English Puritans Research Articles

Family and Religion in Two Noble Families: French Catholic and English Puritan

This paper is a case study of two seventeenth-century noble families—the French Catholic Chantal-Rabutin-Sévigné and the English Puritan Verneys—in which the effect of doctrinal differences on marriage and family life is observed. Marriage doctrines of the Catholic church and the Calvinist church are summarized. Each family is then studied in terms of its major functions, the relationship between husbands and wives, the relationships between parents and children, attitudes towards education, and the religious observances of the fam ily. Although the functions of both families were similar, the relationship be tween the Protestant husbands and wives seems to have been more reciprocal in contrast to the more patriarchal relationship within the Catholic family. In terms of parent-child relations, a higher degree of independence seems to have been present in the Protestant family. In both cases, religion was an important factor in creating family identity.

Were the English Puritans “the Saints of the Most High”?

A text is truly interpreted when both text and interpretation are understood in an analogical relationship to a larger reality.

Thomas Goodwin and the Debate on Church Government

When the Westminster Assembly convened in 1643, English puritans were confident that their effort to reform the government and liturgy of the Church of England would at last be completed. Their expectations were not fulfilled. In the early sessions of the Assembly the ‘dissenting brethren’, a group of clerical Independents led by Thomas Goodwin, opposed the establishment of a national Church on a Presbyterian model. The Independents claimed to be as orthodox as the other members of the Assembly in matters of doctrine, but they could find in scripture no ground for synods exercising the authority of excommunication. So deep was the dissension they created that, in spite of all Presbyterian attempts at reconciliation, spiritual harmony was not restored to the puritan crusade.

The Ends of the Ages: Time in Christian Worship, in the Experience of the English Puritans

The Ends of the Ages: Time in Christian Worship, in the Experience of the English Puritans

"The Contagion of Corrupt Opinions" in Puritan Massachusetts: The Case of William Pynchon

Wurr RITING in i644 to a friend in England, Thomas Shepard lamented late differences and breaches amongst the godly in that country and warned against spreading of the contagion of opinions. Such cracks and flames in the new building of the Reformation portend a fall, he continued; to avoid worse dayes than ever England yet saw English Puritans would have to follow New England's example and move decisively to crush dangerous heterodoxies before the contagion became epidemic. Massachusetts Bay Colony had not hesitated to suppress sectaries like the Antinomians and Familists, Shepard told his correspondent, and therefore The Churches here are in peace; Common wealth in peace; Ministry in most sweet peace; Magistrates (I should have named first) in peace.' Shepard spoke too soon, for in the next decade New England Puritanism experienced the same ideological fragmentation as its English counterpart, though on a much smaller scale.2 But while historians have noted accurately that in the i640s and i650s the colonial Puritans felt threatened by radical spiritists with links to the English sectarian underground, little attention has been paid to their fear of infection by corrupt opinions of a different sort-those associated with English latitudinarian

THE DREADFUL OUTCOME OF EXPOSING CHILDREN TO DANCING AND MUSIC, AS VIEWED IN 1583

Philip Stubbes (fl. 1583-1591), and English Puritan pamphleteer, in his The Anatomie of Abuses (1583), denounced the evil consequences of teaching dancing and music to children as follows: If you would have your son soft, womanish, unclean, smooth-mouth, affected to bawdry, scurrility, filthy rimes, and unseemly talking; briefly if you would have him, as it were, transnatured into a woman or worse, and inclined to all kinds of whoredom and abomination, set him to dancing school and to learn music, and then you shall not fail of your purpose. And if you would have your daughter riggish, bawdry and unclean, and a filthy speaker, and suchlike, bring her up in music and dancing and my life for yours, you have won the goal.1

English and Dutch Sabbatarianism and the Development of Puritan Social Theology (1600–1660)

