Godly Clergy in Early Stuart England - The Caroline Puritan Movement, c.1620-1643 (Hardcover, New)

The existence of an early Stuart Puritan movement is reconsidered in this book. It examines the ways in which Puritan clergymen encouraged greater sociability with their like-minded colleagues, both in theory and in practice, to such an extent that they came to define themselves as a peculiar people, a community distinct from their less faithful rivals. These voluntary communal rituals encouraged a view of the world divided between us and them. This provides a context for a renewed examination of the thinking behind debates on ceremonial nonconformity and reactions to the Laudian changes of the 1630s. From this the book presents a fresh perspective on arguments about emigration and church government, arguments that proved crucial to Parliamentarian unity during the English Civil War.