Disciplinary Measures from the Metrical Psalms to Milton studies the relationship between English poetry and church discipline in four carefully chosen bodies of poetry written between the Reformation and the death of John Milton. Its primary goal is to fill a gap in the field of Protestant poetics, which has never produced a study focused on the way in which poetry participates in and reflects on the post-Reformation English Church's attempts to govern conduct. Its secondary goal is to revise the understandings of discipline which social theorists and historians have offered, and which literary critics have largely accepted. It argues that knowledge of the early modern culture of discipline illuminates some important poetic traditions and some major English poets, and it shows that this poetry in turn throws light on verbal and affective aspects of the disciplinary process that prove difficult to access through other sources, challenging assumptions about the means of social control, the structures of authority, and the practical implications of doctrinal change. More specifically, Disciplinary Measures argues that while poetry can help us to understand the oppressive potential of church discipline, it can also help us to recover a more positive sense of discipline as a spiritual cure.

Canon law touched nearly every aspect of medieval society, including many issues we now think of as purely secular. It regulated marriages, oaths, usury, sorcery, heresy, university life, penance, just war, court procedure, and Christian relations with religious minorities. Canon law also regulated the clergy and the Church, one of the most important institutions in the Middle Ages. This Cambridge History offers a comprehensive survey of canon law, both chronologically and thematically. Written by an international team of scholars, it explores, in non-technical language, how it operated in the daily life of people and in the great political events of the time. The volume demonstrates that medieval canon law holds a unique position in the legal history of Europe. Indeed, the influence of medieval canon law, which was at the forefront of introducing and defining concepts such as 'equity,' 'rationality,' 'office,' and 'positive law,' has been enormous, long-lasting, and remarkably diverse.

The disastrous protestant defeat in the Schmalkaldic War (1546-47) and the promulgation of the Ausburg Interim (1548) left the fate of German Protestantism in doubt. In the wake of these events, a single protestant town, Magdeburg, offered organized, sustained resistance to Emperor Charles V's drive to consolidate Habsburg hegemony and reinstitute uniform Roman Catholic worship throughout Germany. In a flood of printed pamphlets, Magdeburg's leaders justified their refusal to surrender with forceful appeals to religious belief and German tradition. Magdeburg's resistance, interdiction and eventual siege attracted admiring attention from across Europe. The teachings developed and disseminated by Protestant thinkers in defence of the city's stance would ultimately influence political theorists in Switzerland, France, Scotland and even North America. Magdeburg's ordeal formed a signal crisis in the emergence of German Lutheran confessional identity. The Chancery of God is the first English language monograph on Magdeburg's anti-Imperial resistance and pamphlet campaign. The book offers an analysis of Magdeburg's printed output (over 200 publications) during the crucial years of 1546-51, texts which present a broad spectrum of arguments for resistance and suggest a coherent identity and worldview that is characteristically and self-consciously Protestant.

Writings by early-modern English artisans are rare and thus precious. London wood-turner and puritan, Nehemiah Wallington (1598-1658) is exceptional for having compiled fifty notebooks between 1618 and 1654. Although only seven of these are extant, they not only provide a wealth of valuable information about life in seventeenth-century London, but more importantly give access to the author's personal world, both inner and outer. Providing substantial excerpts from the surviving notebooks, this edition covers the broad range of subjects that animated Wallington's everyday life. Accounts of incidents in his domestic, working and religious life sit side by side with sustained meditations on his spiritual state; reports on national events are given, along with their possible providential meanings. Particularly illuminating are Wallington's reflections on his own mental wellbeing, at times suicidal, at others ecstatic. From letters on religious matters to expressions of anxiety over the illnesses and mishaps of his wife and children, from vexed thoughts about money matters to chronicling the tumults of civil war London, this collection provides a window into everyday life in seventeenth-century England. By making the writings of Nehemiah Wallington available in a modern edited edition, fully footnoted and referenced, together with a substantial scholarly introduction, we hope that this little-known London wood-turner will soon take his deserved place besides Pepys and Evelyn as one of the authentic voices commenting on early modern England.

Established in 1542, the Roman Inquisition operated through a network of almost fifty tribunals to combat heretical and heterodox threats within the papal territories. Whilst its theological, institutional and political aspects have been well-studied, until now no sustained work has been undertaken to understand the financial basis upon which it operated. Yet - as The Business of the Roman Inquisition in the Early Modern Era shows - the fiscal autonomy enjoyed by each tribunal was a major factor in determining how the Inquisition operated. For, as the flow of cash from Rome declined, each tribunal was forced to rely upon its own assets and resources to fund its work, resulting in a situation whereby tribunals increasingly came to resemble businesses. As each tribunal was permitted to keep a substantial proportion of the fines and confiscations it levied, questions quickly arose regarding the economic considerations that may have motivated the Inquisition's actions. Dr Maifreda argues that the Inquisition, with the need to generate sufficient revenue to continue working, had a clear incentive to target wealthy groups within society who could afford to yield up substantial revenues. Furthermore, as secular authorities also began to rely upon a levy on these revenues, the financial considerations of decisions regarding heresy prosecutions become even greater. Based upon a wealth of hitherto neglected primary sources from the Vatican and local Italian archives, Dr Maifreda reveals the underlying financial structures that played a vital part in the operations of the Roman Inquisition. By exploring the system of incentives and pressures that guided the actions of inquisitors in their procedural processes and choice of victims, a much clearer understanding of the Roman Inquisition emerges. This book is an English translation of I denari dell'inquisitore. Affari e giustizia di fede nell'Italia moderna (Turin: Einaudi, 2014).

