"Sweeping through Europe, the Reformation caught the imagination of whole peoples. Traditionally it has been understood as a change in social and political structures and in doctrine. Peter Matheson argues that the underlying shift was in the very perception of reality, that the Reformation replaced the 'enchanted world' of the medieval church with a different imaginative world. It was this profound shift which accounts for the radicality and extent of the Reformation.". "A work of original research and analysis - by one of the world's leading Reformation historians. Comprehensively illustrated."--BOOK JACKET.