Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the changing pieties of townspeople and villagers before, during and after the Reformation. It presents an interdisciplinary range of scholars with the purpose of presenting new research on a subject of importance to historians of society and religion in late medieval and early modern Europe. The book examines the diverse evidence for transitions in piety across a period traditionally understood to be one of immensely significant ideological change in England, and in Europe more generally. It demonstrates the very important role of language in the reception and the transmission of spiritual meaning. The book shows how important it is to be aware of the ways piety was defined by different audience groups when analysing the meanings attributed to pious concepts in devotional literature.