Counter-Reformation

The Counter-Reformation in the novel is the short-lived Catholic restoration under Mary Tudor, set against England’s recent transfer of church lands and the return of religious persecution. It is not merely historical scenery: the period determines the fortunes of the Woolgar family, supplies the language and procedures used against Einor, and forms the political background to Thomas Woolgar’s later attempt to preserve his account in writing.

Historical Setting

The account links the period to the redistribution of the Stapley estate. In 1540, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII granted Stapley Manor and its estate to Richard Staffon, a London mercer. Under the new Catholic queen, Staffon and his family were driven into exile with other Protestants; Thomas Woolgar’s account says that nearly three hundred others were burned as heretics. The estate then passed to Sir John Woolgar, described as a wealthy Sussex businessman rewarded for loyalty to the Catholic Church during Henry’s reign. His son became the priest at St. Joseph’s Church (Banfield).

Thomas’s manuscript portrays Mary Tudor’s reign as a violent reversal of religious power. It reports that the queen’s policy condemned witches and dissenters to expulsion or death, and that more than two hundred heretics had already been burned. Thomas says he witnessed two burnings near Lewes. These details establish the atmosphere in which religious accusations could carry mortal consequences, although they reach the reader through Thomas’s retrospective, self-justifying account rather than an independent historical record within the story.

Religious Authority and the Accusation Against Einor

The Counter-Reformation context shapes the response to Einor. After the Prioress learns of Thomas’s involvement with her and of the surrounding scandal, Thomas confesses selectively and attributes his conduct to Einor’s supposed sorcery. He and the Prioress agree to treat her as a witch and profaner; the Prioress sends for a summoner, an officer who brings alleged sinners before an ecclesiastical court. Thomas then denounces Einor and returns to Banfield to warn members of his congregation.

The accusation draws its force from both formal religious authority and local power. Thomas’s father is a loyal Catholic patron with influence and wealth, while the Prioress must weigh her response against the family’s support for the Church. Thomas’s account also says that the Prioress has benefited from that generosity. Rather than proceeding through a recorded trial, however, the accusation spreads among villagers who believe their faith and families have been wronged. Thomas follows the crowd and helps direct its anger toward Einor. The period’s language of heresy and witchcraft thus becomes entangled with personal guilt, institutional interests, and collective retaliation.

Political Reversal and Thomas’s Exile

The restoration does not endure. Thomas’s manuscript later notes that Elizabeth has taken the throne and that the Pope is again denied in England. The rapid change of regime contrasts with the lasting consequences of the earlier persecutions: Thomas remains separated from Banfield and is assigned to St. Peter’s Church at Stapley, on his father’s estate, where his increasingly troubling account is dismissed as madness.

The family’s property and church connections continue to shape what survives. Thomas says that his father arranged for the Banfield church chest, containing parish records, to be moved to St. Peter’s. He suspects that his father hoped to find material that might disgrace the Woolgar family, but claims that the papers did not contain his confession of his relationship with Einor. Thomas’s later manuscript, written in that same altered religious landscape, attempts to preserve the account he believes the official records will not contain.

Narrative Significance

The Counter-Reformation links public history to the novel’s private record of wrongdoing. Under Mary Tudor, Catholic restoration provides the setting for the persecution of religious dissent and the accusation against Einor; after Elizabeth’s accession, the political reversal leaves Thomas isolated while his manuscript becomes a contested account of the past. His narration presents religious persecution as both a system of authority and a means by which he redirects blame from himself. The period therefore matters not only for the events it permits, but also for the way Thomas explains them—and for the distance between his claims, the institutional record, and the violence his account describes.