If we affirm against recent criticism the authenticity of the Middle Recension of the Ignatian letters, we are nevertheless left with the enigma of Ignatius' relations with Polycarp. This paper explains that enigma in terms of two distinct cultural worlds of early second-century Christianity that come together in the meeting of these two church leaders. Ignatius was the first great missionary bishop who reinterpreted church order, the eucharist and martyrdom against the backcloth of the Second Sophistic in Asia Minor, with its pagan processions, cult and embassies that celebrated the social order of the Greek city state in relation to imperial power. Much of Ignatius' iconography was alien to Polycarp, though the latter was finally to canonise both him and his writings by focusing on his impressively enacted refutation of Docetism through his portrayal of his forthcoming martyrdom.

This paper does not discuss the authenticity or antiquity of the Holy Shroud. It addresses the problem of its historical appearance in the 1350s and its antecedents, if any, before that date. It is suggested that the object owed its creation (if a replica) or its transmission into Europe (if genuinely a relic) to the efforts of members of the Franciscan order. It speculates particularly on the role of Spirituals of that order aligned with Fra Angelo Clareno and his associates. The conclusions do not assert but suggest the thesis, and advance it as a line of inquiry meriting further pursuit.

This study sets the history of a friendship in the context of religious reform in Italy in the 1530s. Richard Morison and Michael Throckmorton were friends at the University of Padua but gradually became foes. In 1536 Morison returned to England to become Cromwell's propagandist and later Throckmorton began his dramatic career as Pole's agent. In Italy, however, both these young humanists had links with a group of reformers later called ‘spirituali’. Morison met them through contacts with Edmund Harvel and Bishop Cosimo Gheri. The discovery of Throckmorton's inventory shows that he owned books associated with Italian reform, including banned publications containing writings of the Northern Reformers. The rift between them was caused by political reformation in England, not religion in Italy.

The Isle of Man was a distinct diocese before it became a possession of the English crown in 1399. In the following centuries it retained not only a national legislature, the Tynwald, but the lord bishop of Sodor and Man. Ecclesiastical officers were to be found in Tynwald as early as 1614, and throughout the nineteenth century it included the lord bishop, the vicars-general and the archdeacon of the diocese. During the twentieth century the number of ecclesiastical officers in the legislature dwindled, until today only the lord bishop survives, and his position remains controversial.

The Welsh religious revival of 1904–5 was a remarkable event which has evoked a number of contradictory responses. These were in some ways fuelled by the content of a folk memory which often appears to be divorced from the events of the revival itself. As a result, ambiguity has surrounded the revival and particularly the contribution of Evan Roberts, probably its most interesting and colourful leader. This article explores some aspects of that folk memory and seeks to ‘demythologise’ them by drawing on accounts of the revival meetings published by those who were involved at the time.

In recent years, a number of works devoted solely or partly to martyrdom in early modern England – most notably Brad Gregory's seminal Salvation at stake and Anne Dillon's The construction of martyrdom in the English Catholic community – have helped to bring the study of this topic from the margins of scholarship into the academic mainstream. Two of the three works discussed here further develop this recent research by analysing representations of martyrdom in English martyrologies; the third work, Sarah Covington's survey on religious persecution in early modern England, is gravely impaired by its almost complete disregard of the complexities present in the narrative sources on martyrs and their persecutors.