For England, the sixteenth century was, above all, an age of religious upheaval. Behind the glittering procession of Tudor monarchs were dragged the bruised consciences of their unfortunate subjects. Then, at the end of the century, came the genius of Shakespeare, who gave in his plays "the very age and body of the time his form and pressure". To what extent, we may ask, does the religious upheaval of his time feature in these plays? Apparently not at all, is the surprising answer. But "apparently" is not the same as "really". For when we study the plays in relation to the religious movements of the Elizabethan age, we find unsuspected depths of meaning and implication. In these depths we may discern the various echoes of the continuing force of Catholic tradition, the developing establishment of Protestant reform, the gathering onslaught of radical Puritanism, and the steady growth of religious indifferences.