Reformation and society in Guernsey

The Channel Islands, situated between France and England, have always been exposed to the influences of both countries, and have resolved these potentially conflicting pressures in unique and interesting ways. Dr. Ogier's study of events in Guernsey between 1540 and 1640 explores changes which took place on the island as Catholicism was replaced by Calvinism, imposed by a series of commissions appointed by the English government during the reign of Elizabeth. The changes in society which occurred as a result of the changes in religion are carefully charted in this study; local and related records are used extensively to give a vivid picture of life on the island. As the old Catholic forms of social organisation were replaced by the disciplinarian approach of the Calvinist regime - Protestant pastoral care replacing the former Catholic fraternities - the island's old elite contrived to retain control, with consequent financial benefits to themselves, but at the cost of the failure of the Calvinist dream and increased cultural differentiation in island society.