A major study of the Elizabethan Puritan movement, as seen through the eyes of its most determined opponent, Richard Bancroft.

A major contribution to Puritan scholarship, 'Puritans and Predestination' presents the first consistent and thorough historical analysis of a key Puritan theological concept - predestination. For almost two centuries prior to 1695, English religious and cultural life endured a period of great upheaval. Dewey Wallace illuminates this complex era by tracing patterns of religious thought that took root in early English Protestantism and by explaining their social, cultural, and ecclesiastical implications. 'Puritans and Predestination' concludes that the differences between Puritan and Anglican theology were often subtle and sometimes nonexistent. Central to Protestant theology was the doctrine of grace - the notion that salvation was a divine gift, a free gift to those who believed. Among the many elements that constituted the doctrine of grace, predestination was the foremost. Wallace believes that shifting attitudes toward and emphases on predestination serve as both a measure of the extent of theological unity and an index of theological change. Among the significant conclusions documented in the course of this study are the importance of the Bucerian order of salvation in the early English Reformation, the anachronistic character of reading sharp differences in outlook between Puritan and Anglican, and the centrality of the piety and theology of grace in Puritanism. Wallace also explores the radically innovative character of the Laudian and Arminian theology, the inroads of rationalistic moralism into theology by the middle of the seventeenth century, and the emergence among later Stuart Dissenters of an evangelical pietism prefiguring the religion of the awakenings. This book will be indispensable to those interested in Puritanism and the theology of the Church of England.

A major contribution to Puritan scholarship, 'Puritans and Predestination' presents the first consistent and thorough historical analysis of a key Puritan theological concept - predestination. For almost two centuries prior to 1695, English religious and cultural life endured a period of great upheaval. Dewey Wallace illuminates this complex era by tracing patterns of religious thought that took root in early English Protestantism and by explaining their social, cultural, and ecclesiastical implications. 'Puritans and Predestination' concludes that the differences between Puritan and Anglican theology were often subtle and sometimes nonexistent. Central to Protestant theology was the doctrine of grace - the notion that salvation was a divine gift, a free gift to those who believed. Among the many elements that constituted the doctrine of grace, predestination was the foremost. Wallace believes that shifting attitudes toward and emphases on predestination serve as both a measure of the extent of theological unity and an index of theological change. Among the significant conclusions documented in the course of this study are the importance of the Bucerian order of salvation in the early English Reformation, the anachronistic character of reading sharp differences in outlook between Puritan and Anglican, and the centrality of the piety and theology of grace in Puritanism. Wallace also explores the radically innovative character of the Laudian and Arminian theology, the inroads of rationalistic moralism into theology by the middle of the seventeenth century, and the emergence among later Stuart Dissenters of an evangelical pietism prefiguring the religion of the awakenings. This book will be indispensable to those interested in Puritanism and the theology of the Church of England.

The relationship between church and state, indeed between religion and politics, has been one of the most significant themes in early modern English history. While scores of specialized studies have greatly advanced scholars' understanding of particular aspects of this period, there is no general overview that takes into account current scholarship. This volume discharges that task. Solt seeks to provide the main contours of church-state connections in England from 1509 to 1640 through a selective narration of events interspersed with interpretive summaries. Since World War II, social and economic explanations have dominated the interpretation of events in Tudor and early Stuart England. While these explanations continue to be influential, religious and political explanations have once again come to the fore. Drawing extensively from both primary and secondary sources, Solt provides a scholarly synthesis that combines the findings of earlier research with the more recent emphasis on the impact of religion on political events and vice versa.

The English Civil War and its aftermath was a time of human devastation, political uncertainty and religious instability. Amid the turmoil of those times, however, the Church of England also saw intense liturgical inventiveness. The Directory for Public Worship, Jeremy Taylor's Communion Office, and Richard Baxter's Reformed Liturgy, are all examples of resourceful liturgies born out of the ashes of the English Civil War. The Church of England had not witnessed such liturgical innovation since Thomas Cranmer, and would not see such creativity again until the end of the twentieth century - at least in terms of liturgical texts. In Richard Baxter's Reformation of the Liturgy, Glen J. Segger examines the theology and ecclesiology of Baxter’s liturgical opus. While never approved for public use, the Reformed Liturgy remains an important and creative liturgy representative of those who fought for their Puritan convictions, but lost.