English Presbyterianism, 1590-1640


Book Description

Drawing on hitherto unexamined manuscripts, this book challenges the standard narrative that English presbyterianism was successfully extinguished from the late sixteenth century until its prominent public resurgence during the English Civil War.




Anti-Democracy in England 1570-1642


Book Description

Anti-democracy in England 1570-1642 is a detailed study of anti-democratic ideas in early modern England. By examining the rich variety of debates about democracy that took place between 1570 and 1642, it shows the key importance anti-democratic language held in the late Tudor and early Stuart periods. In particular, it argues that anti-democratic critiques were addressed at 'popular government' as a regime that empowered directly and fully the irrational, uneducated, dangerous commonalty; it explains why and how criticism of democracy was articulated in the contexts here under scrutiny; and it demonstrates that the early modern era is far more relevant to the development of democratic concepts and practices than has hitherto been acknowledged. The study of anti-democracy is carried out through a close textual analysis of sources often neglected in the history of political thought and by way of a contextual approach to Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline history. Most importantly, the study re-evaluates the role of religion and cultural factors in the history of democracy and of political ideas more generally. The point of departure is at a time when the establishment and Presbyterians were at loggerheads on pivotal politico-ecclesiastical and theoretical matters; the end coincides with the eruption of the Civil Wars. Cesare Cuttica not only places the unexplored issue of anti-democracy at the centre of historiographical work on early modern England, but also offers a novel analysis of a precious portion of Western political reflection and an ideal platform to discuss the legacy of principles that are still fundamental today.




Early Modern Ethnic and Religious Communities in Exile


Book Description

In the Early Modern period, the religious refugee became a constant presence in the European landscape, a presence which was felt, in the wake of processes of globalization, on other continents as well. During the religious wars, which raged in Europe at the time of the Reformation, and as a result of the persecution of religious minorities, hundreds of thousands of men and women were forced to go into exile and to restore their lives in new settings. In this collection of articles, an international group of historians focus on several of the significant groups of minorities who were driven into exile from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The contributions here discuss a broad range of topics, including the ways in which these communities of belief retained their identity in foreign climes, the religious meaning they accorded to the experience of exile, and the connection between ethnic attachment and religious belief, among others.




Radical Parliamentarians and the English Civil War


Book Description

Radical Parliamentarians and the English Civil War charts the way the English civil war of the 1640s mutated into a revolution, in turn paving the way for the later execution of King Charles I and the abolition of the monarchy. Focusing on parliament's most militant supporters, David Como reconstructs the origins and nature of the most radical forms of political and religious agitation that erupted during the war, tracing the process by which these forms gradually spread and gained broader acceptance. Drawing on a wide range of manuscript and print sources, the study situates these developments within a revised narrative of the period, revealing the emergence of new practices and structures for the conduct of politics. In the process, the book illuminates the eruption of many of the period's strikingly novel intellectual currents, including assumptions and practices we today associate with western representative democracy; notions of retained natural rights, religious toleration, freedom of the press, and freedom from arbitrary imprisonment. The study also chronicles the way that civil war shattered English protestantism - leaving behind myriad competing groupings, including congregationalists, baptists, antinomians, and others - while examining the relationship between this religious fragmentation and political change. It traces the gradual appearance of openly anti-monarchical, republican sentiment among parliament's supporters. Radical Parliamentarians and the English Civil War provides a new history of the English civil war, enhancing our understanding of the dramatic events of the 1640s, and shedding light on the long-term political and religious consequences of the conflict.




Giles Firmin and the Transatlantic Puritan Tradition


Book Description

In Giles Firmin and the Transatlantic Puritan Tradition, Jonathan Warren Pagán offers an intellectual biography of Giles Firmin (1613/14–1697), who lived in both Old and New England and lived through many of the transitions of international puritanism in the seventeenth century. By contextualizing Firmin in his intellectual milieu, Warren Pagán also offers a unique vantage on the transition of puritanism to Dissent in late Stuart England, surveying changing approaches to ecclesiology, pastoral theology, and the ordo salutis among the godly during the Restoration through Firmin’s writings.




