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“Communion of the Saints”: Spiritual Reciprocity and the Godly Community in Early Modern England*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2014

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Lady Joan Barrington, a puritan matriarch esteemed among the godly as a “lady elect,” experienced a profound spiritual crisis in 1628. She felt anxiety and melancholy over the prospects for her own salvation after the death of her husband Francis. Among those attempting to provide her comfort and counsel was the puritan divine Ezekiel Rogers, her former chaplain. Holding a Barrington living in Yorkshire, Rogers wrote regularly to his benefactress and friend in Essex. In years past he had sought the benefit of her counsel and prayers. Now, in February 1630, he advised Lady Barrington to consult not only her minister but also “the society of God's saints.” He warned against her tendency to keep to herself: among her neighbors were “such as coulde helpe…by telling what God had done for their soules.” This refrain—the importance of mutual help and edification among the godly—Rogers repeated in subsequent correspondence. In January 1632, he suggested various methods to reach understanding and assurance, including the telling postscript: “I much advise you to seeke helpe by the communion of the saintes.”

Ezekiel Rogers was recommending a practice common among the godly. Laity often turned to one another for mutual support, spiritual advice, and constructive criticism in order to cope with the great burdens imposed by the obligation of godliness and the desire for assurance. Owen Watkins identifies such “mutual exhortation” as one of the features of the puritan way of life.

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Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1995

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Footnotes

*

A version of this paper was presented at the joint meeting of the North American Conference on British Studies and the Western CBS, October 1992. I am grateful to Professors Paul S. Seaver and Sears McGee for their comments on drafts of the paper.

References

1 Barrington Family Letters 1628–1632, ed. Searle, Arthur (Camden Society, 4th ser., no. 28, 1983), 130 Google Scholar. For an account of the relationship between Rogers and Barrington, see Willen, Diane, “Godly Women in Early Modern England: Puritanism and Gender,” The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 43 (October 1992): 571–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Barrington Family Letters, p. 226. See also p. 167.

3 Watkins, Owen, The Puritan Experience: Studies in Spiritual Autobiography (New York, 1972), p. 237 Google Scholar.

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8 McGee, J. Sears, The Godly Man in Stuart England: Anglicans, Puritans, and the Two Tables, 1620–1670 (New Haven, 1976), pp. 184-85, 205, 207 Google Scholar. Chapter 5, “The Fruits of Conversion: Fellowship and Charity,” describes many of the elements in godly behavior which is the concern of this paper, but McGee does not examine sources by women or consider the issue of gender. For a study that will focus on friendships within the trans-Atlantic godly community, especially among the clergy, see Bremer, Francis, Congregational Communion: Clerical Friendship in the Anglo-American Puritan Community, 1610–1692 (Boston, 1994)Google Scholar. Bremer argues that godly conference and communion stimulated “new ideas and innovative practices.” I am grateful to Professor Bremer for the opportunity to have read the first chapter of his book in manuscript.

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15 Eales, Jacqueline, Puritans and Roundheads: The Harleys of Brampton Bryan and the outbreak of the English Civil War (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 48, 43. 68 Google Scholar. Eales notes that so highly did Sir Robert value relationships with the godly that “he was even prepared to lease land to a godly tenant, even though the man could not afford to pay the highest rent” (p. 60).

16 Morrill, John, “Sir William Brereton and England's Wars of Religion,” Journal of British Studies 24 (July 1985): 311–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Morrill, John, The Nature of the English Revolution (London, 1993), esp. chs. 2, 3, and 4Google Scholar. Morrill sees the rediscovery of the Puritan Revolution in recent historiography (“Sir William Brereton,” p. 311).

17 Collinson, The Religion of Protestants, ch. 6: “Voluntary Religion: Its Forms and Tendencies”; Collinson, “The English Conventicle,” in Voluntary Religion; Hill, Christopher, Society and Puritanism in Pre-Revolutionary England (New York, 1964), pp. 487 ffGoogle Scholar.