Strict observance of the Lord's Day became a distinctive feature of English and Scottish society in the seventeenth century. The Sabbatarian principle touched not only British religion but many social and economic practices as well. At some times, English Puritan settlers in the Netherlands attempted to introduce their brand of Sabbatarianism into Dutch society but with disappointing results. The success or failure of Sabbatarianism often has been identified with a certain stage of capitalistic economic development. This article examines the centrality of teachings about the Sabbath in Puritan social theology and, secondarily, the Sabbatarian-capitalism connection by comparing events in England and Holland from approximately 1600 to 1660. A comparison of Puritan Sabbatarians at home in England and abroad in Holland reveals anew the extreme difficulty of transporting values from one society, where they fit, into another location.

Religion, Society and Culture: Reorientating the Reformation

The socialist historiographical tradition has always regarded the Reformation as a revolutionary event with a dual significance. First, it contained a number of historical landmarks which were held, particularly in the nineteenth century, to be crucial to an understanding of revolutionary political practice: the German Peasants' War, the Anabaptist insurrection in Munster in 1534, the 'religious wars' in France and the Netherlands in the second half of the sixteenth century, and the English Puritan Revolution. Second, it marked unmistakably the dawn of bourgeois civilisation, exemplifying for Marx and Engels in particular the characteristics of bourgeois politics and culture which so aroused their anger and contempt, and which provoked so many of their critical and polemical writings. Engels wrote about the Reformation in a way which might be called exemplary for modern social historical writing: he sought to combine analysis of the closely-woven detail of political practice with a comparative historical framework which saw the Reformation as a European phenomenon and related it to long-term economic and cultural processes. His breadth of historical vision in dealing with what he presented as the first modern revolution has not been matched by any substantial body of socialist scholarship in our own time. On the continent there has been only modest interest in the Reformation, largely in work from Eastern Europe and from the German Democratic Republic in particular. Popular knowledge of the German Reformation depends largely on republication of the works of Engels or Zimmermann, in their own time brilliant, if flawed in many respects, and now outmoded. ' In Britain there has been a long tradition of interest in the broader themes of the Reformation, from Tawney through to Christopher Hill. However it has ignored much of the German Reformation and its repercussions on the continent, pursuing only certain of its intellectual aspects, and setting its discussion in too English a context out of concern with Puritanism and the English Civil War. It has shared the weakness of so many of the church histories written on the Reformation, taking Luther and

Anne Hutchinson and the Mortalist Heresy

IN the mid 16405 Presbyterian champions in the English Puritan Revolution-Thomas Edwards, Ephraim Pagitt, Robert Baillie, and Samuel Rutherford-called alarmed attention to the growth of yet another heretical sect, the SoulSleepers, or mortalists, who rejected belief in a conscious immortality of the soul or asserted that at death men's bodies and souls perish together. The ministers' orthodox outrage was partly a response to the popularity of a recent notorious tract, Mans Mortallitie, by the Leveller Richard Overton, but they all recognized that the heresy was an ancient one which had especially troubled the church since the Reformation. Hymeneus, Phyletus, the Libertines, the Georgians, Henry Nicholas and others appeared in the heresy's history, but Baillie and Rutherford were perceptive enough to include Mistris Hutchison of New England as well.1 In doing so, the Scottish polemicists were more discerning than modern historians of the Antinomian upheaval who have largely ignored Anne's troubled but stubborn defense of the soul's death in her final conflict with the Bay, her ecclesiastical trial in March 1638. This neglect of the American Jezebel's mortalism is somewhat difficult to understand, especially since students of seventeenth-century England have paid such close attention to the idea in Overton, Milton, and Hobbes.2 The explana-

