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 Church Government and Social Control

Crawford Gribben

in God's Irishmen: Theological Debates in Cromwellian Ireland

This chapter documents Irish Cromwellian debates about church government. Quakers and Seekers denied any locus of authority beyond the “inner light.” Baptists and Independents argued that the proper ... More

This chapter documents Irish Cromwellian debates about church government. Quakers and Seekers denied any locus of authority beyond the “inner light.” Baptists and Independents argued that the proper basis of authority lay within the leadership of the local congregation. Presbyterians argued instead for a hierarchy of church courts, from the local elders to the General Assembly, while Episcopalians argued for a hierarchy of individuals in church offices. These debates were conducted alongside the pressing need to implement social control, local attempts to establish a clerical hegemony, and the civil administration's construction of the Civil List, which cut the link between preachers and congregations and put many clergy under government control. The debate about social control acted as a catalyst for emerging associations of clergy and early denominational structures.Less

Presbyterianism and the right of private judgement: Church government in Ireland and Scotland in the age of Francis Hutcheson

James Moore

in Philosophy and Religion in Enlightenment Britain: New Case Studies

This chapter examines Hutcheson’s ideas of rights and prudence in the context of debated issues of church government in early eighteenth-century Ireland and Scotland. He agreed with ministers in ... More

This chapter examines Hutcheson’s ideas of rights and prudence in the context of debated issues of church government in early eighteenth-century Ireland and Scotland. He agreed with ministers in northern Ireland who refused to subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith: he thought that every individual should enjoy the right of private judgement in matters of religious belief. And he argued in response to concerns expressed by his father, John Hutcheson, that determination of the form of church government must be left to human prudence. He endorsed an initiative within the Church of Scotland that ministers should be called by landed gentlemen or by magistrates, not by congregations who might call ministers who would insist on subscription to confessions and creeds. True religion could be best achieved by prudence and by respect for the right of private judgement.Less

Introduction Approaches to Thomas Edwards's Gangraena

Ann Hughes

in Gangraena and the Struggle for the English Revolution

This chapter explores the ways in which historians have used Gangraena as a source, and explains how new approaches to the history of print culture, the history of the book, and of reading will be ... More

This chapter explores the ways in which historians have used Gangraena as a source, and explains how new approaches to the history of print culture, the history of the book, and of reading will be used to explore Gangraena as a text. The discussion of Edwards’s training at Cambridge and his experience within the Laudian church in London and Hertford are followed by an account of divisions amongst English Puritans over church government in the early 1640s. The publication of Edwards’s Antapologia in 1644 marked a crucial stage in the emergence of profound religious divisions amongst Parliamentarians.Less

Milton on Knowing Good from Evil

Christopher Tilmouth

in John Milton: Life, Writing, Reputation

Although poetry's morally instructive purpose was a Renaissance commonplace, Milton developed a detailed conception of what it meant. He argued that poems have the power to ‘inbreed in the great ... More

Although poetry's morally instructive purpose was a Renaissance commonplace, Milton developed a detailed conception of what it meant. He argued that poems have the power to ‘inbreed in the great people the seeds of virtue and public civility, to allay the perturbation of mind, and set the affections in right tune’. Milton was a moralizing poet who was sensitive to the challenge of knowing oneself and staying true to the proper rational ideas. His epics and poems were pegged on the ethic of rational choosing. This chapter examines the kinds of moral knowledge upon which free choice must hang and the capacity of Milton's Adam and Eve to make rational choices. It examines Milton's theodicy, which argued that possession of rational powers enables people to choose between good and evil. The chapter assesses how experience influences the capacity of man for self-determination and choice according to Milton's theodicy. In it, three of Milton's poems, which sum up his moral imagination, are examined: Paradise Lost, Reason of the Church Government, and Areopagitica.Less

Milton’s Christian Temper

N. H. Keeble

in John Milton: Life, Writing, Reputation

This chapter discusses Milton's Christian temper. It is believed Milton did not belong to any worshipping Christian community. No existing records ecist to attest that he attended Christian service, ... More

