Many recent studies have investigated the significance of early modern marriage,
but none consider divorce and the debates it generated, although both
were of central importance to the period. This work demonstrates that
Protestant debates about divorce following Henry VIIIs annulment and subsequent
religious break from Rome facilitated Englands larger negotiation
between medieval and modern values, institutions, and attitudes toward the
state. The book considers poems, plays, and courtly and religious literature by
More, Sidney, Shakespeare, Jonson, and others to demonstrate how the...