The World of the Small Farmer: Tenure, Profit and Politics in the Early Modern Somerset Levels (original) (raw)
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This text is the substance of a paper given at the conference in memory of Prof. Margaret Spufford 'After Margaret Spufford: English Local History Now' at University of Roehampton, 19th-20th June 2015. It aims to explore the hidden world of conformist religious practice in the Elizabethan church by focusing on the Essex parish of Earls Colne. While the rise of 'Puritanism' has been researched in Earls Colne by a number of historians (most notably Alan Macfarlane's study of the Puritan clerical diarist, Ralph Josselin), it is possible to read conventional evidence 'against the grain' to get a sense of how Josselin's conformist predecessor, William Adams, operated - despite the ways in which Adams and his contemporaries were criticized as inadequate by 'Puritan' opponents. I intend to publish this either as part of the conference proceedings or as a journal article in due course.
‘Son of Thunder or Good Shepherd’, Contesting the Parish Pulpit in Early Seventeenth-Century Leeds
Northern History, 2019
This article revisits a well-known religious conflict in Jacobean Leeds and presents an alternative interpretation of it as arising from differences within mainstream Calvinism, rather than the usual explanation of a clash between reformers and traditionalists. It places John Harrison, the renowned benefactor, centre stage in the opposition to the vicar, Alexander Cooke. They were both Protestants of a reformed stripe and prioritized preaching of the Word over ceremony, but held very different views on what this should mean in practice. Their dispute hardened Harrison's position on the nature of order and authority, and when he built St John's Chapel, several years later, he gave material expression to his views. Several long-standing puzzles about the interior fabric of this well-preserved chapel can be understood as his last word on the conflict.
2012
The relationship between architecture and religion in seventeenth-century England is a problematic one. Despite the apparent ease with which separate theological positions can be allied to a preference or distrust of visual display, closer examination reveals several examples which do not reflect such a directly causal relationship. The conventional model offered by architectural history is still largely dominated by a polarization between two extremes. On one hand is advanced Protestantism, which distrusted architecture's potential deployment at the service of religion. On the other is a High-Church or Laudian position which attempted to recover visual richness and elaboration as a prerequisite for ecclesiastical architecture. Building upon the recent advances made in historical scholarship of the early Stuart Church and in architectural history, this thesis explores the relationship between religion and architecture through three distinct types of chapel architecture. The first are the royal chapels of the Jacobean Court, which were renovated to give visual expression to current religious policies. The second are episcopal chapels, which are here presented within their cultural context and shown to carry significant meanings for the post-Reformation English episcopate. The third are the new college chapels built in Oxford, whose architecture responded to the immediate concerns over the reformed Church's identity and legitimacy. What emerges from considering these three typologies are shared parameters of expectation and association. This consistency crosses not only separate types of chapel, but also opposing theological positions. Such apparent unity of purpose and message, embodied in inherited and newly-built chapel architecture, stands to challenge the assumed polarization of stylistic forms which has dominated the debates within architectural history. It also serves to illustrate architecture's validity as a potential source for early modern English Church history.
The Contested Space of the Aesthetic Realm of Church Architecture in Seventeenth Century England
The aim of this article is to analyse the performativity of church buildings in the Stuart period. I understand performativity as the role of the architectural environment in the edification of the believer. As the article will make clear, the architectural environment acted as an agent for spiritual stimulation. Three hypotheses are formulated to demonstrate that religious architecture took up an active part in devotional exercises. The first hypothesis is that sensory impressions were deemed important for the act of devotion either in a positive or in a negative way, thus being stimulating or deceptive. Secondly, it is proposed that this importance stems from the close relation between sensory and moral qualities or values. The third hypothesis is that this close relationship explains the role of architecture in the performativity of devotion, since architecture is a sensory fact whose impact can be understood in moral terms: the building of a beautiful church becomes an act of piety and charity.
Renaissance Quarterly, 2008
BOOK REVIEWS particularly evident is his dislike for what he terms "cold and lofty. .. experimental predestinarianism" (3) and the "chilling orthodoxy" of "the godly sort in the university" (76). This included "the new dogmatism" of particular atonement (33), which Hoyle sees as a departure from Calvin's theology. At the outset, Hoyle's theological assessment appears to follow a "Calvin against the Calvinists" approach. Coming to interact with Richard Muller's debunking of this hypothesis (30), he seems to shift to accept Muller's conclusions. This ambiguity heightens as the remainder of his work effectively follows the initial approach. Hoyle's descriptions of the post-Reformation "reformed orthodoxy" at points tends to caricature, with little evidence of extensive reading of the works of Calvin and later reformed theologians such as Thomas Cartwright and William Perkins. If Perkins could only "attempt to put a human face to a hard doctrine," why then his "large personal following" and the "wide. .. appeal of this theology" (65)? Perhaps in part because there was a great deal more to the entire theology than the stumbling block of God's sovereignty. Hoyle's account of the Synod of Dort fails to refer to the contextual history of the Dutch Reformed Church and United Provinces, giving the too easy appearance of one-sided injustice against the Remonstrants. A more generous approbation of individuals such as Lancelot Andrewes, William Barrett, and Peter Baro provides the contrast in Hoyle's historiography: despite their contemporary tag as extreme or radical in theology at points oppositional to the "reformed orthodoxy," they are situated as simply being part of a diverse milieu, receiving a greater impartiality. The criticism of caricature may also be laid in terms of the descriptive narrative of the pursuit of divinity studies at Cambridge: Was it dominated and motivated by pomp, pride, and politic? Or was the motivation for many deep conviction and sincere pursuit of God-honoring religion, for the good of their church? In part these concerns reflect the deep challenge of historiography: the historian's bias, the creation of narrative, and the pursuit of historical accuracy and truth. These concerns noted, it must be said that Hoyle skillfully buttresses his thesis, adeptly maneuvering through animated twists and turns of Cambridge history. Bringing to light lesser known figures and occasions, Hoyle provides nothing less than a captivating, significant addition to the historiography of Cambridge, town and university, taking into account diverse streams and strands of theological persuasion. He provides helpful reminders that the boundaries of religious conformity and dissension saw ebbs and flows reflective of not only theology, personality, or politics but all of these. Hoyle's arguments that the rise and eventual predominance of Arminian theology and high church tradition from a period of dominant reformed orthodoxy simply reflected the reality of the broad constituency of the Church of England and that the failed attempt to agreeably define the nature of the Church of England precipitated "the awful crisis" (230) of Cambridge in 1643 is perhaps ultimately a twenty-first-century conclusion. The seventeenth-century answer, by any party, might simply be of course it did-the truth was at stake.
Book review: The English Country House Chapel: Building a Protestant Tradition, by Annabel Ricketts
2009
Book review, discusses the chronological structure of Annabel Rickett's posthumously published monograph on early modern English private chapels. Rickett's narrative is identified as tackling the academic fields of architectural history and ecclesiastical history, unifying them in a material history of religious practice. Rickett's interest in spatial relations is noted. Her exploration of themes such as the tension between status and spirituality, as expressed in interior schemes, span the chronological chapters. The additional value of the gazetter is to summarise the many examples within the text. Future work, for other researchers, could include a richer account of the Protestant relationship of art to religion, integrating architectural spaces with their artefacts.