“It is become a cage of unclean birds”: The Presence of Plague in The Alchemist

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-190
Author(s):  
Matthew Thiele
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
Royal College ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
The Church

This essay challenges the assertions of Patrick Philips and others that plague is not a meaningful subtext in The Alchemist by demonstrating various ways that the play can be interpreted as a satire of plague-time beliefs and practices. For example, Jonson's audiences would have recognized in the character Abel Drugger a satire of early modern medical care common in prose plague tracts. I also attempt to explain why Jonson would go to such lengths to conceal plague allusions in a play set in plague time. Ian Munro and Ernest Gilman have suggested that the plague was simply too traumatic to directly represent onstage, but it is also possible that Jonson was trying not to attract any official trouble after his experience with Eastward Ho, as David Riggs suggests. Jonson had to be careful not to directly attack the King, the Church of England, or the Royal College of Physicians, all of which had a stake in responding to plague.

scholarly journals Anti-Calvinist? : ceremonial conformity and Laudian writing, reconsidered (c. 1590-1640)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Travis Knapp
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Religious Ideology ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Worship Practices ◽  
Internal Markers ◽  
The Church

In recent studies of religion in early modern England, scholars have come to the consensus that the religious identity of the Church of England was never quite as stable or uniform as commonly perceived, with a wide variety of religious beliefs and practices coexisting in practice and print. While a significant portion of work has been done exploring the various ranges of puritan thought, diminishing the restrictive stereotypes of the often-derogatory label, less work has been done on the Laudians, a group of English churchmen known for their ceremonial worship practices, often considered to be uniformly anti-Calvinist or anti-puritan, marked partially by their (exclusive) emphasis on external markers of worship. This dissertation examines a wide range of Laudian texts, most published between 1610 and 1633 across the genres of court sermons, private devotionals, polemics, and poetry, to explore the various nuances of Laudianism. It argues that, in practice and especially before William Laud became Archbishop of Canterbury, the religious ideology now called Laudianism was less exclusive and authoritarian than commonly assumed. Rather than target Calvinist critics to force conformity in gesture, sacramental and liturgical observance, Laudian writers seek to reform religious behavior amenably. While Laudians do emphasize external worship practices, these practices are informed by internal markers of piety, where the external shows of worship become meaningless if the worshippers' hearts and souls are not oriented to the worship and service they display with their bodies.

Grace and Freedom

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Muller
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Divine Grace ◽  
Freedom Of The Will ◽  
Ultimate Cause ◽  
The Will ◽  
Libertarian Freedom ◽  
The Church

Grace and Freedom addresses the issue of divine grace in relation to the freedom of the will in Reformed or “Calvinist” theology in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century with a focus on the work of the English Reformed theologian William Perkins, and his role as an apologist of the Church of England, defending its theology against Roman Catholic polemic, and specifically against the charge that Reformed theology denies human free choice. Perkins and his contemporaries affirmed that salvation occurs by grace alone and that God is the ultimate cause of all things, but they also insisted on the freedom of the human will and specifically the freedom of choice in a way that does not conform to modern notions of libertarian freedom or compatibilism. In developing this position, Perkins drew on the thought of various Reformers such as Peter Martyr Vermigli and Zacharias Ursinus, on the nuanced positions of medieval scholastics, and on several contemporary Roman Catholic representatives of the so-called second scholasticism. His work was a major contribution to early modern Reformed thought both in England and on the continent. His influence in England extended both to the Reformed heritage of the Church of England and to English Puritanism. On the Continent, his work contributed to the main lines of Reformed orthodoxy and to the piety of the Dutch Second Reformation.

scholarly journals ‘FRANTICK HACKET’: PROPHECY, SORCERY, INSANITY, AND THE ELIZABETHAN PURITAN MOVEMENT

1998 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALEXANDRA WALSHAM
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Main Thrust ◽  
False Prophets ◽  
Religious Enthusiasm ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

