Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Moral Theology ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Historical Account ◽  
Episcopal Church ◽  
Port Royal

This Introduction briefly describes the work’s principal actors, namely the seventeenth-century Jansenists of Port-Royal and those contemporary English Protestant theologians committed to the defence of the episcopal Church of England, and its central intellectual themes, relating to the theology of grace and moral theology. It lays out the twofold aims of the work: in the first place, to provide a historical account of English knowledge of continental debates surrounding Jansenism in the seventeenth century; and, in the second, to explore the two very different theological sensibilities thus juxtaposed in a comparative perspective, of which the theme of moral rigorism constitutes the point of focus. The manner in which contested early modern labels are used in the text is explained in a note on terms.

Uncertainty in Post-Reformation Catholicism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefania Tutino
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Moral Theology ◽  
Society Of Jesus ◽  
Historical Account ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Intellectual System ◽  
Moral System ◽  
Catholic Theological

This book provides a historical account of the development and implications of early modern probabilism. First elaborated in the sixteenth century, probabilism represented a significant and controversial novelty in Catholic moral theology. Against a deep-seated tradition defending the strict application of moral rules, probabilist theologians maintained that in situations of uncertainty, the agent can legitimately follow any course of action supported by a probable opinion, no matter how disputable. By the second half of the seventeenth century, and thanks in part to Pascal’s influential antiprobabilist stances, probabilism had become inextricably linked to the Society of Jesus and to a lax and excessively forgiving moral system. To this day, most historians either ignore probabilism, or they associate it with moral duplicity and intellectual and cultural decadence. By contrast, this book argues that probabilism was instrumental for addressing the challenges created by a geographically and intellectually expanding world. Early modern probabilist theologians saw that these challenges provoked an exponential growth of uncertainties, doubts, and dilemmas of conscience, and they realized that traditional theology was not equipped to deal with them. Therefore, they used probabilism to integrate changes and novelties within the post-Reformation Catholic theological and intellectual system. Seen in this light, probabilism represented the result of their attempts to appreciate, come to terms with, and manage uncertainty. Uncertainty continues to play a central role even today. Thus, learning how early modern probabilists engaged with uncertainty might be useful for us as we try to cope with our own moral and epistemological doubts.

Episcopal Tombs in Early Modern England

2004 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 654-680 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER SHERLOCK
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Status ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

The Reformation simultaneously transformed the identity and role of bishops in the Church of England, and the function of monuments to the dead. This article considers the extent to which tombs of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century bishops represented a set of episcopal ideals distinct from those conveyed by the monuments of earlier bishops on the one hand and contemporary laity and clergy on the other. It argues that in death bishops were increasingly undifferentiated from other groups such as the gentry in the dress, posture, location and inscriptions of their monuments. As a result of the inherent tension between tradition and reform which surrounded both bishops and tombs, episcopal monuments were unsuccessful as a means of enhancing the status or preserving the memory and teachings of their subjects in the wake of the Reformation.

The Shrine of St. Winefride and Social Control in Early Modern England and Wales

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-19
Author(s):  
Matthias Bryson
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Henry Viii ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Alternative Concept ◽  
The Church

In 1534, Henry VIII declared himself the supreme head of the Church of England. In the years that followed, his advisors carried out an agenda to reform the Church. In 1536, the Crown condemned pilgrimages and the veneration of saints’ shrines and relics. By the end of the seventeenth century, nearly every shrine in England and Wales had been destroyed or fell into disuse except for St. Winefride’s shrine in Holywell, Wales. The shrine has continued to be a pilgrimage destination to the present day without disruption. Contemporary scholars have credited the shrine’s survival to its connections with the Tudor and Stuart regimes, to the successful negotiation for its shared use as both a sacred and secular space, and to the missionary efforts of the Jesuits. Historians have yet to conduct a detailed study of St. Winefride’s role in maintaining social order in recusant communities. This article argues that the Jesuits and pilgrims at St. Winefride’s shrine cooperated to create an alternative concept of social order to the legal and customary orders of Protestant society.

Conscience and Conformity: Some Moral Dilemmas in Seventeenth-Century England

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-83
Author(s):  
Christopher Haigh
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Episcopal Church ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Moral Problems ◽  
Common Prayer

AbstractThis paper considers how issues of conscience might be considered in seventeenth-century England. It looks at how some of the moral problems arising from the restoration of an episcopal Church of England in 1660 were debated, and focuses on the response of the clergy to the demands for conformity to the Book of Common Prayer, renunciation of the Solemn League and Covenant, and episcopal ordination. A large number of books were published on these subjects, and contemporary diaries show that ministers read these books and discussed the problems among themselves, in reaching difficult and often painful decisions.

