"A special kindness for dead bishops": The Church, History, and Testimony in Seventeenth-Century Protestantism

Abstract

In English Protestant apologetics of the seventeenth century, John Spurr shows, Church history was a major part of controversies over the canon of Scripture, the significance of the Greek and Latin Fathers, and the development of Christianity in the British Isles. Such debates illustrate the breadth and centrality of historical reflection within English Protestantism but also reveal the partisan uses of church history and, in particular, how theological and intellectual pedigrees for seventeenth-century positions were constructed from the testimony of eminent divines of the immediate and distant past. Such uses of the past are evident in both published works and private marginalia. Not only does this material attest to the seventeenth century’s acute sense of the past as a series of personal testimonies, but it also endorses current views of seventeenth-century English religion as a fluid and even negotiable set of spiritual options, personal allegiances, and historical affiliations. 99. Moderation a Vertue, 79. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.104 on Sat, 18 Jun 2016 06:46:29 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms