This is the first book-length exploration of presbyterians and presbyterianism in London during the crisis period of the mid-seventeenth century. It charts the emergence of a movement of clergy and laity that aimed at ‘reforming the Reformation’ by instituting presbyterianism in London’s parishes and ultimately the Church of England. The book analyses the movement’s political narrative and its relationship with its patrons in the parliamentarian aristocracy and gentry. It also considers the political and social institutions of London life and examines the presbyterians’ opponents within the parliamentarian camp. Finally, it focuses on the intellectual influence of presbyterian ideas on the political thought and polity of the Church and the emergence of dissent at the Restoration.
Table of Content
Introduction
1 The radicalisation of conformist puritanism, c. 1638–40
2 Smectymnuus and the attack on episcopacy in 1641
3 The emergence of the London presbyterian movement, 1642–3
4 London presbyterians and the fracture of parliamentarianism, 1644–5
5 The campaign for presbyterian church government, 1645–6
6 The political presbyterian moment, 1646–7
7 Presbyterian church government in the Province of London, 1646–60
8 The London presbyterians and the projected settlements of the British civil wars, 1647–9
9 ‘Mr Love’s case’ and the London presbyterian struggle against the English republic, 1649–51
10 Cromwellian Britain, c. 1653–9
11 The Restoration, 1659–60
12 Epilogue: the Cavalier Parliament, the Great Ejection of 1662 and the first years of dissent
Conclusion
Index
About the author
Elliot Vernon is a barrister and a historian of seventeenth-century Britain
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