The War of the Words: Propaganda, Sermons, Pamphlets, and Polemics
Volume IX in the series The Crown and the Cross: England's War Against Rome
In early modern Europe, swords were not the only weapons of war?words could wound, convert, or condemn with equal force. The War of the Words plunges readers into the ideological battleground of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, where pamphlets replaced pistols and preachers rivaled generals.
From Foxe's Book of Martyrs to Jesuit underground presses, from state-sponsored sermons to stage plays laced with religious satire, this volume unpacks the propaganda war that shaped English national identity and Protestant triumphalism. Readers will encounter the fierce polemics between More, Tyndale, Knox, and Bellarmine, the calculated use of the printing press as a weapon, and the performative power of martyrdom scenes, allegorical art, and anti-Catholic ballads.
This is not just the story of ink and parchment?it is the saga of religious control, memory construction, and the battle for the soul of a nation.
Perfect for readers of history, religion, literature, and politics, The War of the Words reveals how print culture, theological polemic, and state censorship forged the Protestant imagination and redefined the role of faith in the modern world.
