James Gairdner (1828–1912) was one of the foremost authorities of his day on the Tudor period. This magisterial four-volume survey (originally published 1908–1913) argues that the impetus for the English Reformation came from the Lollard movement of the late fourteenth century. A prolific researcher and editor, Gairdner devoted his career to English history, and his study is both meticulous and factually sound. His critics, however, were quick to observe that the Lollard hypothesis was tenuous, and this mature work is most valuable today to those interested in the history of Reformation scholarship. Focusing on the more immediate causes of the Reformation, Volume 2, published in 1908, considers the rise of German Protestantism, the dissolution of the monasteries, the history of the English Bible and the influence of Katherine Parr and the New Learning, concluding with the death of Henry VIII in 1547.
