Controlling the Sermons

Abstract

Modern scholars treat Paul’s Cross as an instrument of government, but no single authority exercised consistent censorship of this pulpit in the early modern period. The bishop of London, Privy Council, and Corporation did coordinate efforts to use it for what might be call propagandistic purposes (for example, after the Earl of Essex’s rebellion). But all three bodies had conflicting interests at times: this chapter explores episodes where the authorities used Paul’s Cross against each other. This provides a useful lesson to historians and literary scholars on the contested nature of ‘state control’ over religious discourses. The discussion ends with the restraints on preaching Calvinist and Arminian theories of predestination in the 1630s.