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20 Waller, William, Manuscript Addendum bound with Waller's Recollections in The Poetry of Anna Matilda (London, 1788), p. 182 Google Scholar; Eales, , Puritans and Roundheads, p. 43 Google Scholar.

21 Clarke, Samuel, The Lives of Sundry Eminent Person in this Later Age (London, 1683), ii, 147 Google Scholar. Clarke is citing William Gurnall's funeral sermon, The Christian's Labour and Reward (1672).

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23 Bodleian Library, Add. A. 119, fol. 44v. This letter, like many others in the collection, is not dated.

24 Winthrop Papers, 1: 248 Google Scholar.

25 Denison, Stephen, The Monument or Tombe-stone; or, A Sermon Preached at…the funeral of Mrs. Elizabeth Iuxon… (London, 1620), p. 115 Google Scholar; Eales, , Puritans and Roundheads, pp. 43, 60 Google Scholar. Denison claimed Mrs. Juxon preferred poor Christians to rich kindred; p. 102. For further information on Denison and Juxon, see below, n. 52. Lady Harley's commonplace book was dated 1622 (see Eales, p. 49 ff).

26 Greenham, Richard, The Workes, ed. Holland, Henry (London, 1612), p. 684 Google Scholar.

27 Gataker, Thomas, The Spirituall Watch or Christs generall Watch-Word, A Meditation on Mark. 13. 17 (London, 1619), p. 53 Google Scholar. Similarly, John Dod had warned that individuals who lived “to monasticall a life not craving for the socitie of the saints” were likely to fall into “affliction of conscience” and that when alone even Christ was set upon by Satan; “Dod's Droppings…as at several times they have been gathered…” (1617), Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Osborn Collection, b. 236, pp. 1, 204.

28 Bodleian Library, Add. A. 119, fol. 61r.

29 Ainsworth, , A Sermon Preached, p. 27 Google Scholar. Dod explained that a good man needed correction just as a good garden needed weeding; Beinecke, Osbom Collection, b. 236, p. 41.

30 East Sussex Record Office (hereafter cited as ESRO), FRE 4223, fols. 60v ff.

31 Winthrop Papers, 1: 202, 248 Google Scholar. Winthrop admitted that at times “good companie” could leave him unsettled if he worried too much about these persons and failed to watch over his own heart; I, 207.

32 Barrington Family Letters, pp. 171-74.

33 Winthrop Papers, 1: 264 Google Scholar. Winthrop's prayers had apparently helped his sister Anne Fones (see 1: 231). When Winthrop's prayers on his own behalf were not heard, he blamed his own lack of faith (1: 202).

34 Bodleian Library, Add. A. 119, fol. 3.

35 Seaver, , Wallington's World, pp. 108–09Google Scholar. Seaver compares collective prayers for the living with the catholic practice of prayers for the souls of the dead.

36 Barrington Family Letters, pp. 44, 202.

37 Ibid., pp. 49, 61, 176.

38 Winthrop Papers, 1: 156 Google Scholar. Winthrop admitted that his reputation did on some occasions “not a little puffe me up….”

39 Hinde, William, A Faithfull Remonstrance of the Holy Life and Happy Death of John Bruen… (London, 1641), p. 137 Google Scholar. Hinde describes Bruen “as a naile of the Sanctuary, fastened in a sure place, upon which men did hang all vessells of small quantity….”

40 Ley, John, A Patterne of Pietie. Or the religious life and death of that grave and gracious matron, Mrs. Jane Ratcliffe, widow and citizen of Chester… (London, 1640), p. 182 Google Scholar. Similarly, later in the century, Lady Elizabeth Alston provided “Physick for…Souls, by her wholsom counsel and advice, which she was ready to bestow on all that needed it.” Dillingham, William, A Sermon at the Funeral of the Lady Elizabeth Alston… (London, 1678), p. 41 Google Scholar.

