In Office and in Retirement, 1642–50

Abstract

This chapter opens by discussing Prideaux’s work as bishop of Worcester during the Civil War, 1642–6. It shows that he worked conscientiously to manage a see that was devastated by the military operations of the royal and parliamentary armies, striving to maintain effective diocesan administration and to support his parish clergy in difficult circumstances. When in 1646, at the war’s conclusion and with the abolition of episcopacy, he lost his bishopric, he went to live in retirement with one of his daughter and his son-in-law at Bredon in Worcestershire. His relations with his two daughters and their husbands, Henry Sutton and William Hodges, both Worcestershire parish clergy, were close and affectionate, but were set against a dark religious background of what Prideaux regarded as national apostasy. His final years also saw a renewed burst of intellectual activity, centred once again on Oxford, where Prideaux stayed for several periods in 1648–9. He published some notable works of theology, two pastoral guides for his daughters and his wife, and some undergraduate textbooks. The books which he is known to have read in the Bodleian Library suggest a new interest in early British history. His death in July 1650 was followed by a well-attended funeral and a funeral oration which summarised his illustrious achievements as seen by his many friends and admirers.