The Anti-Puritan Work Ethic

For years those who have looked for the contribution of religion to the “spirit of capitalism” have concentrated on the English Puritans and their Calvinist counterparts elsewhere. Those scholars have relied on literary evidence to make their points, and to establish the relationship between Calvinist doctrines or assumptions and an ascetic and compulsive devotion to work. It came as a surprise, therefore, when a rigorously quantitative content analysis of the most popular religious books of Restoration England showed just the opposite—that the most self-consciously “Anglican” authors were those who placed the most emphasis upon work and worldly enterprise as a religious duty. They were also able to integrate this duty with the rest of their theology in a more straightforward, logical manner than the Puritans, for whom the connection is thought to have been psychological, mediated by religious anxiety. Work was, for the most popular Anglican authors, part of a moralistic religion of works. We can even say that such an emphasis was adopted at just the time when Anglicans were facing up to a change in the status of their church and adopting attitudes more characteristic of members of a movement or denomination, which helps to explain why work and effort were coming to seem more important to them.There have been numerous lines of criticism of Max Weber's thesis connecting the doctrine of evangelical conversion and the spirit of economic enterprise. But since the following approach and alternative suggestions do not build on them, we must go back again to Weber's own classic formulation.

Called to Order: The Role of the Puritan Berufsmensch in Weberian Sociology

The significance of Puritan `asceticism' - especially the focal idea of the calling - for rationalized Western culture in all its aspects has been examined as Weber proposed, but its role in shaping the method and substance of Weber's own work has gone largely unexamined. In the present essay a reading of `mainstream' English Puritan writings on the calling is presented, and Weber's representation of the idea is found to be accurate except for an exaggeration of its asceticism, probably due to Weber's reliance on post-Civil War sources. The Puritan themes of chance, proof, and control are then shown to be prominent in Weber's usage of Chancen to define social action and institutions, and fundamental to the method of interpretive sociology. The rationalist biases of Weber's work, the problematic formal-substantive distinction, and Weber's justification of ideal-typical analysis are assessed in terms of the Puritan Berufsmensch who `neither inquires about nor finds it necessary to inquire about the meaning of his actual practice of a vocation within the whole world, the total framework of which is not his responsibility, but his God's'.

The Maze of Ingenuity: Ideas and Idealism in the Development of Technology

The cathedral builders: European technical achievement between 1100 and 1280 a century of invention - 1250-1350 mathematics and the arts - 1450-1600 the practical arts and scientific revolution social ideals in technical change - German miners and English puritans - 1450-1650 the State and technical progress - 1660-1770 technology in the industrial revolution conflicting ideals in engineering - America and Britain, 1790-1870 institutionalizing technical ideals - 1820-1920 idealistic trends in 20th-century technology.

Robertson Davies: The tory mode

The use of style as an expression or negation of political, cultural, and religious values is not a new thing. The most durable example in the Modern Era is probably that of the English puritans of the 17th century, though the history of the phenomenon during the Christian era goes back far beyond them. Instances more familiar to contemporary readers would include the long hair and then-outlandish dress of the Woodstock Nation, the ostentatious asceticism (puritan echo?) of the life-style of Ralph Nader, and the radical chic chronicled a few years ago by Tom Wolfe.' We are all aware of the phenomenon, but the instances that come most readily to mind are those of people and groups that are self-styled spokesmen for the future. Less common and less appealing to our progress-biased sensibilities are styles that by their properties make some affirmation of the values of the past. Such a style is that of Robertson Davies.

The English Puritans—Suppressors of Sport and Amusement?

The English Puritans—Suppressors of Sport and Amusement?

