Morning Stars of the Reformation: Early Religious Reformers in the Bristol Region

The original Morning Star of the Reformation was John Wycliffe, whose teaching prefigured much that would become mainstream Protestantism a century later, especially the direct relation of Christian to God through the words of the Bible and not through priests.

Despite repression, his followers, known as Lollards, remained active in the South West until overtaken or subsumed within the Lutheran reformation of the sixteenth century.

Bettey’s account here takes the story through to that other great figure, William Tyndale, the Gloucester man who can claim much of the credit for the wording of the King James Bible of 1611.

About the Author

Dr Joseph Bettey was formerly Reader in Local History at the University of Bristol. He is the author of numerous books and articles on various aspects of the history of Bristol and the West Country.  Recent publications include Wiltshire Farming in the Seventeenth Century (2005), Archive & Local History in Bristol & Gloucestershire (2007) and Records of Bristol Cathedral (2007). His titles in this ALHA series are The Medieval Friaries, Hospitals and Chapelries of Bristol,  From Catholic Devotion to Puritan Piety; Responses to the Reformation in the Avon Area 1530 – 1603,  Morning Stars of the Reformation: Early Religious Reformers in the Bristol Region and St James’s Fair, Bristol, 1137 – 1837.