Private and Domestic Devotion in Early Modern Britain. Edited by Jessica Martin and Alec Ryrie. St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History. Surrey, U.K.: Ashgate, 2012. xi + 285 pp. $134.95 cloth.

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)Private and Domestic Devotion in Early Modern Britain . Edited by Jessica Martin and Alec Ryrie . St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History. Surrey, U.K. : Ashgate , 2012. xi + 285 pp. $134.95 cloth.Book Reviews and NotesThis collection of essays is second produced by an interdisciplinary research network that Jessica Martin and Alec Ryrie, along with Judith Maltby and Natalie Mears, have assembled for purpose of examining the whole question of worship and devotion in early modern (3). The first, Worship and Parish Church in Early Modern Britain (Surrey, U.K: Ashgate, 2008), centered on devotion in public sphere. This one addresses spiritual habits of individuals, families, and small group gatherings. Martin and Ryrie refer to early modern period as and in their introduction (3), and indeed, a theme running through these twelve articles is shifting and fluid quality of private and domestic devotion in Britain following Reformation. Leaders of every major confession and persuasion sought to influence religious habits of faithful at home, as with public worship. Catholics were forced to adapt traditional practices to constraints of a new status quo, while Protestants sought a thoroughgoing reformation of early modern household, breaking new and uncertain ground in process.Accessing private devotional experiences of past ages is a formidable research task, editors acknowledge. This explains why there have been relatively few attempts, and why a volume like this one is needed. While majority of contributors are scholars of English--only four of history--literary criticism plays a minor role in articles presented. Most are historical surveys of primary written material: godly living manuals, prayer collections, religious poetry, sermons, diaries, commonplace books, and biographies. The authors make an effort to compare what was taught formally with what was actually received and appropriated, as indicated in biographies and personal writings left behind. One methodological exception is Tara Hamling's essay (Old Robert's Girdle: Visual and Material Props for Protestant Piety in Post-Reformation England), which explains how Protestants used various images and objects for devotional purposes in private and domestic settings, despite their iconoclastic approach to public worship spaces.In first two chapters, Ian Green and Jane Dawson present a bird's-eye view of topic, describing various early modern attempts at reformed devotion in England and Scotland, respectively. While manuals such as Richard Rogers's Seven Treatises and Daniel Featley's Ancilla Pietatis held considerable sway in shaping private and domestic spirituality in Scotland's course is notable for authoritative role its Kirk played in reforming both public and private worship--something Dawson says became one of distinctive aspects of Scottish Presbyterianism to end of eighteenth century (34). Both of these well-organized essays affirm importance of clerical initiative, but also highlight fervent piety many lay men and women demonstrated in their homes and prayer closets. Sometimes they were deemed too fervent: In a later chapter, Kate Narveson discusses Clerical Anxieties about Lay Scripture Reading in Early Modern England, pointing out dilemma of ministers who sought to promote diligent Bible reading in home without also cultivating what they considered a dangerous sense of lay independence. …