ENGLISH ‘FEMINIST’ WRITINGS AND JUDITH DRAKE'S AN ESSAY IN DEFENCE OF THE FEMALE SEX (1696)

2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 727-747 ◽  
Author(s):  
HANNAH SMITH
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Female Sex ◽  
Mary Astell ◽  
The Church

English ‘feminist’ writings of the late seventeenth century frequently united pro-woman arguments with party-political polemics. But although such texts have been discussed in terms of rationalist and contractarian philosophy, or as forerunners of modern feminist concerns, the contemporary issues which underscore them have been ignored. However, an understanding of these debates is vital to comprehending fully the motives of pro-woman writers, many of whom were more concerned with the survival of the Church of England than ameliorating the lot of seventeenth-century women. The underlying importance of party politics is exemplified in one of the greatest works of early modern ‘feminism’, Judith Drake's An essay in defence of the female sex (1696). Although Drake shared political similarities with other tory ‘feminists’, including the more celebrated Mary Astell, Drake's work differed radically from theirs over how an Anglican tory society could be maintained. Instead of stressing the necessity of teaching the tenets of Anglicanism to young women, as had her predecessors, Drake combined tory ideas with Lockean philosophy and concepts of ‘politeness’ to formulate an early Enlightenment vision of sociable, secularized, learning and the role female conversation could play in settling a society fractured by party politics.

scholarly journals Introduction: War, Conscience, and Counsel in Early Modern Catholic Europe

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 435-446
Author(s):  
Nicole Reinhardt
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Just War ◽  
Moral Theology ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Specific Approach ◽  
Catholic Culture ◽  
Moral Questions

The introduction identifies the framework of Catholic moral theology, which informs the specific approach of the authors in this special issue, as an important context to deepen the understanding of early modern just war discussions. Some of the most productive contributors to the debate in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were indeed Catholic moral theologians, who engaged with the question, driven by pastoral concerns over the conscience of subjects and rulers. The delegation of moral questions to theologians was an essential part of post-Tridentine Catholic culture which, however, eroded progressively in the seventeenth century as the tenets of moral theology as well as the external institutions of moral counsel attracted wide criticism.

scholarly journals Moral Theology, Culture of Counsel, and the Society of Jesus in the Seventeenth Century

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-249
Author(s):  
Jean-Pascal Gay
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Moral Theology ◽  
The State ◽  
Theoretical Issue ◽  
Society Of Jesus ◽  
Religious Authority

This paper explores the connection between the early modern debates over Probabilism and political counsel. It argues that the issue of counsel was important in the polemics against Jesuit moral theology. Theological challenges to Probabilism clearly show that many intellectuals were worried it could lead political counsellors astray and encourage them to defer to the whims of political authorities. This was not merely a theoretical issue. Three French cases evidence the fact that political counsellors could claim an obligation to put obedience to their sovereign before obedience to religious authority—the pope in particular—on religious grounds. The discussion between anti-probabilists and probabilists during the second half of the seventeenth century shows the degree of unrest among theological and ecclesiastical authorities confronted with the demands of the state on individual conscience, and on the conscience of counsellors in particular.

Lay Households

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Trill
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Bear Witness ◽  
The Church ◽  
Devotional Texts

This chapter is primarily concerned with how devotional texts were used within lay (that is, non-clerical) households. As the household was frequently identified as ‘a little commonwealth’ such ‘private’ devotions had ‘political’ connotations, especially during a period in which officially sanctioned religious practices were continually shifting. This chapter focuses on how these changes impacted upon the devotions of three quite distinct seventeenth-century households: the controversial community established at Little Gidding by Nicholas Ferrar; the Presbyterian practice of Nehemiah Wallington’s household in Eastcheap; and, finally, the experience of Anne, Lady Halkett (née Murray) who solidly maintained her commitment to the Church of England whatever household she inhabited (whether in England or Scotland). While the differences between them are numerous, collectively these cases bear witness to the material ways in which early modern household devotions were a political minefield.

Language Matters: ‘Counsel’ in Early Modern and Modern Medicine

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Sabroe ◽  
Phil Withington
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Scientific Revolution ◽  
Modern Medicine ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
Founding Fathers ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
Successful Scientist

Francis Bacon is famous today as one of the founding fathers of the so-called ‘scientific revolution’ of the seventeenth century. Although not an especially successful scientist himself, he was nevertheless the most eloquent and influential spokesperson for an approach to knowledge that promised to transform human understanding of both humanity and its relationship with the natural and social worlds. The central features of this approach, as they emerged in Bacon’s own writings and the work of his protégés and associates after 1605, are equally well known. They include the importance of experiment, observation, and a sceptical attitude towards inherited wisdom (from the ‘ancients’ in general and Aristotle in particular).

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