41 Gamon, Hannibal, The Praise of a Godly Woman. A Sermon preached at the Solemne Funerall of…Ladle Frances Roberts.… (London, 1627), p. 28 Google Scholar.

42 Parkhurst, Nathaniel, The Faithful and Diligent Christian described and exemplified…Preached at the Funeral of the Lady Elizabeth Brooke…containing some Observations, Experiences, and Rules for Practice found writen with her Ladiship's own Hand (London, 1684), pp. 59, 48Google Scholar. Lady Elizabeth was wife to Sir Robert Brooke of Cockfield Hall, Yoxfield, Suffolk, a puritan gentry family whose landed income was worth at least £1,000 per annum during the seventeenth century; Cliffe, J. T., The Puritan Gentry: The Great Puritan Families of Early Stuart England (London, 1984), p. 237 Google Scholar. Sir Robert served as one of the parliamentary deputy lieutenants in Suffolk before his death in 1646; Cliffe, J. T., Puritans in Conflict: The Puritan Gentry during and after the Civil Wars (London, 1988), p. 37 Google Scholar. For references to Lady Brooke, including her friendship with Richard Sibbes, see Cliffe, , The Puritan Gentry, pp. 2, 26-27, 35, 38, 50, 101 Google Scholar; also DNB, 2: 1328. Parkhurst (b. 1643) was instituted as vicar at Yoxford on the presentation of Lady Brooke in 1665 and served as her chaplain thereafter; DNB, 15: 310-11.

43 Brooke, Elizabeth, Observations, Experiences, and Rules for Practice in Parkhurst, , The Faithful and Diligent Christian…, p. 157 Google Scholar; DNB, 2: 1328.

44 Seaver, , Wallington's World, p. 190 Google Scholar.

45 Ainsworth, , A Sermon, p. 29 Google Scholar.

46 Hinde, , A Faithfull Remonstrance, p. 59 Google Scholar.

47 Collings, John, Faith and Experience or, A short Narration of the holy Life and Death of Mary Simpson…Containing a confession of her faith and relation of experience, taken from her owne mouth… (London, 1649)Google Scholar, Epistle Dedicatorie, pp. 66-67, and [Asr] (last italics added). For Simpson's puritan credentials, see n. 48. Collings (a.k.a. Collinges), a Presbyterian, was raised in Essex where he had come under the influence of John Rogers. Collings was vicar at St. Stephens, Norwich and chaplain to the Hobart family during the Interregnum, but after the Restoration, was compelled to resign his vicarship and cease his public lectures at the Hobart chapel. See Collinges, DNB, 4: 81.2.

48 Simpson, Mary, Confession of her faith and relation of her experience, taken from her owne mouth, p. 2 Google Scholar; Simpson's “confession and relation” is bound with John Collings, Faith and Experience and has its own pagination. It strongly reflects experiences and attitudes characteristic of the puritans, including preoccupation with sin, doubts about assurance, a sense of conversion or salvation, and reliance on Scriptures. During the first civil war, Simpson had been inclined toward Independency because “the society of Gods people was very useful, and…those of the Independent society…did make an improvement of the society of Saints.…” Thorough examination of Scriptures, however, convinced Simpson that the Independents erred in their application of the covenant (pp. 47-48).

49 Ibid., pp. 34-35, 37. Simpson explains that she had been “earnest with God,” for she wanted not only to know truth but also “to hold out these truths to stop the mouths of gainsayers” (p. 21).

50 Ibid., pp. 30, 36, 31-32, 38.

51 See McIntosh, Jeri L., “English Funeral Sermons 1560-1640: The Relationship between Gender and Death, Dying and the Afterlife” (M. Phil. Thesis, Oxford University, 1990), especially pp. 162 ffGoogle Scholar. Through a comparative study, McIntosh establishes a gendered difference within the genre: women more often than men were presented as achieving exemplary deaths, a result which she attributes to virtues normally prescribed for female behavior which facilitated a good death.

