Almost all urban people resented something about the shortcomings or privileges of priests, monks, friars, nuns, bishops, or all of the above. He also carefully observes that “for literally centuries before the Protestant Reformation, medieval men and women who were devout lamented the gap between Christian ideals and lived realities” (6). In his introduction, he describes medieval Europe as “hard,” “dark,” and “dangerous,” a place where “wealth was distributed with radical inequality” and “epidemic diseases” were a constant threat (3-4). It is important to note at the outset that Gregory does not treat pre-Reformation Europe as an Eden. No doubt published to capitalize on the Reformation’s 500th anniversary last October, Gregory’s narrative is at times partial and exaggerated, but there is, nevertheless, a great deal of truth in it too.

But Gregory has survived a storm of criticism and has even produced a new book, Rebel in the Ranks, a popularized version of the same complicated, sweeping, and erudite argument he gave in The Unintended Reformation. Much of the debate has played out on such forums as Historically Speaking, Church History, Catholic Historical Review, Pro Ecclesia, and The Immanent Frame. Gregory’s tome generated a massive response when it was first published, ranging from highly appreciative to acerbically dismissive. In his estimation, the Protestant Reformation, a movement designed to renew and purify religious truth, had the unforeseen consequence of creating the increasingly secular societies in which we live. According to Gregory, the consequences of unresolved doctrinal disagreements brought on by the Reformation continue to influence the ideological and institutional realities of today.

In that book Gregory attempts to explain how the past became the present, using the Protestant Reformation as the key to explaining this development. Gregory is mostly known for his expansive and deliberately provocative book, The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society (Harvard University Press, 2012).

Brad gregory rebel in the ranks