A holistic, eye-opening history of one of the most significant turning points in Christianity, The Reformation as Renewal demonstrates that the Reformation was at its core a renewal of evangelical catholicity. In the sixteenth century Rome charged the Reformers with novelty, as if they were heretics departing from the catholic (universal) church. But the Reformers believed they were more catholic than Rome. Distinguishing themselves from Radicals, the Reformers were convinced they were retrieving the faith of the church fathers and the best of the medieval Scholastics. The Reformers saw themselves as faithful stewards of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church preserved across history, and they insisted on a restoration of true worship in their own day. By listening to the Reformers' own voices, The Reformation as Renewal helps readers explore: The Reformation's roots in patristic and medieval thought and its response to late medieval innovations. Key philosophical and theological differences between Scholasticism in the High Middle Ages and deviations in the Late Middle Ages. The many ways sixteenth and seventeenth century Protestant Scholastics critically appropriated Thomas Aquinas. The Reformation's response to the charge of novelty by an appeal to the Augustinian tradition. Common caricatures that charge the Reformation with schism or assume the Reformation was the gateway to secularism. The spread of Reformation catholicity across Europe, as seen in first and second-generation leaders from Luther and Melanchthon in Wittenberg to Zwingli and Bullinger in Zurich to Bucer and Calvin in Strasbourg and Geneva to Tyndale, Cranmer, and Jewel in England, and many others. The theology of the Reformers, with special attention on their writings defending the catholicity of the Reformation.   This balanced, insightful, and accessible treatment of the Reformation will help readers see this watershed moment in the history of Christianity with fresh eyes and appreciate the unity they have with the church across time. Readers will discover that the Reformation was not a new invention, but the renewal of something very old.

This book critically explores ways in which our understanding of late medieval liturgy can be enhanced through present-day enactment. It is a direct outcome of a practice-led research project, led by Professor John Harper and undertaken at Bangor University between 2010 and 2013 in partnership with Salisbury Cathedral and St Fagans National History Museum, near Cardiff. The book seeks to address the complex of ritual, devotional, musical, physical and architectural elements that constitute medieval Latin liturgy, whose interaction can be so difficult to recover other than through practice. In contrast with previous studies of reconstructed liturgies, enactment was not the exclusive end-goal of the project; rather it has created a new set of data for interpretation and further enquiry. Though based on a foundation of historical, musicological, textual, architectural and archaeological research, new methods of investigation and interpretation are explored, tested and validated throughout. There is emphasis on practice-led investigation and making; the need for imagination and creativity; and the fact that enactment participants can only be of the present day. Discussion of the processes of preparation, analysis and interpretation of the enactments is complemented by contextual studies, with particular emphasis on the provision of music. A distinctive feature of the work is that it seeks to understand the experiences of different groups within the medieval church - the clergy, their assistants, the singers, and the laity - as they participated in different kinds of rituals in both a large cathedral and a small parish church. Some of the conclusions challenge interpretations of these experiences, which have been current since the Reformation. In addition, some consideration is given to the implications of understanding past liturgy for present-day worship.

This volume, originally published in 1987, includes several of Edwards A. Park's influential essays and sermons, including Connection between Theological Study and Pulpit Eloquence, Duties of a Theologian and Unity Amid Diversities of Belief, Even on Imputed and Involuntary Sin. Edwards Amasa Park, an American Congregational theologian, was an able defender of Trinitarian views and became a figure of theological power in his denomination. This title will be of interest to students of nineteenth-century religious and social history.

Originally published in 1988. This study examines women religious in the American community in the first half of the nineteenth century. The primary aim of this research was to determine who the women were who entered eight religious communities, and whether there was any clear relationship between who they were and their choice of community. This title will be of interest to students of history and religious studies.

Originally published in 1987. The dispute between Leonard Woods, an American theologian and well known Calvinist, and Henry Ware, a preacher and theologian influential in the formation of Unitarianism, went on for four years and is reprinted here in its entirety. Although the combatants were concerned over whether God's nature was one or three, other issues were more important for them, and these issues are discussed at length in their correspondence. This title will be of interest to students of history and religious studies.

Originally published in 1987. The dispute between Leonard Woods, an American theologian and well known Calvinist, and Henry Ware, a preacher and theologian influential in the formation of Unitarianism, went on for four years and is reprinted here in its entirety. Although the combatants were concerned over whether God's nature was one or three, other issues were more important for them, and these issues are discussed at length in their correspondence. This title will be of interest to students of history and religious studies.

