Traces the careers and fortunes of the last priests ordained before the Reformation. A central paradox of the English reformation is that the call to the Catholic priesthood was never more eagerly answered than on the very eve of religious upheaval. In this important new study, based on the records of the third largest diocese in the country, covering six counties of the midlands and north-west, Dr Cooper traces the careers of the pastoral clergy from their preparatory education, through ordination and job-hunting, to the writing of theirwills, often in ripe old age and having served a single parish through the entirety of the main period of reform. In this highly `clericalised' society, in which ten new priests were ordained each year for every arising vacancy, it was those priests without livings who were the main point of contact between the church and its people. This `clerical proletariat', and, indeed, the majority of parochial incumbents, emerge as conscientious servants of their native communities, distinguishable from their neighbours by virtue of their sacramental function rather than their social backgrounds and general concerns. Throughout, the book argues that the parish clergy, whose services were ingreater demand than ever before, were remarkably well integrated into the communities they served and that popular anticlericalism as an explanatory factor of the English reformation is difficult to sustain. Dr TIM COOPER has taught history at the universities of Sheffield, Manchester and Hull.

John Owen (1616-1683) and Richard Baxter (1615-1691) were both pivotal figures in shaping the nonconformist landscape of Restoration England. Yet despite having much in common, they found themselves taking opposite sides in several important debates, and their relationship was marked by acute strain and mutual dislike. By comparing and contrasting the parallel careers of these two men, this book not only distils the essence of their differing theology, it also offers a broader understanding of the formation of English nonconformity. Placing these two figures in the context of earlier events, experience and differences, it argues that Restoration nonconformity was hampered by their strained personal relationship, which had its roots in their contrasting experiences of the English Civil War. This study thus contributes to historiography that explores the continuities across seventeenth-century England, rather than seeing a divide at 1660. It illustrates the way in which personality and experience shaped the development of wider movements.

The present economic system requires us to consume and throw away more and more goods. Yet often it's our desire, and the best interests of the environment, for these goods to last. The contributors to this book, who comprise many of the most significant international thinkers in the field, explore how longer lasting products could offer enhanced value while reducing environmental impacts. If we created fewer but better quality products, looked after them carefully and invested more in repair, renovation and upgrading, would this direct our economy onto a more sustainable course? The solution sounds simple, yet it requires a seismic shift in how we think, whether as producers or consumers, and our voracious appetite for novelty. The complex range of issues associated with product life-spans demands a multidisciplinary approach. The book covers historical context, design, engineering, marketing, law, government policy, consumer behaviour and systems of provision. It addresses the whole range of consumer durables - vehicles, kitchen appliances, audio-visual equipment and other domestic products, furniture and floor coverings, hardware, garden tools, clothing, household textiles, recreational goods and DIY goods - as well as the re-use of packaging. Longer Lasting Products provides policy makers, those involved in product design, manufacturing and marketing, and all of us as consumers, with clear and compelling guidance as to how we can move away from a throwaway culture towards an economy sustained by more durable goods.

The Saints' Everlasting Rest meditates on what Scripture reveals about heaven, helping believers live an abundant, God-honoring life in anticipation of eternal rest.

In his classic text The Reformed Pastor, Richard Baxter expounds on the apostle Paul's encouragement to the elders of Ephesus to keep watch over themselves and their flocks. Updated and abridged edition.

Sheffield's story is one of fierce independence and a revolutionary spirit, its industrial origins having their roots in the same forests as the legends of Robin Hood. From Huntsman's crucible steel in the eighteenth century, to Brearley's stainless steel in the twentieth, Sheffield forged the very fabric of the modern world. As the industrial age drew to a close the city's reputation for rebelliousness spawned its popular reputation as capital of the 'People's Republic of South Yorkshire'. Yet in the wake of the Miners' Strike and the Hillsborough Disaster, the early twenty-first century has seen Sheffield retain its unique character while reinventing itself as a centre of education, creativity and innovation.

Richard Baxter's Reliquiae Baxterianae (1696) is a key text for early modern historical, ecclesiastical, cultural, literary, and bibliographical studies but in its original printed form it is textually defective in a number of ways and, lacking structural coherence or adequate indexes, the wealth of historical data and immediately observed experiences during the Civil Wars, Interregnum, and Restoration period in its 800 pages are very difficult to access. It is similarly challenging to follow the compelling case that Baxter mounts to vindicate moderate Puritanism against the misrepresentations of the prevailing royalist narratives published in the later seventeenth-century, culminating in Clarendon's History of the Rebellion. No other work from the period articulates so fully this much maligned tradition, and no other example of life writing so fully explores the relationship between public affairs and personal spiritual and emotional experience. The result is not only a unique primary source but also a fascinating combination of autobiography, historiography, and apologetic in a work crucial to our understanding of the development of modern narrative genres. This edition, prepared by an international team of early modern scholars and based on Baxter's autograph manuscript where this is extant, for the first time makes this unique work available in a reliable text with a full supporting apparatus. This apparatus includes: extensive general and textual introductions; explanatory commentary and textual notes; supporting documentation, much of it never before published; a detailed chronology; an expository linguistic and historical glossary; the fullest available bibliography of Baxter 140 or so published titles, whose occasion and publication are a recurrent topic in the text; and four indexes.

Advanced Mathematics for FPGA and DSP Programmers covers the mathematical concepts involved in FPGA and DSP programing that can make or break a project. Coverage includes Numbers and Representation, Signals and Noise, Complex Arithmetic, Statistics, Correlation and Convolution, Frequencies, The FFT, Filters, Decimating and Interpolating, Practical Applications, Dot Product Applications, and a glossary of DSP arithmetical terms. About the Author Tim Cooper has been developing real-time embedded and signal processing software for commercial and military applications for over 30 years. Mr. Cooper has authored numerous device drivers, board support packages, and signal processing applications for real-time-operating systems. Mr. Cooper has also authored high-performance signal processing libraries based on SIMD architectures. Other signal processing experience includes MATLAB algorithm development and verification, and working with FPGA engineers to implement and validate signal processing algorithms in VHDL. Much of Mr. Cooper's experience involves software development for systems having hard real-time requirements and deeply embedded processors, where software reliability, performance, and latency are significant cost drivers. Such systems typically require innovative embedded instrumentation that collects performance data without competing for processing resources. Mr. Cooper holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Sciences and a Master's degree in Computer and Electronics Engineering from George Mason University.