52 Denison, , The Monument or Tomb-stone, pp. 100, 70, 83, 98 (italics added)Google Scholar. Like some other godly women, Juxon chose her own text for her funeral sermon; Denison, p. 78 and Willen, , “Godly Women,” p. 571 Google Scholar. Denison (a.k.a. Dennison) had been Juxon's chaplain for five years, since her conversion at age twenty-two. As a sign of Juxon's godliness after her conversion, “she ranne as fast to Sermons as the rest…of Gods dear Saints” and attended nine or ten sermons every week, four on the Sabbath alone (pp. 85–87). Denison's eulogy was briefer and more perfunctory in a subsequent sermon for John Juxon, husband to Elizabeth; Denison, , Another Tomestone… (London [1626])Google Scholar. For a comparative treatment of the two sermons, see McIntosh, , “English Funeral Sermons,” p. 174 Google Scholar. Paul Seaver identifies Denison as a London lecturer and “at least an occasional conformist.” During the 1630s the High Commission found against him for invective preaching and also charged him for publishing erroneous doctrine; Seaver, Paul S., The Puritan Lectureships: The Politics of Religious Dissent, 1560–1662 (Stanford, 1970), pp. 144-45 and p. 347, n. 89Google Scholar. Earlier Denison preached against sectarianism at Paul's Cross and dedicated the published sermon to Charles I; Denison, Stephen, The White Wolfe or, A Sermon Preached at Pauls Crosse… (London, 1627)Google Scholar.

53 Jodi Belinkoff makes the distinction between reciprocal and egalitarian relations; Belinkoff, , “A Spanish Prophetess and Her Patrons: The Case of Maria de Santo Domingo,” The Sixteenth Century Journal 23 (Spring 1992): 21 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Patricia Crawford demonstrates the tenacity and persistence of traditional gender views even in the midst of revolutionary opportunities for women during the civil wars and Interregnum; see Crawford, , Women and Religion in England 1500–1720 (London, 1993), esp. pp. 130 ffGoogle Scholar. For the use of apologetic language by English puritan women, see the remarks of Mary Button, Robert Harley's first wife, British Library (hereafter cited as BL), Loan 29/119; Huntley, Rachel and Winthrop, Margaret to Winthrop, John, The Winthrop Papers, 1: 240-42, 341, 343 Google Scholar; Wilfred Jervoise's letter to Mr. Guidett, Hampshire Record Office, 44A69, Box E 77, 1634-39; and Bourchier, Anne and Hook, Jane to Barrington, Joan, Barrington Family Letters, pp. 145, 173 Google Scholar. This type of hesitancy leads John Morgan to conclude “as a rule, writing remained extremely troublesome for women….The problems…plagued puritan women of reasonably high station”; Morgan, John, Godly Learning: Puritan Attitudes towards Reason, Learning and Education, 1560–1640 (Cambridge, 1986), p. 167 Google Scholar.

54 Willen, Diane, “Women and Religion in Early Modern England,” in Women in Reformation and Counter-Reformation Europe: Public and Private Worlds, ed. Marshall, Sherrin (Bloomington, 1989), pp. 140, 149-50, 154–55Google Scholar; see also Crawford, , Women and Religion in England, pp. 8788 Google Scholar. See also ch. 4, passim where Crawford demonstrates behavior common to pious women of various religious persuasions and denominations.

55 Duncon, John, The returns of spiritual comfort and grief in a devout soul (2d ed.; London, 1649), pp. 160-61, 193–94Google Scholar.