Dissent and Catholicism in English Society: A Study of Warwickshire, 1660-1720

Puritanism has long fascinated students of the relationship between religion and society. Indeed, the social history of Puritanism has probably been studied more intensively than that of any other religious movement in modern history. However, most studies of Puritanism in England end either at the beginning of the Civil Wars or at the Restoration. The history of those Puritans who became Dissenters after 1660 has been left to denominational historians, who are understandably more concerned with the ecclesiastical and theological history of their own particular groups than with the broader question of the place of Dissent in English society.This neglect of post-Restoration Nonconformity is unfortunate for the study of the social history of Puritanism, both from a theoretical and from a practical point of view. When English Puritans are cited as the classical practitioners of the “Protestant ethic,” reference is often made to the success of Nonconformists in finance and industry after 1660. Tawney's application of the Weber thesis to England relies heavily on the writings of such post-Restoration divines as Baxter and Steele, and on the rise of Nonconformist capitalists in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Tawney's hypotheses cannot be evaluated unless we have more information about the social background of Dissent: not merely a few exceptional individuals, but the group as a whole. From the practical point of view, quantitative studies of the social structure — both of the religious group and of the larger society—are more easily undertaken for the period after 1660 than for the period before that date.

Archbishop Laud's Campaign Against Puritanism at The Hague

The seventeenth-century Netherlands was the Puritan refuge. Its easy accessibility for radical English Puritans caused many a mishap in the plans of the bishops as they enforced conformity in England. When the going became too rough at home, nonconforming ministers could jump across to Holland, rather than obediently submit to discipline, and there carry on their defiant ways. Especially in the 1620s and 1630s, William Laud and others of the English hierarchy exerted themselves mightily to stamp out the Puritan outposts abroad; for Puritanism in exile provided a splendid habitation for all kinds of schemes.Initially going back into the sixteenth century, the Brownists were the main English religious settlers abroad, raising up their own churches and print shops in Amsterdam, Leiden and Middelburg; but in the several decades leading up to the English Civil Wars—in the great days of Archbishop Laud and Bishop Wren—mainstream, non-separating Puritans also were going over, providing strong leadership for most of the English churches in the Netherlands and serving as chaplains for the English regiments, even organizing themselves into an English Classis (1621–1635).

Reviews : Sir William Temple, Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands (ed by Sir George Clark), Oxford, Clarendon Press of Oxford University Press, 1972. xx + 155pp. £3.50. K. D. H. Haley, The Dutch in the Seventeenth Century, London, Thames and Hudson, 1972. 216pp. + 158 illusns. £2.25; £1.25 (paperback). Keith L. Sprunger, The Learned Doctor William Ames,

Reviews : Sir William Temple, Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands (ed by Sir George Clark), Oxford, Clarendon Press of Oxford University Press, 1972. xx + 155pp. £3.50. K. D. H. Haley, The Dutch in the Seventeenth Century, London, Thames and Hudson, 1972. 216pp. + 158 illusns. £2.25; £1.25 (paperback). Keith L. Sprunger, The Learned Doctor William Ames,

