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Trends Toward Religious Integration on the Eve of 1660

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Clyde L. Grose
Clyde L. Grose
Affiliation:
Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.
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Extract

From 1640 to 1660 England passed through a succession of extremes in religion which were unusual, abnormal, and very racking to poise and confidence. These years might in a sense be compared to the reigns of Edward and Mary one hundred years before. Both periods were very unlike England's customary course of easy continuity. By 1660 these extremes were reaching some moderation, some compromise, some tendencies toward integration, which would probably have come to a modus vivendi before long had not the unwise Restoration, with the customary excesses of reaction, restored a rigid and persecuting Anglicanism wholly out of line with the age. It is the purpose of this paper to point out some of these trends toward integration.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , March 1941 , pp. 52 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1941

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References

1 This point has received emphasis in the writer's two articles: “The Religion of Restoration England”, Church, History, VI (1937), 223–32Google Scholar and “Charles II of England”, American Historical Review, XLIII (1938), 533–41.Google Scholar

2 Barwick, Peter, Life of John Barwick (Ed. by Barwick, G. F.. London, 1903), pp. 128–29.Google Scholar

3 Jordan, Wilbur K., The Development of religious toleration in England 1640–1660: the revolutionary experiments and the dominant religious thought (Cambridge, Mass., 1938), p. 119.Google ScholarProfessorJordan, 's four volumes on the subject (London, 1932–1940Google Scholar; also Cambridge, Mass., 1932–40), covering 1534 to 1660, and containing an elaborate analysis of the literature, have been most helpful in preparing this paper. The last volume also deals with 1640–60 and bears the subtitle: Attainment of the theory and accommodations in thought and institutions. He contributed related articles to the Huntington Library Quarterly, III (1940), 197–223, 289–314, 403–18.Google Scholar

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6 For these “Associations”, see Christian Concord, or the agreement of the associated pastors and churches of Worcestershire, with Rich. Baxter's explication and defence of it, and his exhortation to unity (London, 1653)Google Scholar; The Agreement of divers ministers of Christ in the county of Worcester and some adjacent parts

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8 Monarchy asserted or the state of monarchicall and popular government in indication of the considerations upon Mr. Harrington's Oceana (Oxford, 1659)Google Scholar, quoted in James, Margaret, Social problems and policy during the Puritan Revolution, 1640–1660 (London, 1930), p. 1.Google Scholar