Ruling Eldership in Civil War England, the Scottish Kirk, and Early New England: A Comparative Study of Secular and Spiritual Aspects

2006 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
William M. Abbott
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
New England ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Christian Mission ◽  
Religiously Based ◽  
Spiritual Body ◽  
Church Government

Within early modern Christianity the idea of church government always entailed a basic contradiction. How could a spiritual body, devoted to Christ's teachings of love and forgiveness, exercise coercive authority? Given the widely accepted need of any sixteenth- or seventeenth-century government to enforce religiously based codes of behavior, churches and church officials were inevitably involved with the secular authorities in detecting and judging offenders. Inasmuch as such judgment had to include the threat of punishment, church officials of any kind were open to the charge of violating their Christian mission, which by nature was to be persuasive and educative rather than punitive, and also their Christian character, which, even among more radical Protestant sects, was to be more otherworldly than that of the laity.

Building Bensalem at Massachusetts Bay: Francis Bacon and the Wisdom of Eden in Early Modern New England

2010 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 577-606
Author(s):  
Zachary Mcleod Hutchins
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
New England ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Jonathan Edwards ◽  
Educational Policies ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
Massachusetts Bay ◽  
Religious Leaders

Francis Bacon's influence on seventeenth-century New England has long passed unnoticed, but his plan for the restoration of prelapsarian intellectual perfections guided John Winthrop's initial colonization efforts, shaped New England's educational policies, and had an impact on civic and religious leaders from John Cotton to Jonathan Edwards.

Jonathan Edwards and Scripture

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
New England ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Jonathan Edwards ◽  
Biblical Exegesis ◽  
Western History ◽  
The Bible ◽  
New Research

Jonathan Edwards and Scripture provides a fresh look at the important, burgeoning field of Edwards and the Bible. For too long, Edwards scholars have published new research on Edwards without paying due attention to the work he took most seriously: biblical exegesis. Edwards is recognized as an innovative theologian who wielded tremendous influence on revivalism, evangelicalism, and New England theology, but what is often missed is how much time he devoted to studying and understanding the Bible. He kept voluminous notebooks on Christian Scripture and had plans for major treatises on the Bible before he died. Edwards scholars need to take stock of the place of the Bible in his thought to do justice to his theology and legacy. In fact, more and more experts are recognizing how important this aspect of his life is, and this book brings together the insights of leading Edwards scholars on this topic. This volume seeks to increase our understanding of Edwards’ engagement with Scripture by setting it in the context of seventeenth-century Protestant exegesis and eighteenth-century colonial interpretation. It provides case studies of Edwards’ exegesis in varying genres of the Bible and probes his use of Scripture to develop theology. It also sets his biblical interpretation in perspective by comparing it with that of other exegetes. This book advances our understanding of the nature and significance of Edwards’ work with Scripture and opens new lines of inquiry for students of early modern Western history.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF POOR RELIEF IN LANCASHIRE, c. 1598–1680

2010 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 551-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
JONATHAN HEALEY
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
State Formation ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Poor Relief ◽  
Poor Law ◽  
The Poor

ABSTRACTThe development of the poor law has formed a key element of recent discussions of ‘state formation’ in early modern England. There are, however, still few local studies of how formal poor relief, stipulated in the great Tudor statutes, was implemented on the ground. This article offers such a study, focusing on Lancashire, an economically marginal county, far from Westminster. It argues that the poor law developed in Lancashire surprisingly quickly in the early seventeenth century, despite the fact that there is almost no evidence of implementation of statutory relief before 1598, and formal relief mechanisms were essentially in place before the Civil War even if the numbers on relief remained small. After a brief hiatus during the conflict, the poor law was quickly revived in the 1650s. The role of the magistracy is emphasized as a crucial driving force, not just in the enforcement of the statutes, but also in setting relief policy. The thousands of petitions to JPs by paupers, parishes, and townships that survive in the county archives suggests that magistrates were crucial players in the ‘politics of the parish’.

Conclusion and Prospect

2018 ◽  
pp. 206-208
Author(s):  
Adriaan C. Neele
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
New England ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Initial Attempt ◽  
Intellectual Context

The conclusion makes several observations about Edwards and his intellectual context. The portrait of Edwards is of a private scholar pastoring churches in New England. As such, he stands in discontinuity with the seventeenth-century theologians and philosophers he admired. Furthermore, Edwards is positioned as a transitional figure between the pre-enlightenment and enlightenment era, though firmly rooted in early modern Reformed theology. Methodologically, the conclusion states that the inclusion of early New England history and theology, the period from circa 1625 to circa 1750, into the field of post-Reformation studies assists one in a more careful examination of the rise and development of Reformed Orthodoxy in New England than has been researched thus far. Secondly, this study offers an initial attempt to fulfill the first consideration by placing Edwards in a broader theological context. Thirdly, reading Edwards against the background of early modern intellectual history offers several areas of unexplored research.

