Glasgow

Oxford

guidelines for preparing for tutorials: 

before term begins:  An initial reading list and essay title will be sent to you at the end of the previous term.  As well as writing your first essay, you should read one of the recommended surveys of the Reformation (English and Continental) in the vacation before beginning your tutorials.  The full reading list will be distributed at the first tutorial, and we will work together to select which subjects you will cover.

reading lists will tend to be extensive, and you will need to skim read to identify the salient points. You should try to look at all the double starred items on the list and to read the recommended sources.  You may also engage in research of your own, through OxLIP and Oxford’s other resources.

Whilst reading for your essay, you will need to get a sense of what was happening to whom when (drawing up a timeline may help you here).  As you read historical accounts or discussions, consider why historians’ arguments about the same events differ.  You might ask yourself “How does the historian know that?” (i.e. what evidence is being used?). What interests might the evidence represent?  What interests might the historian be representing?  For each essay, try to read at least one or two original sources (i.e. texts written at the time you are writing about).

Expect to read for each essay:

a selection of original sources (if no sources are given in the reading list, look for appropriate extracts in the collections of sources on the reading list – see below)

skim the works marked ** and read relevant sections more carefully

and look at least two or three other secondary works.

Your essay should be at least 2500 words, and may be longer.

Reference what you read in your essay, by using footnotes, and include a bibliography.  This will help you to see what interpretations are being offered by different historians, and to remember the evidence on which you are basing your own judgement.

You should write in an academic style, but you may wish to use footnotes to raise questions, to indicate points where you are confused, or to mention specific points you would like to discuss further in the tutorial.  Tutorials are the best opportunity you will get to discuss your unanswered questions!  (There may not be an answer, but that can be interesting in itself.)

You should bring two copies to the tutorial (three if you are being tutored in a pair).  I will keep one copy of your essay and mark it after the tutorial, usually returning it at the next tutorial.

libraries: The books you will need are generally in the Bodleian and Theology Faculty Centre libraries. You may also find the History Faculty Library useful.

collections of sources:

The writing of history is based on the study of sources.  You should try to consider some source material for each essay.  Useful collections of documents include:

Continental Reformation

Pamela Johnston and Robert W Scribner (eds), The Reformation in Germany and Switzerland (1993)

B. J. Kidd, Documents illustrative of the Continental Reformation (1911) – central texts but those in French and Latin are not translated!

William G Naphy. Documents on the Continental reformation (1996) – a somewhat idiosyncratic collection of sources generally not including texts by the major players.

Tom Scott and Bob Scribner (eds), The German peasants' war: a history in documents (1991)

M. Spinka (ed.), Advocates of Reform from Wyclif to Erasmus (Library of Christian Classics 14, 1953), 187-279 [Erasmus, Enchiridion: and NB Introduction]

C. Scott Dixon (ed.), The German Reformation: the essential readings (1999)

English Reformation

Gerald Bray (ed), Documents of the English Reformation 1526-1701 (1994; corrected ed 2004)

versions of the Book of Common Prayer:

www.justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/england.htm