English Presbyterianism, 1590-1640

by Ha, Polly

• ISBN13: 9780804759878
• ISBN10: 0804759871
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-12-01
• Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr

Summary

This book offers an alternative interpretation of pre-Civil War England, challenging the standard narrative that English presbyterianism was successfully extinguished from the late sixteenth century until its prominent public resurgence during the English Civil War. From their emergence in the 1570s, English presbyterians posed a threat to the Church of England, and, in 1592, the English crown arrested the leaders of the presbyterian movement. Ha shows that, during the ensuing half century of apparent silence, English presbyterians remained continually active. They made a concerted effort, for example, to build an alliance with common lawyers against episcopal authority. Yet they also sought to prove the compatibility of their church government with royal supremacy. They agitated for further reformation of the Church of England, but by the early seventeenth century they had contributed to the birth of 'independency' and to puritan appeals to neo-Roman views of liberty.

Author Biography

Polly Ha is a Research Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge and a Postdoctoral Fellow of the British Academy. She is co-editor of The Reception of Continental Reformation in Britain and Ireland (2010).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Preface	p. xiii
Abbreviations	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
English Presbyterianism and the Church of England
Royal Supremacy	p. 13
Anti-Episcopacy	p. 21
The Evolution of English Ecclesiology
The Visible Church	p. 47
Common Consent	p. 74
Presbyterian "Promiscuity"	p. 97
From Theory to Practice
Presbyterianism in Practice?	p. 121
Popular Presbyterianism	p. 144
Conclusion	p. 179
Appendix: Walter Travers's Papers	p. 191
Bibliographic Note: The Provenance of Walter Travers's Papers	p. 195
Notes	p. 199
Bibliography	p. 267
General Index	p. 289
Biblical Citations	p. 301
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