Fear Of Hell Research Articles

:The Fear of Hell: Images of Damnation and Salvation in Early Modern Europe

Ian Atherton and Julie Sanders (eds), The 1630s: Interdisciplinary Essays on Culture and Politics in the Caroline Era, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2006, pp. 218, hb. £55, ISBN: 07190-71585Atherton and Sanders have brought together ten essays (including their introduction), on a broad perspective of the 1630s. They suggest that the decade is worthy of singular study by proposing that many of our images of the decade are airy chimera blown away by a breath of investigative wind. The decade of peace: shattered by the contentious government, or by the clatter of arms in the hands of drilling militia; the period of extra-parliamentary rule: meaningless in Ireland or Scotland where parliaments met in the decade. And they are right to do so. This is a battleground not only for the embattled puritans or the bastions of social peace and order, but for historians and other scholars drawn to the last years of pre-revolutionary England.Malcolm Smuts looks at the challenges facing Charles I's government and how it was perceived and sees much to connect the aims of the soon-to-be royalists and parliamentarians: differences centred on approach not aims. John Peacock looks at Charles I's image: how he was portrayed in art, drama and against the backdrop of architecture as a roman emperor. Specific emperors were being regarded as being archetypal good monarchs and Charles during the 30s was being compared to them in masques as well as in the art of Van Dyke. Sarah Poynting is more personal in her approach, looking at the king's correspondence with a close coterie. It was to prove a dangerous liaison: of all his close correspondents only one survived into the 1660s, the rest were dead, some having been executed from 1641 onwards by the king's enemies. Perhaps this is not surprising, as Poynting shows this correspondence was central to extra-parliamentary government and shaped policy and practice. The essay thus provides a useful examination of the mechanics of the king's reign in the 30s. Caroline Hibbard looks at the queen and explores her role: something which is subject to extensive reappraisal in other arenas too at present. The essay is broader than the title suggests as the exploration is as much about Henrietta Maria's court in the 30s and the multifaceted relations within the wider court in general. It is, like the foregoing essay, a very useful study of dynamics.James Knowles and Karen Britland look at drama during the period; the former at orientalism in masques and the latter at Thomas May's Antigone. …

Book Review: The Fear of Hell, Images of Damnation and Salvation in Early Modern Europe

Book Review: The Fear of Hell, Images of Damnation and Salvation in Early Modern Europe

The Fear of Hell: Images of Damnation and Salvation in Early Modern Europe

The Fear of Hell: Images of Damnation and Salvation in Early Modern Europe

The Fear of Hell: Images of Damnation and Salvation in Early Modern Europe

Part 1 Hell: the house with three floors the doubtful eternity scruples and counterfeit chimeras the unhappy country the foul-smelling drains the laughing god from the heart of the Earth to the Sun the comfortable life and weak sinners. Part 2 The host: the stolen ciborium the stupendous excess the mysterious food in the pit of the stomach the horror of the guts.

Les conceptions de l'enfer en France au XIVe siècle : imaginaire et pouvoir

Au siècle où Dante écrit la Divine Comédie, où tant de grandioses fresques italiennes détaillent les souffrances des pécheurs et les corps monstrueux de leurs bourreaux, il est légitime de rechercher quelles conceptions ont cours de notre côté des Alpes. Ici, on ne trouve aucune œ marquante, aucun système achevé, au point qu'on néglige volontiers cette période, pour opposer le XIIIe siècle où triomphe l'image sereine de la Justice divine et le XVe siècle où se multiplient les représentations infernales.Prendre pour objet le XIVe siècle, c'est donc choisir une période délaissée d'une histoire qui ne l'est pas moins. En effet, il peut paraître surprenant de constater que le thème infernal n'a suscité que peu d'analyses précises, alors même que l'importance de cette croyance au sein de l'édifice social de la chrétienté est largement présenté comme une évidence.

John Rogers: A Disillusioned Fifth Monarchy Man

In a letter to Oliver Cromwell in April 1653, John Rogers wrote that his soul was “boiling over into earnest prayers to the Great Jehovah for wisdom, counsel, and courage for you … the great deliverer of His people. …” Rogers perceived in the person of Cromwell another Moses, charged with the duty of liberating the saints of “the Commonwealth of Israel.” Yet in a face-to-face confrontation with Cromwell in February 1655, Rogers warned him, “in the name of the Lord Jehovah,” that his condition was “very desperate,” and that “the next Vial which is to be poured out … the scorching hot one … must fall upon him … [for having] forsaken and betrayed the Cause of Christ.” In less than two years, Rogers had gradually slipped from a summit of hopeful expectation into an abyss of bitter disillusionment, as he watched the man in whom he had placed all trust take for himself the crown that had been reserved for the Lord Jesus.Born in 1627 at Messing, Essex, John Rogers was the second son of Nehemiah and Margaret Rogers. Nehemiah Rogers, an Anglican clergyman and a firm advocate of the policies of Archbishop William Laud, endeavored to educate his son in a manner that would fit him for service in the Church of England. Early in life, under the tutelage first of his father and later of two Puritan clergymen — William Fenner and Stephen Marshall, John Rogers became acutely aware of contemporary theological controversies and intensely preoccupied with his own religious condition. Later as a minister in Ireland, Rogers recounted various childhood experiences in his quest for some assurance of salvation: … when I was a schoolboy at Maldon, in Essex, I began to be roused up by two men, viz. Mr. Fenner and Mr. Marshall … hearing Mr. William Fenner full of zeal, stirring about, and thundering, and beating the pulpit, I was amazed and thought he was mad … “Oh”, says he, “you knotty! rugged! proud piece of flesh! you stony, rocky, flinty, hard heart, what wilt thou do when thou art roaring in hell amongst the damned!” … I began now to be troubled, being scared and frighted, and out of fear of hell I fell to duties, hear sermons, read the scriptures … and learned to pray. …