"Oh no, it is Not the Scriptures!": The Bible and the Spirit in George Fox

"OH NO, IT IS NOT THE SCRIPTURES!" The Bible and the Spirit in George Fox By James L. Ash, Jr.* The origin of the Quaker movement has been a puzzle for historians . None can deny that Quakerism arose in the context of radical English Puritanism during the turbulent Interregnum period, but the precise relationship of early Quakerism to its Puritan milieu has never been agreed upon. Some Quaker historians have connected their religious heritage more with continental mysticism than with its Puritan context. The clearest example of this viewpoint is the work of Rufus Jones,1 who demonstrates theological correspondences between early Quakers and continental mystics. A major problem with such efforts is that they tend merely to document similarity, not influence. Jones does indeed show that Quakers and continental mystics drew on a common pool of ideas, an interesting and significant observation, but one which ultimately does not help us understand the causes and origins of the Quaker movement. Recently in this journal, Donald F. Durnbaugh resurrected Jones' thesis in a more sophisticated and moderate form, calling for more recognition of "the links and contacts across the English Channel."2 Durnbaugh was aware that in questioning whether Quakers could be adequately understood as mere left-wing Puritans, he was challenging an impressive consensus, for the renaissance in Puritan studies during the past fifty years has moved toward strong affirmations of the relationship between Quaker and Puritan. Of course, whether Quakers are considered Puritans or not is in part simply a function of the breadth of the definition of the term "Puritan." To be sure, some older Puritan historians, such as William Haller, are most uncomfortable with Puritans and Quakers on the same pew. They tend to have a narrow view of Puritaines L. Ash, Jr., is a doctoral candidate in the Modem History of Christianity at the University of Chicago. 1.Rufus M. Jones, Spiritual Reformers in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (New York: Macmillan, 1914); his views appear to have changed in his later work, George Fox, Seeker and Friend (New York: Harper, 1930). 2.Donald F. Durnbaugh, "Baptists and Quakers—Left Wing Puritans?" Quaker History 62 (Autumn, 1973), 72. 94 "OH NO, IT IS NOT THE SCRIPTURES!"95 tarúsm that excludes all radical, left-wing sects. Quakers are thus, at most, a perversion or an aberration of Puritanism, definitely beyond the pale, and "wildly heretical."3 Such a view, however, is being replaced by more recent studies which emphasize the Puritan and orthodox characteristics of Quakerism. A significant influence in this trend is the dissertation of Rachel H. King on the theology of George Fox,4 which pictures Fox as a generally orthodox, Christian mystic. Further evidence is provided by George A. Johnson, who explicitly connects Quakers with the left-wing Puritan sect, the Seekers,8 a judgment which virtually all historians of Quakerism affirm to some degree.6 Geoffrey Nuttall sees perhaps the strongest connection, claiming that Quakerism "indicates the direction of the Puritan movement as a whole."7 Hugh Barbour, author of a recent, well received history of the Quakers, brings geographical data to bear on the question. He notes that Quakers were strongest in the more rural areas where Puritans were weakest, and vice versa.8 Quakers are thus located by him at the fringes of Puritanism. A firmer correlation between Quaker and Puritan strongholds is asserted in the carefully documented study of several southeastern English counties by Richard Vann.9 Melvin Endy points to the theological continuity of early Quakers with certain "spiritual" Puritans, notably John Saltmarsh, Gerrard Winstanley, William Dell, and John Webster.10 There exists, then, a considerable consensus among contemporary historians which holds that the Quakers are to be grouped with 3.William Haller, The Rise of Puritanism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1938), p. 17. 4.Rachel H. King, George Fox and the Light Within, 1650-1660 (Philadelphia : Friends Book Store, 1940). 5.George A. Johnson, "From Seeker to Finder: A Study in Seventeenth Century English Spiritualism Before the Quakers," Church History 17 (1948), 299-315. 6.Cf. William C. Braithwaite, The Beginnings of Quakerism (London: Macmillan, 1912), p. 26: "More often the Quaker message [preached to Seekers...

Baptists and Quakers—Left Wing Puritans?

With quiet British understatement, sentence in foreword of revised edition of Braithwaite's standard history of Quakerism underscored major shift in historical interpretation. announced dropping of introductory chapter by Ruf us M. Jones linking Quakerism to mystical movements of Continent and England and 'interpreting religious experience of Friends. The reason? This interpretive chapter has regretfully been omitted on ground that recent studies have, in minds of number of scholars, put Quakerism in rather light. Evidently Ruf us Jones, hailed by his biographer as was no longer considered master historian as well.1 The editor of revised edition was biblical scholar and Quaker historian Henry J. Cadbury. In one of his notes incorporating recent research which was added to Braithwaite book he described different light now shining on Quaker origins. Rather than inheritors and fulfillers of long line of Spiritual Reformers, as Jones saw them, Friends are to be considered a natural extreme to whole spectrum of English Puritan thought - in short, as left-wing Puritans.2 Cadbury's colleague Frederick B. Tolles took same line in introduction he contributed to second volume of revised edition by noting that the attention of scholars in seventeenth-century intellectual and religious history has turned away from remote, somewhat problematic, continental and mystical roots of Quakerism and has

The Learned Doctor William Ames: Dutch Backgrounds of English and American Puritanism

The Learned Doctor William Ames: Dutch Backgrounds of English and American Puritanism