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The Oxford History of Anglicanism, Volume 1: Reformation and Identity c.1520-1662

Online ISBN:
9780191836695
Print ISBN:
9780199639731
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

The Oxford History of Anglicanism, Volume 1: Reformation and Identity c.1520-1662

Anthony Milton (ed.)
Anthony Milton
(ed.)

Professor of History

Professor of History, University of Sheffield
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Published online:
16 February 2017
Published in print:
2 February 2017
Online ISBN:
9780191836695
Print ISBN:
9780199639731
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This volume examines a period when the nature of ‘Anglicanism’ was still heavily contested. Rather than merely tracing the emergence of trends that we associate with later Anglicanism, the contributors instead discuss the fluid and contested nature of the Church of England’s religious identity in these years, and the different claims to what should count as ‘Anglican’ orthodoxy. After the introduction and narrative chapters explain the historical background, individual chapters then analyse different understandings of the early Church and Church history; variant readings of the meaning of the royal supremacy, the role of bishops and canon law, and cathedrals; the very diverse experiences of religion in parishes, styles of worship and piety, church decoration, and Bible usage; and the competing claims to ‘Anglican’ orthodoxy of puritanism, ‘avant-garde conformity’, and Laudianism. Also analysed are arguments over the Church of England’s confessional identity and its links with the foreign Reformed Churches, and the alternative models provided by English Protestant activities in Ireland, Scotland, and North America. The reforms of the 1640s and 1650s are included in their own right, and the volume concludes that the shape of the Restoration that emerged was far from inevitable, or expressive of a settled ‘Anglican’ identity.

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