This essay reconsiders the career of the most famous of Elizabethan false prophets, William Hacket, the illiterate pseudo-messiah who, together with two gentleman disciples, plotted a civil and ecclesiastical coup, and was executed for treason in July 1591. It explores the significance of autonomous lay activity on the fringes of the mainstream puritan movement, demonstrating links between the dissident trio and key clerical figures who later prudently disowned them. Closer inspection of Hacket's exploits sheds fresh light on the relationship between experimental Calvinist piety and the religious and magical culture of the unlettered rural laity – a relationship still widely presented as bitterly adversarial. Relocated in the context of contemporary attitudes to prophecy and insanity, the episode illuminates the eclecticism of early modern belief and the manner in which medical and theological explanations for bizarre behaviour comfortably coexisted and mingled. Variously labelled a witch, visionary, and raving lunatic, Hacket's case reveals the extent to which such roles, diagnoses, and stereotypes are socially, culturally, and politically shaped and conditioned. In exploiting the incident to discredit Presbyterian activism within the Church of England, leading conformist polemicists anticipated the main thrust of the campaign against religious ‘enthusiasm’ mounted by Anglican elites in the Interregnum, Restoration, and early Enlightenment.

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.

The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern English Literature and Religion

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
Early Modern English ◽  
Literature And Religion ◽  
Early Modern English Literature ◽  
The Church

This pioneering handbook offers a comprehensive consideration of the dynamic relationship between English literature and religion in the early modern period. The years from the coronation of Henry VII to the death of Queen Anne were turbulent times in the history of the British Church—and produced some of the greatest devotional poetry, sermons, polemics, and epics of literature in English. The early modern interaction of rhetoric and faith is addressed in forty chapters of original research, divided into five sections. The first analyses the changes within the Church from the Reformation to the establishment of the Church of England, Puritanism, and the rise of Nonconformity. The second section discusses ten genres in which faith was explored, such as poetry, prophecy, drama, sermons, satire, and autobiographical writings. The third section focuses on individual authors, including Thomas More, Christopher Marlowe, John Donne, Lucy Hutchinson, and John Milton. The fourth section examines a range of communities in which writers interpreted their faith: lay and religious households, including Quakers and other sectarian groups, clusters of religious exiles, Jewish and Islamic communities, and settlers in the New World. The fifth section considers key topics in early modern religious literature, from ideas of authority and the relationship of body and soul, to death, judgement, and eternity. The handbook is framed by an introduction, a chronology of religious and literary landmarks, a guide for new researchers in this field, and a bibliography of primary and secondary texts relating to early modern English literature and religion.

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.

The Puritans

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David D. Hall
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Transatlantic History ◽  
Oliver Cromwell ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cultural Movement ◽  
The Church

This book is a sweeping transatlantic history of Puritanism from its emergence out of the religious tumult of Elizabethan England to its founding role in the story of America. Shedding critical new light on the diverse forms of Puritan belief and practice in England, Scotland, and New England, the book provides a multifaceted account of a cultural movement that judged the Protestant reforms of Elizabeth's reign to be unfinished. The book describes the movement's deeply ambiguous triumph under Oliver Cromwell, its political demise with the Restoration of the English monarchy in 1660, and its perilous migration across the Atlantic to establish a “perfect reformation” in the New World. It examines the tribulations and doctrinal dilemmas that led to the fragmentation and eventual decline of Puritanism. It presents a compelling portrait of a religious and political movement that was divided virtually from the start. In England, some wanted to dismantle the Church of England entirely and others were more cautious, while Puritans in Scotland were divided between those willing to work with a troublesome king and others insisting on the independence of the state church. The book traces how Puritanism was a catalyst for profound cultural changes in the early modern Atlantic world, opening the door for other dissenter groups such as the Baptists and the Quakers, and leaving its enduring mark on what counted as true religion in America.

scholarly journals Liberalism and Conservatism in Relation to Psychological Type among Church of England Clergy

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-154
Author(s):  
Andrew Village
Keyword(s):  
Church Growth ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Psychological Type ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Church Congregations ◽  
The Church ◽  
Church Tradition

Abstract Liberalism and conservatism have been important stances that have shaped doctrinal, moral and ecclesial beliefs and practices in Christianity. In the Church of England, Anglo-catholics are generally more liberal, and evangelicals more conservative, than those from broad-church congregations. This paper tests the idea that psychological preference may also partly explain liberalism or conservatism in the Church of England. Data from 1,389 clergy, collected as part of the 2013 Church Growth Research Programme, were used to categorise individuals by church tradition (Anglo-catholic, broad church or evangelical), whether or not they had an Epimethean psychological temperament, and whether or not they preferred thinking over feeling in their psychological judging process. Epimetheans and those who preferred thinking were more likely to rate themselves as conservative rather than liberal. Conservatism was associated with being Epimethean among those who were Anglo-catholic or broad-church, but with preference for thinking over feeling among evangelicals.

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