This chapter discusses Milton's Christian temper. It is believed Milton did not belong to any worshipping Christian community. No existing records ecist to attest that he attended Christian service, or associated with a specific parish, or joined congregations. In an age of great divines, pastors, and preachers, Milton acknowledged no indebtedness to any man's ministerial support or guidance. The practice of his Christianity was non-congregational, domestic, and private. Milton's external Christian observance and inner spiritual life were both invisible. He never offered anything approaching a conversion narrative. When Milton approached matters of personal belief, it is intellectually and not experientially. In his Miltonic equivalent of a spiritual biography, the De Doctrina Christiana, he asserted that his search for truth was from his own original systematic exposition of the Christina doctrine. In his The Reason of Church-Government, Milton illustrates his own religious life by illustrating the coercive authority of the Episcopal Church and his conscientious refusal to submit to it. His anticlerical stance and his firm belief in the free debate and liberty to religion encouraged him to write prose and poems of unwavering intolerance of Roman Catholicism. Milton's Christian vision is neither congregation nor a remnant but that of just one man, who is reliant on his own intellectual and spiritual resource, and who, regardless of popular opinion, walked with integrity. Among Milton's critical and anticlerical works are Paradise Lost, The Reason of Church-Government, and Samson Agonistes.Less

Friendship, Formalities, and Membership in Post-Revolutionary America

Kevin Butterfield

in The Making of Tocqueville'S America: Law and Association in the Early United States

In this chapter, three important cultural developments will be examined. First, by looking at the travails of the embattled Society of the Cincinnati the chapter will examine the growing belief that ... More

In this chapter, three important cultural developments will be examined. First, by looking at the travails of the embattled Society of the Cincinnati the chapter will examine the growing belief that effective voluntary association requires formalities and procedural regularity. No group can rely on mere affection or friendship. Second, we will begin a theme that will be continued in part II: the increasingly sophisticated ways in which Americans embraced these kinds of formal practices within their own associations, by means of constitutions, bylaws, and resolute attention to procedure and predictability. Third, we will show just how pervasive these cultural practices were becoming by tracing the ways that they came to characterize practices in what was, for many American men and women, the most important of all associational connections: their own churches.Less

Union: The Religious and Political Background, 1689–1706

Jeffrey Stephen

in Scottish Presbyterians and the Act of Union 1707

This chapter discusses the religious and political background preceding the Anglo-Scottish union. It explores two key constitutional documents which provided the foundation of the Revolution ... More

This chapter discusses the religious and political background preceding the Anglo-Scottish union. It explores two key constitutional documents which provided the foundation of the Revolution Settlement of 1689–90: The Claim of Right and the Articles of Grievances. It notes that these documents represented a Scottish desire for constitutional and ecclesiastional reform. It reports that the estates abolished Episcopalian church government on 22 July 1689 taking their lead from the Claim of Right. It further reports that William introduced changes to the electoral process, following discussion with Scottish political elites, resulting in increased Presbyterian participation and electoral success, particularly in the burghs. It notes that the surest way of breaking down ancient religious, cultural, and linguistic barriers that existed between Highland and Lowland, and of bringing the Highland into mainstream Scottish life, as well as counteracting the influence of Jacobitism, was to convert the Highland to reformed Presbyterianism.Less

“We Shall Then Live Together as One Great Family”: Mormonism and the Public/Private Divide

Christine Talbot

in A Foreign Kingdom: Mormons and Polygamy in American Political Culture, 1852-1890

This chapter explores Mormon communitarian practices in Utah after the public pronouncement in 1852 that Mormons practiced plural marriage. Mormons made little distinction between the home and the ... More

This chapter explores Mormon communitarian practices in Utah after the public pronouncement in 1852 that Mormons practiced plural marriage. Mormons made little distinction between the home and the community outside it, but rather constituted that community as a kind of broad, privatized family they juxtaposed to a broader American “public” polity and state. Indeed, Mormons attempted to “live together as one great family,” constituting a privatized community governed by God through His government. Polygamy also accompanied a communitarian economic vision of communal property ownership that undermined notions of private property. In arguing for the compatibility of polygamy and Americanness, Mormons attempted to construct a vision of American citizenship and polity unrelated to marital structures. This entailed dissociating Americanness from the monogamous family and claiming that Church government itself was a perfection of American political principles.Less

Common Consent

in English Presbyterianism 1590–1640

This chapter offers a description on the freedom of common consent. For conformists, common consent could be recognized as the basis of government, but nevertheless be replaced by the authority of ... More

