Kenneth L. Campbell. Windows into Men's Souls: Religious Nonconformity in Tudor and Early Stuart England.

Abstract

This book is an investigation into the roots of English nonconformity, written in a way that recognizes the complexities embedded in the nature of the subject. In the first chapter Kenneth L. Campbell surveys the various groups under discussion, including both Roman Catholics and Protestant separatists. He probes the differences and similarities between those Puritans who chose to remain within the Church of England and the separatists—who surely shared a great deal in common with conforming Puritans—who did not. Campbell then traces a path from early Lollardy through the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth. All of this leads to the early Stuart period, in which the central analytical questions of the book come into focus. There are two related questions in view. First, what was it that motivated nonconformists to separate from the Church of England? Second, given that so many separatists were Arminian in their theology, does the development of nonconformity shed any light on historical debates regarding a “Calvinist consensus” in early Stuart England and a subsequent “rise of Arminianism”?