Abstract
Bernard Capp’s subject is the struggle for the reformation of English religion and society between the execution of Charles I and the Restoration. Pioneering studies by Derek Hirst and Christopher Durston portrayed that endeavour as a failure. In their accounts, the reforming zeal of MPs and Major-Generals and local magistrates was the preserve of an insecure minority which contended in vain against the nation’s hostility or indifference. In Capp’s eyes that picture contains much truth but is one-sided. His book is in three parts. The first assesses Puritan aims, describes the political and institutional frameworks, national and local, in which they were pursued, and reports the battles for public opinion conducted in the press. The second examines the campaigns to eliminate swearing, enforce the observance of the Sabbath, discipline parish worship and organisation, root out sexual misconduct and drunkenness, curb sartorial and other worldly vanities, and terminate (or in some cases modify or redirect) the social pleasures of music and drama and art and athletic pastimes. The third looks at a succession of local contexts where attempts to impose reform, and resistance to them, can be traced.
Published Version
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