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Moderate Radical: Tobie Matthew and the English Reformation

Online ISBN:
9780191842948
Print ISBN:
9780198804802
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Moderate Radical: Tobie Matthew and the English Reformation

Rosamund Oates
Rosamund Oates

Senior Lecturer

Senior Lecturer, Manchester Metropolitan University
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Published online:
22 March 2018
Published in print:
15 March 2018
Online ISBN:
9780191842948
Print ISBN:
9780198804802
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This book explores Puritanism in Elizabethan and Early Stuart religious politics. Tobie Matthew (c. 1544–1628) was a religious radical at the start of Elizabeth’s reign, yet ended up in a position of great power within the English Church during the tumultuous years leading up to the British Civil Wars. Moderate Radical work provides a new perspective on this period and an insight into the power of conforming Puritanism as a political and cultural force. Matthew’s vision of conformity and godly magistracy brought many Puritans into the Church, but also furnished them with a justification for rebellion when Puritanism was seriously threatened. Through new sources, including Matthew’s annotations of his extensive library and newly discovered sermons, this book explores the guiding principles of Puritanism and explains why the godly promoted the national Church, even when it seemed corrupt. As Archbishop of York, Matthew protected Puritans, but his protection meant there was a rich seam of dissent at the heart of the Church that emerged when the godly found themselves under attack in the 1620s and 1630s. This is a story about the evolution of conforming Puritanism and its significance for the politics of Tudor and Stuart England; it also examines the influence of Puritan cultural practices, in particular the rich culture derived from sermons. This study is also a biography of a leading figure in the Church who struggled to come to terms with his own son’s Catholicism and the disappointments of his family. It provides new insight into tensions of the pre-Civil War Church.

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