56 Ultimately, interpretations of puritanism and gender must become part of the historiographic debate about the place of puritanism within Protestantism. I will develop this point further in forthcoming work. For fuller analysis of the implications of puritan spirituality upon gender practices, see Willen, “Godly Women in Early Modern England: Puritanism and Gender.” For alternative interpretations of godly women, see Crawford, Women and Religion in England, and Parish, Debra, “The Power of Female Pietism: Women as Spiritual Authorities and Religious Role Models in Seventeenth-Century England,” Journal of Religious History 17 (June 1992): 3346 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Neither Crawford nor Parish recognize a unique puritan spirituality which might have had repercussions on gender during the pre-revolutionary period. Thus Professor Crawford does not distinguish non-separatist puritans from other pious women, all of whom she calls godly (Crawford, p. 93). In her chief reference to puritans, Crawford observes that puritan women were not expected to enter public controversy: “the majority of those who were discontented [with the established church] turned their attention to their families, households, and neighbourhoods, and to their own personal religion…the good Puritan, like the good Anglican women, tried to live a pious, godly life” (Crawford, p. 57). Debra Parish finds powerful female religious figures “both within and outside their family realms.” Yet, Parish's analysis is limited by her sources, funeral sermons written after 1640. Without denying the truth of these sources, she concludes that males constructed texts about female piety for polemical and political purposes, to support ministerial authority in the face of sectarian challenges (Parish, pp. 41 ff).

57 Letters of the Lady Brilliana Harley, ed. Lewis, Thomas T. (Camden Society, 1st ser. rpt. 1968), p. 5 Google Scholar.

58 Cliffe, , The Puritan Gentry, p. 78 Google Scholar.

59 Cf. the Busbridge and Temple correspondence described in Fletcher, Anthony, A Country Community in Peace and War: Sussex 1600–1660 (London, 1975), p. 64 Google Scholar.

60 Loan 29/78, Brilliana Lady Harley to her son [Sir] Edward Harley.

61 Letters of Lady Brilliana Harley, pp. 16, 20, 27, 31-12, 41, 52, 66. For other references to books, see also pp. 86 and 109. Sir Robert was involved in this book network as well, but it was left to his wife to locate and comment on the texts as they were exchanged between Hereford and Oxford. Correspondence also served Lady Harley's emotional needs given her strong attachment to her son. See e. g. pp. 33 and 156.

62 Eales, Jacqueline, Puritans and Roundheads, pp. 5152 Google Scholar.

63 Letters of the Lady Brilliana Harley, p. 15.

64 Bodleian Library, Add. A. 119. These letters were copied in the late seventeenth century by the daughter of Mary Fairfax Arthington. They are bound (in confused chronological order) with additional items, including five letters by Mary to her husband and two letters from her brother Thomas.

65 Ibid., fols. 12v-13r, 14v, 26, 6v, 23v-24r, 26r-27r.

66 Ibid., fol. 9v. At another time, Frances advised Mary to pray for a “faithful preacher”; fol. 24r. When a good minister did arrive, Frances expressed pleasure and hoped “the Lord hath sent him for the good of your poor soules…” (fol. 20v).

67 Ibid., fol. 22r.

68 Ibid., fols. 10v-11r.

69 Ibid., fol. 4v.

70 Ibid., fols. 45-46r.

71 Ibid., fols. 44v, 47r, 57v.

72 Ibid., fols. 7r-8r, 13r-14r.

73 Ibid., fols. 13r-14r.

74 Ibid, fol. 41v.

75 The Pierson-Jeake correspondence is included in the ESRO, FRE 4223, fol. 35r ff. It is described in Fletcher, , A County Community, pp. 42, 64, 6770 Google Scholar. Some biographical information on Pierson is available in Hunter, Michael and Gregory, Annabel, eds., An Astrological Diary of the Seventeenth-Century: Samuel Jeake of Rye (Oxford, 1988), p. 3 Google Scholar. Pierson was grandmother to the diarist.

76 ESRO, FRE 2223, fol. 35r (475/30).

77 Ibid., fol. 36r (475/31).

78 Ibid., fols. 36r-37v.

79 Ibid., fol. 60r; Fletcher, , A Country Community, p. 68 Google Scholar.

80 ESRO, FRE 4223, fols. 43r-44r (475/35).

81 Ibid., fol. 47r (475/38); fol. 45v (475/37); and fol. 48r (475/39).

82 See Anne Petter's letter to Anne Jeake which suggests a female network within the godly community at Rye (ibid., fol. 49r [475/40]).

