Introduction
-
Jake Griesel
Abstract
The sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Church of England fused Reformed Protestant doctrine and liturgy with an ecclesial structure and church court system that was more in continuity with pre-Reformation norms. This chapter introduces the complex nature of the early modern English Church’s Reformed identity, and how this informed or was reflected in recurring contests across the vicissitudes of England’s ‘long Reformation’. It traverses religious and political history from the Elizabethan Settlement to the Hanoverian Succession (1559–1714), illustrating the continual way in which questions of the English Church’s Reformed identity invaded both secular and spiritual spheres, whether at a personal, local, or national level. It situates the present volume within existing historical scholarship, emphasising that while conformity has previously been examined as a prime leitmotif through which to appraise the ramifications of England’s ‘long Reformation’, it was a commitment to Reformed Protestantism in particular, however that was interpreted and practised, which especially drove wider perceptions of conformity or nonconformity across both civil and ecclesiastical spheres. This volume therefore contributes two emerging findings in keeping with recent scholarship, one which impresses the provisional nature of the Tudor settlements of religion, in rejection of the ‘Anglican’ via media myth and in reconsideration of pre-Civil War puritan nonconformity as both moderate and mainstream, and one which establishes the abiding Reformed identity of the English Church, which continued to shape understandings of conformity in the Caroline and later Stuart Churches, against previous scholarly notions that by then the English Church’s earlier Reformed identity had largely disappeared.
Abstract
The sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Church of England fused Reformed Protestant doctrine and liturgy with an ecclesial structure and church court system that was more in continuity with pre-Reformation norms. This chapter introduces the complex nature of the early modern English Church’s Reformed identity, and how this informed or was reflected in recurring contests across the vicissitudes of England’s ‘long Reformation’. It traverses religious and political history from the Elizabethan Settlement to the Hanoverian Succession (1559–1714), illustrating the continual way in which questions of the English Church’s Reformed identity invaded both secular and spiritual spheres, whether at a personal, local, or national level. It situates the present volume within existing historical scholarship, emphasising that while conformity has previously been examined as a prime leitmotif through which to appraise the ramifications of England’s ‘long Reformation’, it was a commitment to Reformed Protestantism in particular, however that was interpreted and practised, which especially drove wider perceptions of conformity or nonconformity across both civil and ecclesiastical spheres. This volume therefore contributes two emerging findings in keeping with recent scholarship, one which impresses the provisional nature of the Tudor settlements of religion, in rejection of the ‘Anglican’ via media myth and in reconsideration of pre-Civil War puritan nonconformity as both moderate and mainstream, and one which establishes the abiding Reformed identity of the English Church, which continued to shape understandings of conformity in the Caroline and later Stuart Churches, against previous scholarly notions that by then the English Church’s earlier Reformed identity had largely disappeared.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Notes on contributors vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- List of abbreviations x
- Introduction 1
- I Ecclesio-political and liturgical contests 19
- 1 Contests, contexts, and the boundaries of conformity in early modern England 21
- 2 Protestant jurisdictionalism and the nature of Elizabethan puritan nonconformity 44
- 3 Cathedrals, the Reformed, and the Elizabethan Church 71
- 4 Sir Francis Hastings, Jacobean nonconformity, and the House of Commons, 1604–10 97
- 5 Zachary Crofton, the Restoration Church of England, and the dilemmas of partial conformity, 1662–65 117
- II Reformed conformist theology and ecclesiology 139
- 6 Justifying faith and faith as a virtue in the theology of Richard Hooker 141
- 7 The best religion? The revived ambitions of the Reformed conformist establishment, 1637–40 157
- 8 The Reformed conformist tradition, 1640–62 179
- 9 Edward Reynolds and the making of a presbyterian bishop 199
- 10 The Reformed theology of Thomas Hobbes 222
- 11 Reformed orthodoxy as conformity in the post-Restoration Church of England 245
- Afterword 263
- Index 271
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Notes on contributors vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- List of abbreviations x
- Introduction 1
- I Ecclesio-political and liturgical contests 19
- 1 Contests, contexts, and the boundaries of conformity in early modern England 21
- 2 Protestant jurisdictionalism and the nature of Elizabethan puritan nonconformity 44
- 3 Cathedrals, the Reformed, and the Elizabethan Church 71
- 4 Sir Francis Hastings, Jacobean nonconformity, and the House of Commons, 1604–10 97
- 5 Zachary Crofton, the Restoration Church of England, and the dilemmas of partial conformity, 1662–65 117
- II Reformed conformist theology and ecclesiology 139
- 6 Justifying faith and faith as a virtue in the theology of Richard Hooker 141
- 7 The best religion? The revived ambitions of the Reformed conformist establishment, 1637–40 157
- 8 The Reformed conformist tradition, 1640–62 179
- 9 Edward Reynolds and the making of a presbyterian bishop 199
- 10 The Reformed theology of Thomas Hobbes 222
- 11 Reformed orthodoxy as conformity in the post-Restoration Church of England 245
- Afterword 263
- Index 271
