Manchester University Press
1 Contests, contexts, and the boundaries of conformity in early modern England
Abstract
This chapter explores disputes over adiaphora or ‘matters indifferent’ to reflect on several paradoxical aspects of conformity in English Protestantism. These practices of worship, left unspecified in the Bible, seemed to operate in an area of potential compromise and contact between Reformed groups, and yet proved intractable, causing bitter conflicts over the right to exercise authority over these matters and the content of what was imposed. Yet the topic also linked to wider debates in which Protestants participated, and a core theme of the chapter is the revealing parallels between apparently dissociated quarrels, religious and temporal. Considering first the comparable and sometimes interwoven disputes over academic dress in mid-seventeenth-century Oxford, it shows both how such conflicts were impossible to avoid in daily life and how they became ensnared in issues of authority. Second, it turns to an example of how commentaries on Catholicism could also become entangled with the question of Reformed conformity. Finally, the chapter reflects on the complexities of the relationship between the theory and practice of religious co-existence. The interplay of official orders about how to worship, attempts to negotiate flexibility formally, and daily forbearance meant that Reformed conformity in early modern England had constantly fluctuating and porous boundaries.
Abstract
This chapter explores disputes over adiaphora or ‘matters indifferent’ to reflect on several paradoxical aspects of conformity in English Protestantism. These practices of worship, left unspecified in the Bible, seemed to operate in an area of potential compromise and contact between Reformed groups, and yet proved intractable, causing bitter conflicts over the right to exercise authority over these matters and the content of what was imposed. Yet the topic also linked to wider debates in which Protestants participated, and a core theme of the chapter is the revealing parallels between apparently dissociated quarrels, religious and temporal. Considering first the comparable and sometimes interwoven disputes over academic dress in mid-seventeenth-century Oxford, it shows both how such conflicts were impossible to avoid in daily life and how they became ensnared in issues of authority. Second, it turns to an example of how commentaries on Catholicism could also become entangled with the question of Reformed conformity. Finally, the chapter reflects on the complexities of the relationship between the theory and practice of religious co-existence. The interplay of official orders about how to worship, attempts to negotiate flexibility formally, and daily forbearance meant that Reformed conformity in early modern England had constantly fluctuating and porous boundaries.
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
