Under Construction
.
.
Subsection
Parker Society Publications
History of Presbyterianism
.
.
Order of Contents
Brief
Early Writers
Documents
Histories
Cromwell
Theology of
Etc.
Definition: ‘Puritan’
.
.
In Brief
1600’s
Article
Baxter, Richard – Section 7, ‘Some Matters of Fact Preparatory…’ in The Nonconformists’ Plea for Peace, or an Account of their Judgment in Certain Things in which they are Misunderstood… (London, 1679), pp. 118-41
Baxter (1615–1691) gives a comprehensible and fascinating concise sketch of the history of Church conformity and non-conformity, in relation to political matters as well, from the beginning of the Prayer-Book to his own day. He was a first hand observer for much of the latter half of it. Where many historians admit perplexity about the confusing events, Baxter gives what he and others about him understood to be the causative factors and motivations for such, making a coherent, connected narrative.
Outline
Intro
1549-1552 Service-Book & Following
1. Origin, differences & consensus with Prayer-Book
2. Conflict at Frankfurt: Knox vs. Cox
3. Various survival tactics of non-conformists to 1640
1630’s & Rise of Laud’s Party
4. Dissensions amongst old and new conformists: Laud & new rising party: Arminianism, conciliation with Rome, property
5. Parliament’s involvement
6. Principles of Jewel, Bilson & R. Hooker
7. 1637-39: new ceremonies, persecution by Laud, alienation to bishops
1640’s, Parliament & Civil Wars
8. Parliament’s Fears, Parliament sits
9. 1641 Irish kill 200,000 persons
10. Irish claim King’s commission, safety lies in Parliament’s defense
11. 1642 Civil war, Parliament mostly conformists, presbytery little known
12. Parliament’s fear of new rising party & response
13. First open issue: about militia. Lietenants appointed by Parliament almost all episcopal conformists
14. Same with general officers, colonels, majors etc.
Solemn League & Covenant, 1643, Westminster, to Cromwell, 1648
15. Parliament’s armies worsted, seek help of Scots, who pose SL&C as condition (1643), Parliament accepts rather than lose them, not imposed by force, opposition to prelacy an occasion of division, some take due to its lack of teeth
16. Most Westminster divines were conformists in case of deprivation, thinking the ceremonies a snare, they also took the SL&C, which only prohibits prelacy, not episcopacy, which many held moderately
17. SL&C a test for who Parliament could trust, then imposed. Many ministers and gentlemen refused it, also Cromwell’s soldiers, in many counties few took it
18. Pariament generally contrary to presbyterianism except for London, Lancashire and Coventry, where it was not imposed, but a tolerated or commended thing. It came to nothing shortly
King Executed, 1649, Cromwell’s Commonwealth to 1658
19. Parliament fought for “King and Parliament” till New Model Army, then only for “Parliament”, many deserted and sectaries joined Cromwell, who conquered, purged Parliament and executed King Charles I. Set up Commonwealth, sequestration of ministers that refused, Cromwell invades Scotland, sets up their own Parliament in England, Cromwell made Protector, rescued parish ministry, tithes and universities from sectaries
20. This all called “New Causes and Changes”, many presbyterian ministers against all this, some imprisoned, etc. Sober religious people become disaffected to new policies
21. Parish church ministers of every variety of view of Church government, many were not committed to one view
22. Many counties exercised a Church government of lowest common denominator for Episcopalians, presbyterians and Independents with love and concord, till 1659
Transition to Restoration of King Charles II, 1658-1660
23. Cromwell died, 1658, his son ejected, kingdom shamed for confusions, desire to restore King Charles II
24. First open united endeavors against Army to restore the King, including with (non-conformist) ministers who since were silenced and ruined
25. Division of the opposers, the Army and Commonwealth members, ruined them. Old Parliamentarians, Royalists, presbyterians, other ministers with Episcopal unified and restored King. Presbyterian officers of Army et al. turned against the Opposers, which turned the scales, no further resistance, Parliament prepares for King’s return, Baxter, Calamy, Gauden preach, King invited to return
26. Many for healing principles, concord, against revenge
27. Many non-conformists for return of King, necessary terms of concord with much yielding settled. King publishes ‘Gracious Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs’ which seemed to heal almost all breaches
Setting up the Restoration Church, 1660-1662
28. Chancellor gave bishoprics and deaneries to persons of concord
29. King agrees to alterations of Service-Book necessary for tender consciences, Savoy Conference with 12 bishops and 12 presbyterians and Independents to make recommendations to King, presbyterian party handed in 8 instances of “flat sin”, half of one instance handled, others passed over
Great Ejection, 1662
30. King’s “Gracious Declaration” died, Parliament made Act of Uniformity, 1662, above 2,000 ministers ejected and silenced on severe penalties
31. Protestation of some that “nothing but the fear of sin and God’s displeasure should hinder them from conformity, deprecating the woful effects of the division,” requesting abatements
32. Those ejected included:
1. Episcopalians, along the lines of Hooker, for Parliament’s War, for liturgy and ceremonies, who would otherwise conform;
2. Greatest part were “disengaged pacificators”;
3. presbyterians;
4. Independents, who were few;
5. Non-conformists for some things, not all (e.g. Perkins, Bayne, et al.) who otherwise sought to conform upon pain of deprivation.
