The Search for Religious Liberty, 1640 -1690, by Mark Goldie

Résumé du document

The text under consideration is extracted from the book ?The Oxford Illustrated' by Tudor and Stuart Britain, published in 1996. It is an excerpt from an essay called "The Search for Religious Liberty, 1640-1690", written by Mark Goldie, a Lecturer at the Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge. This essay deals with the birth of the concept of toleration and its consequences, referring to the Presbyterian experiment of the 1640s and the 1650s in England. To better understand the issues at stake here, one must first recollect the background of the History of Christianity in England. During the 16th century, the break with Rome led to the creation of the Church of England. Nevertheless, England's Protestant Identity was never a single clear one, as several religious strands struggled to dominate the established Church. Charles I, who reigned from 1625, attempted to tackle the thorny issue of multiple Kingdoms by trying to make England, Scotland and Ireland share the same faith and unite them in a single uniform kingdom, though each of these kingdoms had a different religious set-up.

Extraits

[...] Thus, the 1640s symbolize the explosive acme of the religious tension in England. While the King and the Parliament were fighting for supremacy, the climate of political instability led to anarchy in the religious life of England. This was the trigger for the First English Civil War, which began in 1642. This is what Goldie refers to in his essay by alluding to “those who went to war against Charles I in 1642”. This “Puritan revolution” mainly consisted of Independents and Presbyterians, which were “Moderate Puritans” strongly established in Scotland. [...]

[...] The book Gangraena, published in 1646 by a fervent Presbyterian called Thomas Edwards sums up well the increasing number of religious designations. He enumerates “sixteen heads or sorts of sectaries”[3]. At the time, Presbyterians were shocked by this proliferation, as the pejorative nouns in the subtitle of this book demonstrate: “Catalogue and discovery of many of the Errours, Heresies, Blasphemies and pernicious Practices”. This is mainly why the Presbyterian experiment of reformation failed: in a divided country without any strong central government, libertarianism aroused[4] and the Westminster Assembly failed to reform the Church. [...]

[...] Britain After the Glorious Revolution, (London, 1984), p Farrell C., The uses of the Old and New Testaments, (History Papers, 2006) Morgan K.O. The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, (Oxford, 1984), p Morrill J. S., The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor and Stuart Britain, p They are two sea monsters representing two unattractive choices. Durston C., p Morgan K.O, p. [...]

[...] It is an excerpt from an essay called Search for Religious Liberty, 1640–1690”, written by Mark Goldie, a Lecturer at the Faculty of History of the University of Cambridge. This essay deals with the birth of the concept of toleration and its consequences, referring to the Presbyterian experiment of the 1640s and the 1650s in England. To better understand the issues at stake here, one must first of all remember the background of the History of Christianity in England. During the 16th century, the break with Rome led to the creation of the Church of England. [...]

[...] From a more critical approach, this excerpt brilliantly sums up the atmosphere of the period by wittingly using irony and humorous pejorative denominations such as “prurient horror” or “zany sects” in order for the reader to better understand the feelings of Presbyterians. Moreover, not only is the essay clear and well structured, but the author also uses references to the Greek mythology twice by referring to the “Pandora and to the myth of “Scylla and Charybdis”[11]. This great literary style allows for an easy read. [...]