 years in England.She couldn`t execute her because of their monarch identity. It is
known that a monarch couldn`t kill another but finally the evidence was provided and she
was executed in 1587 after her involvement in the Babington Plot,orginised to assasinate
Elizabeth and crown Mary. Afterwards, Elizabeth ruled the country until her death.
This is a poem with nine quatrains predominantly written in iambic pentameter following
ABAB rhym scheme. The firs persin voice is used to convey the spekaer`s perspective
and centralizes the execution of Mary. The poem revolves around the idea of the eternity
of life after death which is also empasazied in the title as “decease release” which is also
written in the beginning of the poem in latin “Dum morior,orior” meaning “while I die,I
rise.This title is kind of a summarize of overall topic of the poem. When Elizabeth was in
prison, she had this phrase embroidered on her cloth of estate which is one of the
features of this poem that makes us think that the voice is Elizabeth.
In the opening lines,there is a succession of metaphors around the idea of sacrifice;as it
happens with “lopped tree”(line 4) when the fruit falls, it springs way better later. So,
according to the speaker, damage is needed in order to revitalise.In the second stanza, it
sarts by using “I” which is another aspect that makes it sound more like Mary since in the
last stanza it says “by lopping shot I up to heavenly rest” just like it represents her way of
dying by being beheaded. There is recurrent use of oxymorons such as “death and
renew”(line 7) or “perfection and decay”(line 9).
With the third stanza, there is a change with the voice. In this stanza,Southwell emphasizes
her marytrdom thinking that she is a Saint because of her devout Catholuc figure. With the
5th stanza, she portrays death as positive whilst life is negative “..my death,hath wrought
my joy”.Because of her 16 years of suffering in prison,she couldn`t consider life as
something joyful.This is a catholic move to undersell the earthly life in favour of eternal life.
She makes references to her prison days because she would have spend more years in
prsion if she hadn`t been killed “my speedy death hath shortened long annoy”. Moreover,
she made “endless life assured” thanks to death. This endless life is portrayed as a better
place where all the suffering comes to an end. In the 6th stanza, her moment of death is
described by using similes.“My scaffold” refers to the place where she was exectued and
found the comfort;”the block” refers to the a hard surface on which people are beheaded;
“my headman” refers to the executer;”his axe” refers to the device that was used to kill.
These objects that appeared in the scene are being beautified in the poem as in the last
stanza “his axe” just helped her to get rid of her suffering and her death is presented as
something blissfull and serene for her. The beautification of these objects contruibutes to
the overall positive portrayal of her death. In the text also alliteration is used to highlight the
contrast of the contrary words such as “Cut off my Cares from Cumbered..”(line 24),”my
right my ruth..”(line 31) The last two stanzas Mary narrate the suffering of her life and then
show how her death has brought her to a position of rebirth and growth. She was born as a
misofortuned Prince but then her position made her a threat to Elizabeth and this turned
her life into torture “my titles wrought my trap”(line 31),”my worthly heaven my hell”. ( line
32) In the last stanza,on the contrary to life in the kingdom of heaven all this process is
reversed for her emphasizing her liberation by death “from hell to a heavenly reign”
Throughout the whole poem ,she speaks about death,as an immortal figure and with the
poem she underscores how life was full of bad luck for her,how she ended up by being
beheaded and how after death she joined to the train of joy,serene,peace.During the text,
she uses natural elements to indicate her rising by her decease such as “lopped tree”,”
spice”,”incense” and “kernel”. All of these element have something to do with disappering
and appearing from scrath in a better way.Mary`s death,like these elements,symbolized not
the end but the commencement of a better life,as she ascended to heaven as a martyr as
per Catholic accounts,she was executed for her faith.
Southwell belonged to the Society of Jesus that aimed to promote reform within the
Church and strengthen Catholicism through the practice of spiritual exercises. It was a
Counter-Act movement to the protetsant Reformation.Robert Southwell worked
clandestinely,but he was caught,imprisoned in the Tower of London and exectued. This
poem was written while he was imprisoned and published posthumously. As it can be seen,
he had similarities with Mary`s life.