83 Fletcher, , A County Community, pp. 118–19Google Scholar; Hunter, and Gregory, , An Astrological Diary, p. 3 Google Scholar.

84 ESRO, FRE 4223, fol. 69r (475/53).

85 Ibid., fol. 87v.

86 Ibid., fol. 60v. (475/46).

87 Ibid., fol. 76r (475/58).

88 Fletcher, , A County Community, p. 64 Google Scholar. For a particularly striking example, see ESRO, FRE 4223, fol. 97r (475/71).

89 ESRO, FRE 4223, fols. 98r (475/72) and 101r-102r (475/75).

90 See Lake, , Moderate Puritans and the Elizabethan Church, p. 124–25Google Scholar; Lake, , “Feminine Piety and Personal Potency,” p. 148 Google Scholar; Seaver, , Wellington's World, p. 65 Google Scholar; McGee, The Godly Man in Stuart England, ch. 2. Lake discusses Laurence Chaderton's distinction between “judiciary” afflictions aimed at the wicked and “castigatory” afflictions intended to chastise and edify the godly.

91 The use of affliction is a recurring theme in Puritan writings, whether in published works by the clergy or in letters and journals by the laity. In a typical example, Lady Judith Barrington wrote to her cousin, Sir Simonds D'Ewes, in 1638: “so yt as you haue giuen me encouragement by your tenderness of my sad condition, I desire to be further obliged by your prayers, yt this chastisement may be sanctified to me.” Interestingly, Barrington managed also to edify and reassure in the letter as she discussed God's grace and mercy. BL, Harleian 387, fol. 8r. Elizabeth Jekyll, a devout Protestant, listed at the end of her commonplace book her individual afflictions—miscarriages, the death of her children, her siblings, her parents—and the lessons each was meant to teach. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Osbom Collection, b. 221, pp. 25 ff. Anglicans derived value from affliction although without the godly rhetoric of sanctification and grace. Thus Viscountess Falkland, a women of intense piety, was said to have listened to the “call of afflictions” (the deaths of her husband and her youngest son) to become more spiritual “and to a nearer conformation to Christ…” ( Duncon, , The returns of spiritual comfort and grief in a devout soul, p. 173 Google Scholar).

92 D'Ewes, Simonds, The Autobiography and Correspondence of Sir Simonds D'Ewes, Bart., during the Reigns of James I and Charles I, ed. Halliwell, James O., (London, 1845), 1: 370 Google Scholar. In addition to Brograve, D'Ewes received letters of spiritual consolation from his sisters Elizabeth Poley and Jane Elyott; BL, Harleian 382, passim.

93 BL, Harleian 384, fol. 77r.

94 Ibid., fol. 79r.

95 Ibid., fol. 83r.

96 Ibid., fol. 85r.

97 Ibid., fol. 91r.

98 Sherrin Marshall uses the concept of reciprocity to characterize family relationships among the Dutch gentry. Although the term is now becoming fashionable to describe gender relations, Marshall was one of the first to use it. Marshall, Sherrin, The Dutch Gentry 1500–1650: Family, Faith and Fortune (New York, 1987), pp. 163–64 and passimGoogle Scholar. Sears McGee uses the term “spiritual charity” for relationships and practices similar to those described in this paper. The notion of charity was certainly understood within the godly community (see Parkhurst on Lady Brooke's spiritual charity, above, n. 42), but I prefer language that recognizes the reciprocal or mutual character of such acts; cf. McGee, The Godly Man in Stuart England, ch. 5.

99 Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Osborn Collection, b. 236, p. 28. Dod also warns about the advantage which Satan might take to corrupt the affections of women in “good conference.”

100 Cf. Crawford, , Women and Religion in England, p. 211 Google Scholar. Professor Crawford speaks of a spiritual sphere in which sectarian women challenged gender roles during the revolutionary period.