Hearing, Speaking, Writing: Religious Discourse from the Pulpit, among the Congregations, and from the Prophets

During the Commonwealth period, Parliament ejected over 2000 Church of England clerics from their livings, and multiple new Protestant congregations were formed, bringing new styles of discourses of religion and spirituality. Ministers ejected from their parishes, such as Jeremy Taylor and Thomas Fuller, published ecclesiastical histories, books of devotion and meditation, and advice for enduring hardship. Protestant sectarians preached informed by the spirit rather than the university or ordination; such ‘mechanic preachers’ included John Bunyan and women such as Katherine Chidley, who led a London congregation. More radical sects such as the Fifth Monarchists preached the second coming of Christ, and prophets such as Anna Trapnel urged England to become a godly country for his return and judgment. The Quaker movement, begun by George Fox, gathered believers who challenged both social and religious hierarchies and customs, leading to their persecution and imprisonment.

Laws Regulating Publication, Speech, and Performance, 1645–1658

With the abolition of the Star Chamber and the High Commission, unlicensed printers increased in number and the Stationers’ Company lost control of censorship. There was a marked increase in pamphlet publication during the war years. In 1647 Parliament passed an act for the licensing and suppression of illegal printed. The London commercial theatres had earlier been closed by Parliament but illicit performances continued, even when the theatres including the Phoenix and the Fortune were dismantled. Puritan Parliament also passed numerous laws attempting to control blasphemy and heresy, which involved members of several radical sects, including Ranters, Baptists, Seekers, and Quakers. Prophetic writers such as Arise Evans and Abiezer Coppe were imprisoned, and the public trials of Anna Trapnel and James Naylor were chronicled in publications.

Noli Me Tangere and the Reception of Mary Magdalene in Early Modern England

The second chapter assesses the early modern reception of the noli me tangere and hortulanus sequences of John 20. Early modern writers such as Robert Southwell, Gervase Markham, Thomas Walkington, and Nicholas Breton all reconstruct the pedagogical lessons vouchsafed to Mary throughout John 20. Mary is petitioned to recall to herself the words of Christ that she has already heard and to await patiently her post-resurrection reconciliation with Christ as Word of God. Several of these sixteenth- and seventeenth-century accounts of Mary at the tomb show a keen appreciation of the method of discipleship misunderstanding used by John, even emulating that rhetorical approach in their treatments of Magdalene’s misplaced grief. Final sections of the chapter discuss the glorification of Mary in Hans Holbein’s Noli Me Tangere painting as well as in the poetry and prose of Richard Crashaw, Henry Vaughan, and Anna Trapnel.

Single-Authored Volumes of Verse

Although the Interregnum has been described as a dark period in the promotion of the arts, an unusual number of single-authored volumes of verse were printed, often by Humphrey Mosley. Among the published poets whose reputations were established before the war were Sir John Suckling, Robert Herrick and Abraham Cowley while new voices include Henry and Thomas Vaughan, several women poets including Margaret Cavendish, Anne Bradstreet, ‘Eliza’, Anna Trapnel, and Elizabeth Major.