Those who conformed known as “The New Conformity”.
33. “Presbyterian” became a label of reproach and applied by conformists to all non-conformists at this time, including presbyterians, independents, episcopalians and those neutral.
34. Older non-conformists were ordained by diocesan bishops; younger ones by assemblies of parish pastors, no other route being allowed
Blame & Complex Factors
35. Many charge the civil wars on the non-conformists, each party charges other sides. The truth:
1. Far more non-conformists were for the old Parliament than the late sort of Prelatists.
2. Some sectaries and some hot for Parliament did conform.
3. Some few in the King’s Army or cause, that suffered for him, were against the SL&C, were non-conformists.
4. Many more of the old Episcopal conformists were for Parliament, in contrast to the later sort.
5. Archbishop of York was one of Parliament’s army commanders.
6. Most ministers are dead that were in that war.
7. The Westminster Assembly was of almost all conformists.
8. So small is the number of the present silenced ministers that had any hand in the wars, that if they alone were ejected, the case would be judged easily and thankfully accepted. Most were youths in those years.
9. All the wars since the 1640’s were far from being owned by the common sort of present non-conformists
10. Parliament men then usually professed the principles of Bilson and Hooker and were conformists; so were the main body of the Westminster Assembly, Army, commanders, Lieutenants, majors and sea captains
11. Had hoped the King’s Act of Oblivion ended much of the past, but some conformed ministers still affirm in print that “All the non-conformists were guilty of the king’s death”. Some conformists cry out to magistrates to execute laws on non-conformists because of how they were sequestered under Cromwell, yet there were few non-conformists at the beginning of the wars and the now episcopal and presbyterian non-conformists much disliked the following Causes, parties and tragedies that followed
36. The people who now adhere to the non-conformists did not like the persecuting bishops in the late-1630’s, but, by ministers’ guiding, were hoping for more moderate bishops after that and had more favorable thoughts of episcopacy and submission to it, till some ministers were set over them against their wills and then 2,000 were silenced, so that the people were driven even further from conformity than even the silenced ministers.
37. 3/4ths of the ministers that had kept in the parish churches under the Parliament and Cromwell, notwithstanding the SL&C, Westminster’s Directory, etc., did prove conformists
38. Most of the conformists declared their consent to all things in the 1662 Service-Book before it was ever printed. Even if it was blameless, the ministers would have been silenced except by exercising implicit faith
Non-Conformity Continued, 1662-1679
39. Later attempts at conciliating non-conformists by peaceable divines were not effective, for “reasons unknown to us, or ineffable.”
40. Non-conformists have been called upon to tell the establishment what would satisfy them, who desire nothing but to exercise the ministry to which they were ordained, but the same ignorance and confusion prevails
.
The Early Writers
“The early writers are still important, especially for their documents.” – Owen Chadwick
.
Fuller, Thomas – The Church History of Britain from the Birth of Jesus Christ until 1648, vol. 1, 2, 3 (1868)
Fox, John – The Acts & Monuments, Complete Edition, vol. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (1837) with a preliminary dissertation by George Townsend
Dixon, Richard Watson – A History of the Church of England, vol. 1 (1529-1537), 2 (1538-1548), 3 (1549-1553), 4 (1553-1558), 5 (1558-1563), 6 (1564-1570) (1887-1902) The history runs from 1529-1570
Dixon was strongly Anglican.
Burnet, Gilbert – The History of the Reformation of the Church of England, vol. 1, 2, 3, 4 (1839)
Strype, John
Ecclesiastical Memorials Relating Chiefly to Religion, and the Reformation of it, and the Emergencies of the Church of England, under King Henry VIII, King Edward VI, and Queen Mary I: with large appendixes, containing original papers, records, etc., vol. 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2 (1822)
Cardwell, Edward
Documentary Annals of the Reformed Church of England, being a Collection of Injunctions, Declarations, Orders, Articles of Inquiry, etc., from the year 1546 to 1716, with notes Historical and Explanatory, vol. 1, 2 (1844)
A History of Conferences and other Proceedings connected with the Revision of the Book of Common Prayer from 1558-1690 (1850) 480 pp.
.
Documents
Makower, F. – The Constitutional History & Constitution of the Church of England (1895) 560 pp.
“Impossible to read, but a mine of information.” – Owen Chadwick
Heppe, Heinrich – The Reformers of England & Germany in the Sixteenth Century: Their Intercourse & Correspondence. A Historical Sketch & Original Documents Buy (1859) 225 pp. with an Appendix containing twelve primary source letters in Latin
Elton, G.R. – The Tudor Constitution: Documents & Commentary Buy (1960) 528 pp.
