To be honest, the book was maybe a bit too dry, but this isn't that much of an issue when you know in advance that it's not fiction. As I am interested in the Tudor dynasty, I was very intrigued and happy that I could learn more about them.

If you are looking for a superficial overview of the religious turmoil that dogged the Tudor period, this is not the book for you. If, however, you want an in-depth analysis from an extremely knowledgeable source, you've come to the right place. Rounding is a gifted writer, and it's clear that she has probed every extent source on these horrific events in England's history. The familiar names are here, of course - John Rogers, Anne Askew, Thomas Cranmer, etc - but those who history has seemed to forgotten finally find their story told with equal reverence. The narrative is dense and sometimes dreary, but that's to be expected. Religious martyrdom is a serious subject that deserves an academic, rather than popular approach. I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the religious reformation, the people leading or attempting to hinder it, and the victims of their actions.

It’s a very interesting and informative book about the changing religious views of Tudor England.
It starts out a little slow. Rounding takes the time to carefully introduce the major players of the time period and explain the changing political and religious climate. Then she starts introducing the martyrs in chronological order and from there the pace picks up. When possible, she lets each person tell his own story through his own writings and verifies it from other sources. She only digresses from their personal stories to explain the political changes that affected them. Even though the timeline moves back and forth with each martyrs story, I never felt lost. She did a wonderful job of keeping it very clear.
To make the quoted court records, letters, memoirs, and period accounts easier to read, Rounding updated the spelling and grammar.
Several times in the book she spoke dismissively of the idea of absolute truth. I thought it was written by a secular scholar with a definite post-modern view of Scripture. In the Epilogue, however, she tells us that she is an Anglican with Catholic leanings. I’m a Baptist. Those doctrines are still as divergent as they were then, maybe more. So I didn’t really agree with much of the Epilogue in which she opines on everything she would have us learn from that terrible time. Her conclusion was that it would be best if humanity learned to doubt. That would save us from the evils of religious persecution, ISIS, and intolerance. She seems not to accept the idea that God has told us some very definite things in His Word, and He expects us to obey Him, not our culture or our desires.
It’s a good secular chronicle of what happened, and what each side believed. I found it very encouraging.
I received this as a free ARC from NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press. No favorable review was required. These are my honest opinions.

4 stars

As an avid student of Tudor history, I found this book to be both informative and interesting. Although a little dry for the casual reader, it is a valuable resource as a history of religious-based martyrdom in 16th Century England.

The book is filled with quotes from those who were witnesses, where available, and those who speculated on what may have happened. It gives a history of how the unfortunate individuals named in the book came to be condemned as heretics as well as how they became to believe the way they did at the time of their death.

The whims of a powerful king were laid out in the book and the changing nature of religion, of what was allowed to be believed was illustrated very clearly. You could be condemned as a heretic on the slightest suspicion, or by a neighbor or enemy out to increase his/her position with the court or the king. Lies were told; perjury of testimony was common. What was true on one day might not be true on the next.

It must have been a horrible time in which to live, not knowing exactly what to “believe.” As King Henry VIII changed his views in order to get what he wanted, without regard to the people he governed, he created a terrible quandary. He was a Catholic at heart, but his personal wants outweighed his belief in the Catholic Church.

This book is well written and well laid out. It traces a linear path through the history of the deaths of so-called heretics in the 16th Century. It is a must for anyone studying this era, or who has an interest the history of heretical beliefs in England.

I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for forwarding to me a copy of this interesting and informative book to read and enjoy.

Few books will ever give you the feeling that this book will. Virginia Rounding in her new book "The Burning Time", places the reader in a remarkable position. In this view of the history of the Protestant Martyrs under the reigns of Henry VIII and Mary there is a clear and brilliant narrative that draws on a great deal of documentation and analysis.

I've studied this period and these events since I started university 30 years ago. With this book its like I have been wearing the wrong prescription glasses and everything before was a blur. This book adds definition and a sense of immediacy that I have never experienced about this period.

The subject of course is not an easy one to come to grips with. The inhumanity of torture and execution in this time of religious persecution is told in such a way you know with clarity and certainty the life of those who were the victims and those who were the persecutors. I do not believe I will ever forget the descriptions of Richard Rich and Anne Askew. It is all so real that you can not rush this book, its the best you can get to being there.

Sadly it does have some drawbacks. For such a period of history nothing we write will ever be perfect as it was so remarkable and influential as to what came after. So I hope the author if she reads this will allow me a few words about what you the reader may need to augment this work with. Parallels both modern and historical are drawn on and examined by the author. She cautions where parallels may be taken too far and is very insightful where she examines the context that the persecutions took place in.

The use of the inquisition as a political method to unify the kingdom in Spain is something that I think should be considered and referenced in relation to these events. We can see through the Spanish marriage alliance that the inquisition methods were used in England at this time with a very large Spanish influence.

Secondly the history of martyrdom of early Christianity should have been discussed. Martyrdom is an essential aspect to the creation of early Christianity. The parallels to the two periods are remarkable, both in how the martyrs saw themselves and also how persecution played into the narrative they were creating. It raises the question of whether the works of the Church Fathers such as Polycarp may have influenced the martyrs. They knew the bible cold, so its unlikely the Church Fathers would have been unknown to them.

These aspects aside this is a great book for anyone who has more than a passing interest in this history and for anyone who wants to understand the critical beginnings of Protestantism in the English speaking world. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of Theology or Politics.