This chapter offers a description on the freedom of common consent. For conformists, common consent could be recognized as the basis of government, but nevertheless be replaced by the authority of bishops and thereby omitted from the daily exercise of church government. Presbyterians did not discount congregational consent in their government. They did more than point to the Synod of Dort to illustrate the role of spiritual assemblies in making ecclesiastical judgments and in preserving true doctrine. The testimony of the English protestant tradition has expressed especial weight in both defending Presbyterianism and countering episcopacy. Despite the obvious cleavage between presbyterian and congregational thought on the nature of common consent, their differences on this subject became less marked than in other matters, which had an immediate bearing on the practice of congregational government and on their status in relation to the Church of England.Less

Royal Supremacy

in English Presbyterianism 1590–1640

This chapter discusses the crown's supremacy over the Church of England. The presbyterians represented a continued challenge to supremacy by its subjection of the crown's authority to collective ... More

This chapter discusses the crown's supremacy over the Church of England. The presbyterians represented a continued challenge to supremacy by its subjection of the crown's authority to collective jurisdiction and biblical precedent. The treatise “Reformed Church Government” analyzes how the presbyterians continued to use the concept of a mixed polity and the malleable nature of supremacy to their own advantage. It also stresses that Presbyterianism could be united with royal supremacy through minimal change by the simple substitution of ministers and elders for bishops. The Letters Patents of the Presbyterie is a treatise written in 1632 that argues against episcopal authority and in favor of presbyterian reform. By the 1630s, the shrewdest polemical tactic for the presbyterians was instead to ratchet up their attack on episcopacy.Less

Introduction:: Attempting Uniformity

N. H. Keeble (ed.)

in ‘Settling the Peace of the Church’: 1662 Revisited

This historical introduction traces the course of events that led from George Monck's incursion into England in January 1660 to the passing of the Act of Uniformity in 1662, examining ‘Presbyterian’ ... More

This historical introduction traces the course of events that led from George Monck's incursion into England in January 1660 to the passing of the Act of Uniformity in 1662, examining ‘Presbyterian’ hopes of a comprehensive national church and the ecclesiastical negotiations following the Restoration in the course of which these hopes were disappointed. It summarizes the provisions of the Act and gives some account of their consequences in the establishment of nonconformity. It concludes that in its failure to impose uniformity lies the Act's significance: ‘Despite its intentions, the consequence of the Act of 1662 was not uniformity but diversity in the religious life of the nation. Bartholomew's Day was thus a defining moment, the first step towards today's pluralist and multicultural society’.Less

The Debate over Authority:: Adiaphora, the Civil Magistrate, and the Settlement of Religion

Jacqueline Rose

in ‘Settling the Peace of the Church’: 1662 Revisited

This chapter explores the triangular relationship between lay government, ecclesiastical authorities, and the individual Christian. Adiaphora constituted non‐doctrinal matters regarded as ... More

This chapter explores the triangular relationship between lay government, ecclesiastical authorities, and the individual Christian. Adiaphora constituted non‐doctrinal matters regarded as ‘indifferent’; mainly rites and ceremonies, but perhaps encompassing church government as well. These issues were central to negotiations over comprehension and were rooted in the theology of Christian liberty. However, the royal supremacy of the civil magistrate in the English Church meant that adiaphora unavoidably raised questions about law and authority. Discussions about the casuistry of obedience brought to the fore the psychological dilemmas of conformity. Debating the aesthetics of worship and their relationship to the remnants of Catholic ‘Popery’ rendered problematic the identity of the English Church. This chapter explores what was distinctive about the Restoration phase of an argument as old as the English Reformation, and how this complicates notions of toleration in the seventeenth century.Less

Circumstantial Temporary Concessions:: Clarendon, Comprehension, and Uniformity

Paul Seaward

in ‘Settling the Peace of the Church’: 1662 Revisited

The Acts passed by the Cavalier Parliament in 1661–5 which prevented many ‘Puritans’ and ‘Presbyterians’ from conforming to the Church of England, and punished those who tried to establish ... More

The Acts passed by the Cavalier Parliament in 1661–5 which prevented many ‘Puritans’ and ‘Presbyterians’ from conforming to the Church of England, and punished those who tried to establish alternative forms of religious worship, have often been known as the ‘Clarendon Code’, after Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon. Yet Clarendon's writings, and his attitudes to church matters during the early 1640s, suggest someone who was more concerned to promote religious peace than a determined and rigid advocate of uniformity and persecution; moreover, during 1662 he made strenuous efforts to reduce the severity of some aspects of the uniformity bill. This chapter argues that despite his adiaphorist approach, Clarendon, like many others, was firmly and decisively in favour of uniformity, but that he was nevertheless genuinely concerned about the pace of the change that was being driven on—principally by the hierarchy of the Church.Less