Tanner, J.R. – Tudor Constitutional Documents: AD 1485-1603, with a Historical Commentary (1922) 665 pp.
Gee, Henry & William Hardy – Documents Illustrative of English Church History, Compiled from Original Sources (1896) 705 pp.
“Fullest upon the sixteenth century.” – Owen Chadwick
.
Histories
1800’s
Hannah, William – Wycliffe & the Huguenots, or Sketches of the Rise of the Reformation in England & of the Early History of Protestantism in France (1860) 290 pp.
Selborne, Lord – Notes on Some Passages in the Liturgical History of the Reformed English Church (1878) 215 pp.
Perry, George – History of the Reformation in England (1895) 265 pp. in Epochs of Church History
.
1900’s
Elton, G.R. – England under the Tudors Buy (1955) 520 pp.
Parker, T.M. – The English Reformation to 1558 175 pp. (1960)
Powicke, F.M. – The Reformation in England Buy (Oxford, 1961)
.
2000’s
ed. Ha, Polly & Patrick Collinson – The Reception of Continental Reformation in Britain in Proceedings of the British Academy Buy (British Academy, 2011) 280 pp.
ed. Coffey, John – The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions, Volume I: The Post-Reformation Era, c. 1559-c. 1689 Pre (Oxrford Univ. Press, 2020) 495 pp. ToC
.
Multi-Volume
1800’s
Stoughton, John – History of Religion in England, from the Opening of the Long Parliament to the mid-1800’s, vol. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (1882)
.
1900’s
ed. Stephens & Hunt
Frere, W.H. – The English Church in the Reigns of Elizabeth & James I, 1558-1625 (1904) 430 pp.
Gairdner, James – The English Church in the Sixteenth Century from the Accession of Henry VIII to the Death of Mary (1903) 450 pp.
Hutton, William Holden – The English Church from the Accession of Charles I to the Death of Anne, 1625-1714 (1903) 380 pp.
.
The Oxford Reformers
Shaw, W. Hudson – Introductory Lectures on the Oxford Reformers: Colet, Erasmus & More (1893) 88 pp.
Seebohm, Frederic – The Oxford Reformers: John Colet, Erasmus and Thomas More, being a history of their fellow-work (1913) 550 pp.
.
.
Under Cromwell
Book
Warren, Rebecca – ‘A Knowing Ministry’: The Reform of the Church under Oliver Cromwell, c. 1653-1660 PhD Diss. (University of Kent, 2017) 510 pp.
.
The Theology of the Anglican Church
Toplady
Kirby, W.J. Torrance – The Theology of Richard Hooker in the Context of the Magisterial Reformation (1993) 78 pp.
big systematic in Historical theology
Link PRDL Anglicans, my systematic theology page
.
.
From a Roman Catholic Viewpoint
Hughes, Philip
The Reformation in England, 3 vols. Buy (1952 ff.)
Hughes was a Roman Catholic priest and historian, to be distinguished from Philip Edgcumbe Hughes.
“Best exposition of the Roman Catholic point of view.” – Owen Chadwick
Rome and the Counter-Reformation in England Buy (1942)
.
.
After The Glorious Revolution of 1689
.
On the Definition of a ‘Puritan’
Quotes
1600’s
George Gillespie
English Popish Ceremonies (1637), pt. 2, ch. 5, pp. 23-4
“Neither is this all the injury which is occasioned by the ceremonies [sought to be imposed on the Church of Scotland]: they make godly and zealous Christians to be mocked and nicknamed ‘Puritans’, except they can swallow the camel of conformity.
Our consciences bear us witness, how without all reason we are branded with the name of those ancient heretics ([David Calderwood,] The Pastor & the Prelate, [pt. 3,] p. 36[-38]), from whose opinions and manners, O! how far are we? And as for ourselves, notwithstanding all this, we shrink not to be reproched for the cause of Christ; we know the old Waldenses before us were also named by their adversaries, ‘Cathares’ or ‘Puritans’ (History of the Waldenses, bk. 1, ch. 3): and that without cause has this name been given both to them and us.
But we are most sorry, that such as are walking humbly with their God, seeking eagerly after the means of grace and salvation, and making good conscience of all their ways, should be made odious, and that piety, humility, repentance, zeal, conscience, etc. should be mocked, and all by occasion of the ceremonies.”
.
A Pack of Old Puritans Maintaining the Unlawfulness & Inexpediency of Subscribing the New Engagement… (London, 1650), p. 1 These authors were royalists, contra the more puritan parliament.
“Though we delight not to revive that odious and reproachful name of ‘Puritan’, with which in the height of Prelacy and Prerogative Royal [absolutist government], all conscientious men were stigmatized that scrupled conformity to superstitious innovations in the Church and opposed illegal taxations and impositions in the State…”
.
.
.
Related Pages
History of the Church in England
On Occasional & Partial Conformity without Sin, or Moderate Puritanism