4 Sir Francis Hastings, Jacobean nonconformity, and the House of Commons, 1604–10
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Jonathan C. Harris
Abstract
This chapter argues that historians have misinterpreted the context and ramifications of Sir Francis Hastings’s Privy Council punishment after the celebrated 1605 Northamptonshire petition to King and Council which requested a moderation in the ‘extremitie’ of the 1604 decrees for subscription and conformity. The nature and significance of Hastings’s leadership of the puritan parliamentary cause 1604–10 are re-examined, contributing to Nicholas Tyacke’s call for a more realistic appreciation of the ‘puritan paradigm’ in parliamentary politics. Revealing that Sir Francis Hastings’s puritan parliamentary politics constituted deliberate nonconformity to the attempted Jacobean Religious Settlement, the chapter argues for a reassessment of alleged moderate lay puritan conformity in Jacobean Britain. Historiographical analyses of ecclesiastical politics 1603–10 have been too clerically focused (with emphasis upon clerical subscription and ceremonial conformity), falling into the trap of accepting King James’s definition of his Royal Supremacy in Religion: that it was his prerogative to determine policy, and then delegate implementation through his episcopal bench. This chapter draws attention to the consistent parliamentary challenge to this attempted Religious Settlement, as Hastings co-ordinated a sustained campaign of House of Commons Petitions demanding religious reform. Through a detailed analysis of parliamentary speeches, procedures, and petitions, this chapter not only exposes the extraordinary and overlooked puritan majority in the House of Commons but also highlights that they were no mere mouthpiece for puritan clerical dissent. They in fact articulated a philosophy of temporal and spiritual governance at variance to King James’s own philosophy of monarchical rule.
Abstract
This chapter argues that historians have misinterpreted the context and ramifications of Sir Francis Hastings’s Privy Council punishment after the celebrated 1605 Northamptonshire petition to King and Council which requested a moderation in the ‘extremitie’ of the 1604 decrees for subscription and conformity. The nature and significance of Hastings’s leadership of the puritan parliamentary cause 1604–10 are re-examined, contributing to Nicholas Tyacke’s call for a more realistic appreciation of the ‘puritan paradigm’ in parliamentary politics. Revealing that Sir Francis Hastings’s puritan parliamentary politics constituted deliberate nonconformity to the attempted Jacobean Religious Settlement, the chapter argues for a reassessment of alleged moderate lay puritan conformity in Jacobean Britain. Historiographical analyses of ecclesiastical politics 1603–10 have been too clerically focused (with emphasis upon clerical subscription and ceremonial conformity), falling into the trap of accepting King James’s definition of his Royal Supremacy in Religion: that it was his prerogative to determine policy, and then delegate implementation through his episcopal bench. This chapter draws attention to the consistent parliamentary challenge to this attempted Religious Settlement, as Hastings co-ordinated a sustained campaign of House of Commons Petitions demanding religious reform. Through a detailed analysis of parliamentary speeches, procedures, and petitions, this chapter not only exposes the extraordinary and overlooked puritan majority in the House of Commons but also highlights that they were no mere mouthpiece for puritan clerical dissent. They in fact articulated a philosophy of temporal and spiritual governance at variance to King James’s own philosophy of monarchical rule.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- 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
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- 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