The Bishops of Ireland and the Beasts at Ephesus:: Reconstruction, Conformity, and the Presbyterian Knot, 1660–2

Robert Armstrong

in ‘Settling the Peace of the Church’: 1662 Revisited

This chapter assesses the means whereby Protestant Ireland saw the reimposition of a full‐blown ‘Anglican’ order and the exclusion of large numbers of Presbyterian clergymen, ahead of comparable ... More

This chapter assesses the means whereby Protestant Ireland saw the reimposition of a full‐blown ‘Anglican’ order and the exclusion of large numbers of Presbyterian clergymen, ahead of comparable developments in England, and based explicitly on pre‐war norms. That re‐establishment took on regional and ‘national’ dimensions, with the largest expulsions of ministers occurring among the Scottish communities of north‐east and north‐west Ulster, and it generated disorder and communal tension on the ground closer to the Scottish than the English experience of Restoration. Yet while it was in the interests of later denominational historians and apologists, both Anglican and Presbyterian, to emphasize the sharp and decisive break between them in these years, this chapter will also look at evidence of some ambiguities, and some opportunities, which blur such straightforward conclusions, and it will consider how far these offered the possibility of a different, more comprehensive, settlement.Less

Scotland

Alasdair Raffe

in The Oxford History of Anglicanism, Volume II: Establishment and Empire, 1662 -1829

This chapter examines the transformations in the status and character of Scottish Episcopalianism from 1662 to 1829. Despite being re-established in the Church of Scotland in 1661–2, episcopacy was ... More

This chapter examines the transformations in the status and character of Scottish Episcopalianism from 1662 to 1829. Despite being re-established in the Church of Scotland in 1661–2, episcopacy was abolished in 1689. Thereafter Episcopalians were a Nonconformist group, and only the minority of congregations whose clergy were loyal to Queen Anne and her Hanoverian successors enjoyed legal protection. But while the intermittent prosecution of the Jacobite clergy contributed to a steep decline in the number of Scottish Episcopalians, disestablishment allowed the clergy to reassess episcopal authority, and to experiment with liturgical reforms. After transferring their allegiance to the Hanoverians in 1788, the Episcopalians drew closer to the Church of England, formally adopting the Thirty-Nine Articles in 1804. By the end of the period, the Episcopalians saw themselves as an independent, non-established Church, one of the branches of international Anglicanism.Less

The Experience of Dissent: John Owen and Congregational Life in Revolutionary and Restoration England

Crawford Gribben

in Church Life: Pastors, Congregations, and the Experience of Dissent in Seventeenth-Century England

This chapter examines developments in John Owen’s thinking about church government, church membership, and the observation of the sacraments. It will outline his experiments in ecclesiology in the ... More

This chapter examines developments in John Owen’s thinking about church government, church membership, and the observation of the sacraments. It will outline his experiments in ecclesiology in the 1640s, when the Independent party emerged as a movement for reform within the national church. It will suggest reasons for his apparent lack of interest in ecclesiology in the 1650s: a period in which his principal writings make little reference to the benefits of church membership, and in which Owen’s own ecclesiastical affiliation cannot be traced. It will discuss the renewal of his interest in church life in the 1660s and beyond, particularly as his Restoration works on the principles of public worship, together with a very complete set of auditor’s notes covering almost twenty years of his preaching, offer new ways of understanding the challenge he faced in turning local church principles into local church practice.Less

Gender Perspectives: Women and Anglicanism

Cordelia Moyse

in The Oxford History of Anglicanism, Volume IV: Global Western Anglicanism, c.1910-present

In 1910 women’s experience of church was distinct from men’s. Women could usually be found in the pew or active in women’s organizations but they did not exercise institutional or liturgical ... More

In 1910 women’s experience of church was distinct from men’s. Women could usually be found in the pew or active in women’s organizations but they did not exercise institutional or liturgical leadership. Over the course of 100 years changes in women’s political and social roles in secular society and new understandings of ministry and gender in the Church opened up new opportunities for women to exercise their spiritual gifts as members of the body of Christ. This chapter explores the steps by which the various constituent Churches of Western Anglicanism adjusted their ministries, organization, and theologies to include women. Nonetheless this process was different for each Church, illustrating both the unity and diversity of the Anglican experience.Less