Baal's Priests: The Loyalist Clergy and the English Revolution

by Fiona McCall, Euan Cameron, Bruce Gordon, Bridget Heal, Roger A Mason

Overview

The English Civil War was a time of disruption, suffering and persecution for many people, not least the clergy of the established church, who found themselves ejected from their livings in increasing numbers as Parliamentarian forces extended their control across the country. Yet, historians have tended to downplay their suffering. Drawing upon an impressive array of sources - most notably the remarkable set of family and parish memories collected by John Walker in the early years of the eighteenth century - this book refocuses attention on the experiences of the sequestered loyalist clergy during the turbulent years of the 1640s and 1650s. The study highlights how the experiences of the clergy can help illuminate events in wider society, whilst at the same time acknowledging the unique situation in which Church of England ministers found themselves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472408136
Publisher:	Ashgate Publishing Ltd
Publication date:	05/28/2013
Series:	St Andrews Studies in Reformation History
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	6 MB

Table of Contents

Contents: Introduction; Memories of ejection; In quiet till the breaking out of the civil wars; Drawn swords and pistols cocked: the contingencies of war; A long pilgrimage of affliction - the sufferings of the clergy: rhetoric and reality; A hard shift to live: responses to ejection; The world’s our store-house now: the restoration of the loyalist clergy; Conclusion; Appendix; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

'Fiona McCall is to be congratulated for producing a perceptive and engaging work examining the English Civil War and, specifically, the suffering of the clergy which occurred during it. ... McCall's monograph is full of extremely rich and detailed analysis of the period ... Her scholarship is characterized by a patient willingness to examine her primary sources and ask astute questions about their character, veracity, and style. Her work brings to life the fact that the English Civil War was a time of terrible suffering, disruption, and persecution, particularly for those royalist clergy who were ejected from their churches.' Sixteenth Century Journal 'This book will be of relevance to anyone interested in the events of the English Revolution and their long-term religious impact on the Church of England. It helps to correct the historiographical bias, which has seen a plethora of studies on the Puritan, Presbyterian, and independent clergy during the Civil Wars and on their fortunes after the Restoration. By putting the experiences of the orthodox, loyalist clergy center stage the author has made a significant contribution to modern scholarship on the seventeenth-century English clergy.' Renaissance Quarterly 'McCall enables us to understand the experience of loyalist ejection as reflected in personal narratives and summarized in statistical analysis. McCall’s work is particularly valuable insofar as narratives of parish incumbents and their parishioners have not been combined with secondary research into one full-length historical study.' Anglican and Episcopal History 'In Baal’s Priests, Fiona McCall has written a valuable study which will once again direct historians’ attentions towards the Walker manuscripts, and in terms of extended quotations from the manuscripts which highlight the variety of information contained within them, McCall’s book provides more scope than either Tatham or Matthews. She displays an impressive knowledge of the Walker manu

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