Neighbours across the religious divide: Coping with difference in Henrician Kent

By focusing on confessional conflict in sixteenth-century England, this chapter aims to bring activities intended to confront as well as confirm the notion of neighbourliness into even sharper relief. It focuses on an extraordinary set of records produced on behalf of Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, when Henry VIII gave him leave to investigate what became known as the Prebendaries’ Plot of 1543. Ethan Shagan’s interest in Cranmer’s evidence lies primarily in his exploration of the impact of confessional conflict on social relations, local politics and the responses of Kentish men and women to royal religious policy. The chapter attends to activities in the parish more closely, particularly how people in the diocese of Canterbury chose to deploy places beyond the alehouse, the household or even the street in their disputes. It considers the use of the parish church as a site of religious disputation, employed in the movement, speech and posturing of individuals and groups.