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This book explores the religious and secular rituals that marked the passage of the year in late medieval and early modern England, and tells the story of how these rituals altered over time in response to political, religious, and social changes. The book examines a number of important and controversial issues such as: the character and pace of the English Reformation; the nature of the early Stuart ‘Reformation of Manners’; the context of writers such as Ben Jonson and Robert Herrick; the origins of the science of folklore; the relevance of cultural divisions in the English Civil War; the impact of the English Revolution; and the viability of economic explanations for social change. The book includes source material such as local financial records.

Since Elizabethan times puritan reformers had criticized the established church and many of the nation’s social and cultural traditions. This book explores the ‘culture wars’ between reformers and traditionalists once the overthrow of monarchy had swept the reformers into power. Part One surveys the reform agenda under the Rump and Cromwell, and how the regime sought to mould local magistrates and ministers into its instruments and partners. It examines too the fierce propaganda wars waged in press and pulpit. Part Two explores the implementation of reform, especially in urban communities where its prospects were best. It assesses campaigns to suppress blasphemy and swearing, enforce the Sabbath, and purify and energize the church. It explores the reformation of manners, through curbs on disorderly alehouses and the harsh punishment of sexual offenders. Further chapters examine music, theatre, dress, and recreations from hunting to football, assessing what the reformers could accept and what they condemned. Part Three focuses on local contexts, with case-studies that range from communities where reformation was barely attempted to those where it achieved substantial successes. A final chapter examines Exeter, where local magistrates, initially hostile, pursued reformation with unparalleled determination. Puritan reformers found allies among others inspired by the vision of a well-ordered civic commonwealth. Overall, the book challenges recent claims that interregnum reformation comprehensively failed, and offers a more positive and nuanced assessment.