A history of the reformation in England and Ireland

Written between 1824 and 1827, this book challenges the traditional Protestant narrative of the Reformation, portraying it as a source of national decline rather than progress.

Cobbett, though not a Catholic, passionately defends the pre-Reformation era as a time of greater social harmony and prosperity, blaming the Reformation for contemporary poverty and strife.

The work is notable for its lively, polemical style and its focus on the social and economic consequences of religious change, rather than theological debate.