The open-air pulpit in Paul's Churchyard in the City of London, known as Paul's Cross, is one of the most important vehicles of popular public persuasion employed by government from the outset of the Henrician Reformation in the early 1530s until the opening salvos of the Civil War when the pulpit was demolished. Paul's Cross became especially prominent as the public face of government when Thomas Cromwell orchestrated propaganda for the Henrician reformation in the early 1530s. Here too, after the accession of Edward VI, Hugh Latimer preached his 'Sermon on the Ploughers', one of the most celebrated sermons of the English Reformation. While Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London sat here listening to a sermon in 1553, a riot broke out. In November 1559, John Jewel preached his celebrated 'Challenge Sermon' here, arguably the most influential of all sermons delivered at Paul's Cross throughout the Tudor era. Near the end of Elizabeth's reign William Barlow mounted the pulpit to pronounce the government's response to the abortive rebellion of the Earl of Essex. Barlow preached another sermon at Paul's Cross in the wake of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. Throughout the early modern period, Paul's Cross remained continuously at the epicentre of events which radically transformed England's religious and political identities. And throughout this transformation, animated as it was by a popular 'culture of persuasion' which Paul's Cross itself came to exemplify, the pulpit contributed enormously to the emergence of a new public arena of discourse. Many of these sermons preached at Paul's Cross have been lost; yet a considerable number have survived both in manuscript and in early printed editions. This edition makes available a selection of Paul's Cross sermons representative of this rich period in the maturation of England's popular culture of persuasion.

The writings of Richard Hooker are of central interest to those studying English Renaissance thought and literature. In this, the third and latest volume of a much needed critical edition of the "Works of Richard Hooker," are the posthumous books of the "Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity," Hooker planned the "Laws" in eight books, but he died shortly after publication of Book Five. Books Six, Seven, and Eight which contain his analysis of jurisdiction, episcopacy, and the royal supremacy are here transcribed from versions that have the most authority. The volume also includes Hooker's autograph notes toward those texts (brought to light by P. G. Stanwood in the course of his research) and the contemporary notes by George Cranmer and Edwin Sandys on a lost draft of Book Six. Mr. Stanwood's introduction lays to rest all doubts about the authenticity of the last three books as we have them, doubts current since publication of Walton's "Life of Hooker" in 1662.

This edition, sponsored by the Folger Library, is providing authoritative texts to serve as a basis for the scholarly reappraisal of Richard Hooker's writings that is presently under way.

This edition of Jeremy Taylor's famous work is the first edition critically edited and fully annotated since the beginning of the Oxford Movement over 150 years ago. The text is based on the first editions of 1650 and 1651, and includes textual variants, a full commentary, and a textual introduction.

As well as being two of the most famous prose works of English literature, Jeremy Taylor's Holy Living and Holy Dying are among the greatest examples of Anglican spirituality. This is the first critical and fully annotated edition since the Oxford Movement began, over 150 years ago. The texts are based on the first editions of 1650 and 1651, collated with those editions published during Taylor's lifetime. The critical apparatus includes textual variants, a full commentary, and a textual introduction. The general introduction to both volumes sets out Taylor's life and the intellectual background of these devotional and literary classics.