Ireland and the Monarchy in the Early Stuart Multiple Kingdom

1991 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Perceval-Maxwell
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
English Civil War ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Foreign Intervention ◽  
Modern Europe ◽  
The Way

Ireland's position as a kingdom in early modern Europe was, in some respects, unique, and this eccentricity sheds light upon the complexity of governing a multiple kingdom during the seventeenth century. The framework for looking at the way Ireland operated as a kingdom is provided, first by an article by Conrad Russell on ‘The British problem and the English civil war’ and secondly by an article by H. G. Koenigsberger entitled ‘Monarchies and parliaments in early modern Europe – dominium regale or dominium politicum et regale’. Russell listed six problems that faced multiple kingdoms: resentment at the king's absence, disposal of offices, sharing of war costs, trade and colonies, foreign intervention and religion. Koenigsberger used Sir John Fortescue's two phrases of the 1470s to distinguish between constitutional, or limited monarchies, and more authoritarian ones during the early modern period. Both these contributions are valuable in looking at the way the monarchy operated in Ireland because the application of the constitution there was deeply influenced by Ireland's position as part of a multiple kingdom and because Englishmen, looking at Ireland, wanted her to be like England, but, at the same time, did not wish her to exercise the type of independence that they claimed for England.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Gina M. Martino
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
New England ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
New France ◽  
Gender Ideologies ◽  
King Philip's War ◽  
French Colonies ◽  
Almost Continuous

The introduction sets out the book’s major topics and arguments and discusses its methodology, sources, and organization. It states that seventeenth and eighteenth-century women living in the borderlands of the northeastern America participated as essential, martial actors in wars fought by New England, New France, and Native polities. English, French, and Native societies’ existing gender ideologies included space for women to act as combatants, spies, and leaders. Women made war with the approval of their societies, and their presence in remote towns, holding the line in fortified communities was essential to polities’ strategies of expansion and colonization. In English and French colonies, European ideas that supported women taking on substantial roles as public actors in the early modern period are significant throughout the book and are introduced here. Although the book argues that these were centuries of almost continuous war, conflicts that receive particular attention include: the Beaver Wars (mid-seventeenth-century), King Philip’s War (1675-1676), King William’s War (1688-1697), Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713), Dummer’s War (1723-1726), King George’s War (1744-1748), and the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763).

Wales, 1587–1689

2020 ◽  
pp. 224-243
Author(s):  
Lloyd Bowen
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Important Case ◽  
Religious Dissent ◽  
Welsh Language ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Religious Nonconformity

This chapter considers the nature and growth of Protestant nonconformity in Wales from its first glimmerings in the Elizabethan period down to the Toleration Act. The introduction explores the particular attraction of religious dissent in the historiography of early modern Wales, which has imparted a particular cast to our understanding of this period. The chapter then discusses the relative weakness of Puritanism in the country before the mid-seventeenth century, although the important case of John Penry in the 1580s and 1590s is examined. Attention then turns to the crucial developments of the Civil War period and the work of the Commission for the Propagation of the Gospel in Wales (1650–3) which was key to establishing a robust Dissenting presence in the principality. The relationship between religious nonconformity, translation, and the Welsh language is a theme that runs throughout the chapter.

The Empire’s Scorched Shore: Coastal China, 1633-1683

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dahpon David Ho
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Social Engineering ◽  
Maritime History ◽  
Peripheral Populations ◽  
Qing Empire ◽  
Coastal Population ◽  
Coastal Province ◽  
Coastal China

Abstract In the mid-seventeenth century, the Qing empire of China reacted to piracy and rebellion by forcibly depopulating the coast and burning its shoreline into wasteland for twenty years. As unique as the scale and brutality of this response may be in maritime history, the Qing state was not inherently isolationist or anti-maritime. Its underlying imperatives were shared by other early modern states: a desire to establish sovereignty, impose subjecthood, and constrain the mobility of peripheral populations. This article places the Qing Coastal Depopulation of 1661-1683 in the context of fifty years of maritime militarization, invasion, and civil war in the coastal province of Fujian. It portrays the Depopulation as not just a military act to combat pirates or the powerful sealord Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong), but also an act of social engineering to subjugate the coastal population by removing it behind an artificial land boundary. At the same time, the article shows that the Qing state’s practice of “outsourcing” coastal control to regional lords helps to account for the policy’s longevity and some of its severest abuses.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 199-206
Author(s):  
Paul B. Moyer
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
New England ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Main Charge ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
Modern Era

This chapter looks at factors that shaped alleged cases of occult crime in New England, the broader English Atlantic, and Europe during the early modern era. It talks about a widow residing in Lynn, Massachusetts, by the name of Ann Burt, who came under suspicion for witchcraft in 1669 and was believed to have been acquitted as she died of natural causes in 1673. It also details the malefic affliction of five victims as the main charge laid against Widow Burt, including other witnesses that claimed she could read minds and move with preternatural speed. The chapter describes the forces operating on a local, regional, and transatlantic level that shaped the episode of Widow Burt coming under suspicion for witchcraft in 1669. It discusses how the case of Ann Burt was linked to a larger campaign of witch-hunting that stretched across the seventeenth-century English Atlantic.

Neither ancient nor modern: Wallis and Barrow on the composition of continua. Part two: The seventeenth-century context: The struggle between ancient and modern

1997 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Hill
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
The Other ◽  
Intellectual Community ◽  
Educational Methods ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Religiously Based ◽  
John Wallis ◽  
Rule Out

In the the first part of this article* it was shown that neither John Wallis nor Isaac Barrow fits precisely into the modern or traditional categories commonly used by historians. Yet other kinds of tension between tradition and innovation did exist in the wider intellectual community of early modern England that might have some bearing on the state of mathematics. We therefore need to explore how the opposition between ancient and modern was expressed in the seventeenth century. First, there was the religiously based belief in the decay of nature; supporters of this belief regarded traditional methods to be superior. The defenders of the moderns, on the other hand, did not consider the Bible to rule out contemporary improvements on ancient techniques. But the very idea that knowledge could be advanced, particularly beyond the classical works, was still new and strange in this period.1 Second, the dispute surrounding educational reform included the rejection of traditional educational methods. Social and economic pressures led reformers to propose an increased concern with utility and practical methods, which might increase employment. Once the context of the tension between the supporters of the ancients and the supporters of the moderns has been explored, we can ascertain whether Wallis and Barrow stood on different sides in the conflict, and how this may have have influenced their mathematics.

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