Heirs of the Body and Heirs of the Mind: Greek Education and Religious Agency in the English Reformation

This thesis studies elite men and women’s uses of Greek classical and early Christian texts in order to provide a more nuanced view of the relationship between knowledge of Greek language and the religious controversy between Catholics and Protestants in the English Reformation from 1516 to 1558. It addresses some of the misconceptions of Greek and its connection to Protestant heresy during the Reformation, while also explaining the ways that men and women used Greek in developing and maintaining individual religious identities in sixteenth century England.This research illuminates the ways that Greek literature, reborn in Early Modern European society, influenced Protestant and Catholic educated men and women as they sought to exhibit dignity in the face of religious persecution.