Richard Whitford's Dyuers Holy Instrucyons and Teachynges Very Necessary for the Helth of Mannes Soule

Richard Whitford’s Dyuers Holy Instrucyonsand Teachynges Very Necessary for theHelth of Mannes Soule is the last printed work written by a brother of theBrigittine community at Syon Abbey. A vocal opponent of Lutheran reforms andHenry VIII’s agenda to install himself as the head of the Church of England,Richard Whitford was also Syon’s most prolific author. His writing providespastoral guidance on a range of issues as well as powerful articulations of thevalue of religious life during the turbulent years preceding the king’s breakfrom the Catholic Church. Published in 1541, Dyuers Holy Instrucyons is also the only Syon text printed after thedissolution of the monasteries. This text thus offers a rare perspective on the concerns of those faithful to the oldreligion from a religious brother who actively participated in the abbey’scampaign against Lutheran reformers. As with his previous work,Whitford’s Dyuers Holy Instrucyons maintains an openly confrontational stance toward radical reformerswhile offering instruction to readers on issues that would certainly have beentopical for faithful who lived after the 1534 Act of Supremacy—issues focussedon patience, avoiding vice, impediments to spiritual perfection, anddetraction. 

Thisedition makes this significant work available for the first time to modernreaders with crucial discussions of the history and themes of the texts,including the indivisibility of politics and religion in the early years of theReformation and the crucial role that Syon Abbey played in the textualrepresentation of this period in English history.