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When originally published in 1972 this book – chiefly thematic in approach and based on the author’s doctoral thesis - was hailed as the first regional study and micro analysis of the development of English Puritanism to appear in print. Leading scholars like Patrick Collinson welcomed its appearance. Internal contrasts within the huge, sprawling diocese of Chester and its large parishes are drawn out as are comparisons with the religious situation in other parts of the country. The ways in which, for much of the period under review, Puritanism in this region was actively supported, and not persecuted, by the authorities is a key distinctive feature which receives careful attention. So do the activism of puritan laity and gender dynamics. Puritan clergy provide only part of the story which is documented in these pages though often it is most conspicuous (not least because clergy tend to be the principal narrators). There is much here on women’s distinctive roles and contributions within households and congregations and as patrons. Analysis is offered of the reading habits of puritan clergy and laymen as a major example of the ways in which puritans in this region were closely connected with the wider world. Contributions made to Puritanism in this diocese by clergy from outside it are also assessed. The ways in which individual and corporate patronage was brought to bear in favour of Puritanism receives a whole chapter of its own. Tensions and conflicts between puritans and Roman Catholics in the North West are carefully reviewed in what was in effect a frontier region.
have in print set before him’. But in themselves set prayers were not enough. ‘If any man will rest in his book prayers,’ Hinde went on, ‘and never strive to speak unto God out of his own heart, such a man in my opinion comes far short of the power and practice, comfort and fruit of true prayer . . .’ 97 3 The godly discipline The puritan divines of the diocese took a leading
of all erected the godly discipline within his own household, allowing only the godly to have a place within it. The Bruen household went to church as a body, in procession, singing psalms as they went, ‘leaving neither cook nor butler behind him nor any of his servants but two or three to make the doors and tend the house until their return’. 33 Bruen, in short, set up a miniature religious
testament [and] said it behoves you and I to look about us and to serve God that we may be of that remnant. Clearly, the puritan layman could be confident not only of his own faith but also of his competence to evangelise and to uphold the godly discipline. A position such as this was the natural outcome of the independence gained through participation
that officially given to the clergyman. Time and time again, laymen were presented in the Church courts not simply for meeting together to sing psalms, repeat sermons and the like, but for expounding doctrine. It is quite clear also that the godly layman played an important part in the movement towards Reformation and the establishment of the godly discipline. He could be a proselytiser in his own right
Professor Trevor-Roper’s point that the persecution of witches was particularly intensive m areas where puritanism and Catholicism were in collision. 14 Although Catholics and puritans were poles apart in religion, what helped to intensify the desperate rivalry between them was the issue of the godly discipline: For my own part [wrote the puritan
the possibility for the British churches to be cleansed of the ungodly remnants of both the first Reformation and the more recent Laudian innovations.29 The resurrection of the godly cause in England caused pre-existing and unresolved tensions and questions concerning godly discipline and the relationship between church, king and Parliament to revive. Recent studies advancing the notion of an ‘Erastian revolution’ have tended to downplay these issues within English religious history. Jeffrey Collins criticises civil war historians for focusing too much on doctrine
wilderness and into Canaan (123). This is the conventional discourse of godly discipline, but does it also speak to the condition of a young black woman in seventeenth-century London? Without specifying that this maid is a non-native speaker, Jessey makes it clear in his report that he had a hard time understanding her speech (122). Was she speaking heavily accented
–204. 3 Hsia, World of Catholic Renewal, 1540–1770; O’Malley, Trent and All That; van Engen, ‘Multiple Options’. 4 Lenman, ‘The Limits of Godly Discipline in the Early Modern Period with Particular Reference to England and Scotland’, 124–45; Watt, ‘Scotland’, 3, 396
in early modern Scotland’, in Leneman (ed.), Perspectives in Scottish Social History, pp. 83–106; Winifred Coutts, ‘Women, children and domestic servants in Dumfries in the 17th century’, Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society, 61 (1986), pp. 73–83; G. DesBrisay, ‘Wet nurses and unwed mothers in seventeenth-century Aberdeen’, in Ewan and Meikle (eds), Women in Scotland, pp. 210–20; G. DesBrisay, ‘Twisted by definition: women under godly discipline in seventeenth-century Scottish towns’, in Y. G. Brown and R