Tomorrow Saturday (December 7) the Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society’s winter season of lectures will continue with an examination of how the 16th and 17th century religious upheavals that changed the official faith of the English state from Roman Catholic to Protestant affected the Isle of Man.

The lecture will be held in the Manx Museum Lecture Theatre, at the museum on Kingswood Grove/Crellin’s Hill, Douglas, beginning at 2.30pm.

However, an earlier arrival is recommended to be sure of a seat.

In his presentation ’The Reformation and the Isle of Man’, Dr Tim Grass - a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a senior research fellow at Spurgeon’s College, London, specialising in Church history - will focus on how the Isle of Man’s distinct political and linguistic features impacted on the way the introduction of Protestantism was received during an era which proved so unsettling in other parts of the British Isles.

Did, for example, the fact that most islanders spoke Manx Gaelic present a language barrier to reformers?

Dr Grass says: ’How did a movement which majored on the importance of the word cope with the language barrier? The island’s distinctive political and linguistic features make it a fascinating case study, with the potential to shed light on wider scholarly thinking about the local and regional impact of Protestant reform. The reform process was still ongoing when Bishop Wilson arrived in 1698.’

Dr Grass says a wider-ranging overview of the topic is long overdue, and the paper he will be presenting (in part a report in the progress being made in undertaking this overview) will sketch out the course of events during the period and will draw attention to key issues on which more research is needed.

The lecture will be followed by tea, coffee and biscuits.

In the New Year the winter lecture series will continue on Saturday, January 18, 2020, with ’Butterflies’, a natural history presentation by Gail Jeffcote, co-author of The Millennium Atlas of Butterflies in Britain and Ireland. She will take a look at how the butterfly fauna of the Isle of Man compares with that of the adjacent isles, and what the effects of climate change have been.

Non-IOMNHAS members can attend lectures in return for a small donation.

IOMNHAS members’ annual subscriptions are due on March 1, 2019, and individual reminders will be sent out.

For further information about these events and the IOMNHAS, plus details of how to join see www.manxantiquarians.com and www.facebook.com/IsleofManNaturalHistoryandAntiquarianSociety