Originally published in 1988. The new-found freedom and changing attitudes towards Catholics after the American Revolution presented the Catholic Church with its first real opportunity to prosper in the English speaking "new world". But the Catholic Church could not take advantage of this opportunity unless it shook off some of its "old world" characteristics and became accustomed to the American environment. This study attempts to analyse the very nature of American Catholicism by investigating the impact of the American environment on the development of the Catholic Church in American during the episcopacy of John Carroll. This title will be of interest to students of history and religious studies.

This study, originally published in 1977, demonstrates that a change in mentality in the nineteenth-century drifted from traditional sexual controls and allowed them greater sexual freedom and indulgence. The process occurred in such a way that the proletariat never considered whether their newly found sexual liberation might be in conflict with the moral teachings of the Church. This title will be of interest to students of history and religion.

This volume, first published in 1982, examines the attempts of English liberal Catholics to reconcile their Church with secular culture and provides an account of the development of liberal Catholicism in England in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This work was written not only for specialists in religious history but for all readers who might be interested in this seminal period of Catholicism. It is a study in religious, intellectual, and cultural history.

This collection originally published in 1985. This volume contains two of Charles F. Parham's influential works; A Voice Crying in the Wilderness and Everlasting Gospel. Charles F. Parham was an American preacher and evangelist, and was one of the two central figures in the development of the early spread of Pentecostalism. He was also the first preacher to articulate Pentecostalism's distinctive doctrine of evidential tongues. This title will be of interest to students of nineteenth-century religious and social history.

This title, first published in 1987, explores the phenomenon of militant freethought among England's working classes from 1840-1870. In particular, it is an effort to explain the peculiarly theological and evangelistic overtones of much Victorian working class radicalism, and the resulting emergence of a Victorian religion of atheism. This title will be of interest to students of nineteenth-century religious and social history.

First published in 1975. In 1869 the Church of Ireland, until then part of the Church of England, was disestablished and partially disendowed. The author traces the changes in the Church of Ireland's organization and function and the decline of its influence and numerical size during the hundred years following disestablishment. This title will be of interest to students of nineteenth- and twentieth-century religious and social history.

This study, first published in 1997, attempts to fill a gap in the historiography of the African American church by analysing the role and place of the African American church in one city, Birmingham, Alabama. It traces the roles and functions of the church from the arrival of African Americans as slaves in the early 1800s to 1963, the year that the civil rights movement reached a peak in the city. This title will be of interest to students of nineteenth- and twentieth-century religious and social history.

This title, first published in 1988, examines accounts of religious conversion contained in the personal narratives of nineteenth-century American coverts to Roman Catholicism. Given their newly acquired status as members of an unpopular religious minority, a number of converts recorded their conversion stories in an effort to justify becoming Catholic and to defend the teaching and practice of their Church. This title will be of interest to students of nineteenth-century religious and social history.

This collection of papers, first published in 1992, grew out of a concern for the perduring nature of the thought of John Henry Cardinal Newman. Although Cardinal Newman died over one hundred years ago, his influence on today's thinking is still strong. Newman put forward an ideal of society and life which has a recognizable relation to the lasting possibilities open to humankind. The editors and contributors of this volume have been brought together by a common interest in a man for whom the continual search for truth is paramount.

In this book, first published in 1984, Paul Cohen examines the Catholic revival among the young French intelligentsia prior to the First World War. He explores this intellectual revival by studying that period's "talas", the Catholic students at the elite Ecole Normale Superieure, and devotes his attention to some of the highest-profile coverts, such as Charles Peguy and Jacques Maritain. This title will be of interest to students of nineteenth- and twentieth-century religious and social history.

This title, first published in 1985, contains two of Thomas Ball Barratt's influential works; In the Days of the Latter Rain and When the Fire Fell and an Outline of My Life. T. B. Barratt was a British-born Norwegian pastor and one of the founding figures of the Pentecostal movement in Europe. He attracted international attention after he held revival meetings in Oslo from 1907, and influenced other European leaders of the Pentecostal movement of the divine origin of the movement. This title will be of interest to students of nineteenth-century religious and social history.

Included in this bibliography, originally published in 1989, are books, pamphlets, dissertations, and articles from periodicals and collections, published for the most part since 1900, which present Catholic development in the nineteenth-century as its major theme. Each entry is annotated with the major idea or theme of the work as expressed by its author or editor. This title will be of interest to students of European History and Religious Studies.

Originally published in 1982. This biography of Charles Haddon Spurgeon attempts to place the man within the framework of his time. The emphasis is upon Spurgeon as a representative Victorian, who succeeded because his values were those of the dominant middle class. This study also seeks to illuminate the motives which drove him, time after time, to seek the spotlight of controversy. C. H. Spurgeon remains highly influential among Christians of various denominations to this day.