The author is particularly interested in how Katharine's experience of religion differed from that of other Protestants, and the unusual survival of documents relating to her flesh out the story of her "zeal and her beliefs on communion, liturgy, and ceremonialism in detail" and suggest "the diversity of Protestantism" as it emerged in the later 16th century".
This is only a slim monograph, which is perhaps a good job, since Harkrider's prose could be at best described as pedestrian, and the structure rather repetitive, but the interest of the tale makes the reading worth the effort. And the tale of Katherine, and women like her, need to be recovered for woman today, to understand that their foremothers might have faced even greater restrictions than women today, but they still found ways to make an impact on their world. And to counteract misogynist polemicists like Starkey....
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