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Recent years have witnessed a revival of interest in the history of
the Huguenots, and new research has increased our understanding of
their role in shaping the early-modern world. Yet while much has
been written about the Huguenots during the sixteenth-century wars
of religion, much less is known about their history in the
following centuries. The ten essays in this collection provide the
first broad overview of Huguenot religious culture from the
Restoration of Charles II to the outbreak of the French Revolution.
Dealing primarily with the experiences of Huguenots in England and
Ireland, the volume explores issues of conformity and
nonconformity, the perceptions of 'refuge', and Huguenot attitudes
towards education, social reform and religious tolerance. Taken
together they offer the most comprehensive and up-to-date survey of
Huguenot religious identity in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries.
Recent years have witnessed a revival of interest in the history of
the Huguenots, and new research has increased our understanding of
their role in shaping the early-modern world. Yet while much has
been written about the Huguenots during the sixteenth-century wars
of religion, much less is known about their history in the
following centuries. The ten essays in this collection provide the
first broad overview of Huguenot religious culture from the
Restoration of Charles II to the outbreak of the French Revolution.
Dealing primarily with the experiences of Huguenots in England and
Ireland, the volume explores issues of conformity and
nonconformity, the perceptions of 'refuge', and Huguenot attitudes
towards education, social reform and religious tolerance. Taken
together they offer the most comprehensive and up-to-date survey of
Huguenot religious identity in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries.
Roger L'Estrange (1616-1704) was one of the most remarkable,
significant and colourful figures in seventeenth-century England.
Whilst there has been regular, if often cursory, scholarly interest
in his activities as Licenser and Stuart apologist, this is the
first sustained book-length study of the man for almost a century.
L'Estrange's engagement on the Royalist side during the Civil war,
and his energetic pamphleteering for the return of the King in the
months preceding the Restoration earned him a reputation as one of
the most radical royalist apologists. As Licenser for the Press
under Charles II, he was charged with preventing the printing and
publication of dissenting writings; his additional role as Surveyor
of the Press authorised him to search the premises of printers and
booksellers on the mere suspicion of such activity. He was also a
tireless pamphleteer, journalist, and controversialist in the
conformist cause, all of which made him the bAte noire of Whigs and
non-conformists. This collection of essays by leading scholars of
the period highlights the instrumental role L'Estrange played in
the shaping of the political, literary, and print cultures of the
Restoration period. Taking an interdisciplinary approach the volume
covers all the major aspects of his career, as well as situating
them in their broader historical and literary context. By examining
his career in this way the book offers insights that will prove of
worth to political, social, religious and cultural historians, as
well as those interested in seventeenth-century literary and book
history.
The first book to address the role of correspondence in the study
of religion, Debating the Faith: Religion and Letter Writing in
Great Britain, 1550-1800 shows how letters shaped religious debate
in early-modern and Enlightenment Britain, and discusses the
materiality of the letters as well as questions of form and genre.
Particular attention is paid to the contexts in which letters were
composed, sent, read, distributed, and then destroyed, copied or
printed, in periods of religious tolerance or persecution. The
opening section, 'Protestant identities', examines the importance
of letters in the shaping of British protestantism from the
underground correspondence of Protestant martyrs in the reign of
Mary I to dissident letters after the Act of Toleration.
'Representations of British Catholicism', explores the way English,
Irish and Scottish Catholics, whether in exile or at home, defined
their faith, established epistolary networks, and addressed
political and religious allegiances in the face of adversity. The
last part, 'Religion, science and philosophy', focuses on the
religious content of correspondence between natural scientists and
philosophers.
John Bunyan was a major figure in seventeenth-century Puritan
literature, and one deeply embroiled in the religious upheavals of
his times. This Companion considers all his major texts, including
The Pilgrim's Progress and his autobiography Grace Abounding. The
essays, by leading Bunyan scholars, place these and his other works
in the context of seventeenth-century history and literature. They
discuss such key issues as the publication of dissenting works, the
history of the book, gender, the relationship between literature
and religion, between literature and early modern radicalism, and
the reception of seventeenth-century texts. Other chapters assess
Bunyan's importance for the development of allegory, life-writing,
the early novel and children's literature. This Companion provides
a comprehensive and accessible introduction to an author with an
assured and central place in English literature.
John Bunyan was a major figure in seventeenth-century Puritan
literature, and one deeply embroiled in the religious upheavals of
his times. This Companion considers all his major texts, including
The Pilgrim's Progress and his autobiography Grace Abounding. The
essays, by leading Bunyan scholars, place these and his other works
in the context of seventeenth-century history and literature. They
discuss such key issues as the publication of dissenting works, the
history of the book, gender, the relationship between literature
and religion, between literature and early modern radicalism, and
the reception of seventeenth-century texts. Other chapters assess
Bunyan's importance for the development of allegory, life-writing,
the early novel and children's literature. This Companion provides
a comprehensive and accessible introduction to an author with an
assured and central place in English literature.
This study is a reappraisal of John Bunyan in the light of the
dissenting religious culture of the late-seventeenth century.
Charges of schism and fanaticism were repeateadly levelled against
Bunyan, both from within the dissenting community and without, but
far from being chastened by these accusations, Bunyan responded
with a religious discourse marked by a rhetoric of excess. The
focus of this book is therefore upon Bunyan's over-whelming
spiritual experiences, especially the representation of torment, in
his literary and polemical works. The believers' suffering was an
obsessive concern of dissenting ministers, even to the point where
their writings are often remembered today for little else.
Hitherto, most scholars have termed all the mental states that they
invoke 'despair', but this simplifies the experiences at issue. A
wealth of contemporary material helps to restore the nuances of
seventeenth-century physical and spiritual conditions, from
enthusiasm to melancholy and madness; from fear to desertion and
sloth. These chapters explore fresh ways in which this subtle
typology of torment and its extreme manifestations form the core of
the literary expression of Restoration dissent, challenging Bunyan
to represent spiritual equilibrium as the ultimate quest of the
earthly pilgrimage.
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