The Reformation of the Heart


Book Description

The Reformation of the Heart: Gender and Radical Theology in the English Revolution offers fresh insight into the relationship between radical theology and gender radicalism in the English Revolution. It addresses together two themes which have long fascinated historians of the period: the intellectual formation of religious radicalism, and the prominence of women as prophets and preachers in radical sects. Sarah Apetrei explores the remarkable ideas and reforming visions of a levelling and highly mystical network in the period of civil conflict, the regicide, and its aftermath—a network which linked military chaplains with inspired women and congregations across England. Drawing on both printed works and previously unexamined manuscript evidence, Apetrei discovers that revolutionary radicals were both more theologically daring, and more unified in their support for women's participation, than we have hitherto thought. On one side, the army chaplains and radical preachers developed a highly original theology of gender, conceiving of a female principle in the Godhead. They were also explicit advocates of women's preaching to an extent previously unacknowledged. Concomitantly, women's involvement in preaching and publishing during this period of crisis fostered innovative thinking. In a climate in which Reformed teachings about the limits of election were being reasserted, women were pioneers in teaching the doctrine of universal salvation or 'general redemption'. Female theologians and visionaries also played a prominent part in the dissemination of ideas, drawn from European radical reformations and condemned by the magisterial churches, about the 'heavenly flesh' of Christ and its appearance in the bodies of the saints in the last days. They used highly feminized, maternal imagery to discuss Christ. As such, this book also contributes to feminist epistemology. It shows how, as a group with distinctive experiences, priorities, and cultural identities, the involvement of women in religious reform and the conception of ideas can be truly transformative.




T&T Clark Companion to Nonconformity


Book Description

Protestant Nonconformity, the umbrella term for Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists and Unitarians, belongs specifically to the religious history of England and Wales. Initially the result of both unwillingness to submit to the State's interference in Christian life and a dissatisfaction with the progress of reform in the English Church, Nonconformity has been primarily motivated by theological concern, ecclesial polity, devotion and the nurture of godliness among the members of the church. Alongside such churchly interests, Nonconformity has also made a profound contribution to debates about the role of the State, to family life and education, culture in general, trade and industry, the development of philanthropy and charity, and the development of pacifism. In this volume, for the first time, Nonconformity and the breadth of its activity come under the expert scrutiny of a host of recognised scholars. The result is a detailed and fascinating account of a movement in church history that, while currently in decline, has made an indelible mark on social, political, economic and religious life of the two nations.




The Solemn League and Covenant of the Three Kingdoms and the Cromwellian Union, 1643-1663


Book Description

This book provides the first major analysis of the covenanted interest from an integrated three kingdoms perspective. It examines the reaction of the covenanted interest to the actions and policies of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, drawing particular attention to links, similarities and differences in and between the covenanted interest in all three kingdoms. It also follows the fortunes of the covenanted interest and Presbyterian Church government as it built and changed in response to the Royalists and the Independents during the 1650s.




Reformed identity and conformity in England, 1559–1714


Book Description

This volume is the first collection of essays to focus specifically on how Reformed theology and ecclesiology related to one of the most consequential issues between the Elizabethan Settlement (1559) and the Hanoverian Succession (1714), namely conformity to the Church of England. This volume enriches scholarly understandings of how Reformed identity was understood in the Tudor and Stuart periods, and how it influenced both clerical and lay attitudes towards the English Church’s government, liturgy and doctrine. In a reflection of how established religion pervaded all aspects of civic life in the early modern world and was sharply contested within both ecclesiastical and political spheres, this volume includes chapters that focus variously on the ecclesio-political, liturgical, and doctrinal aspects of conformity.




A Short Introduction to the Westminster Assembly and Its Work


Book Description

What was the Westminster Assembly? Why was it important? What did it achieve? With artful precision, Presbyterian Scholar, Rowland S. Ward (Co-author of Scripture and Worship with Richard Muller), not only firmly provides the answers to these questions, but entrenches the readers with a deeper appreciation of both the Assembly and its achievements.