Catholic and Reformed: The Roman and Protestant Churches in English Protestant Thought, 1600-1640 (Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History)

Religious controversy was central to political conflict in the years before the English Civil War. Where earlier historians have focused more narrowly on the doctrine of predestination, Dr Milton analyses the broader attitudes which underlay notions of religious orthodoxy. Through the first comprehensive analysis of how contemporaries viewed the Roman and foreign Reformed churches in the early Stuart period, Milton demonstrates the way in which an author's choice of a particular style of religious discourse could be used either to mediate or to provoke religious conflict. This study challenges many current historical orthodoxies. It identifies the theological novelty of Laudianism, but also exposes areas of ideological tension within the Jacobean Church. Its wide-ranging conclusions will be of vital concern to students of early Stuart religion and the origins of the English Civil War. "Catholic and Reformed transcends the current boundaries of the historical debate concerning the role of religious conflict in the politics of the early Stuart period. While earlier studies have focused more narrowly on the doctrine of predestination, Dr Milton analyses the broader attitudes which underlay notions of religious orthodoxy in this period. He achieves this through the first comprehensive analysis of how contemporaries viewed the Roman and foreign Reformed Churches in the early Stuart period. Milton's account demonstrates the way in which an author's choice of a particular style of religious discourse could be used either to mediate or to provoke religious conflict. This study challenges many current historical orthodoxies. It identifies the theological novelty of Laudianism, but also exposes significant areas of ideological tension within the Jacobean Church. Its wide-ranging conclusions will be of vital concern to all students of early Stuart religion and the origins of the English civil war." --Book Jacket Religious controversy was central to political conflict in the years leading up to the outbreak of the English Civil War. Historians have focused on one religious doctrine--predestination, but Catholic and Reformed analyzes the broader preconceptions that lay behind religious debate. It offers an analysis of the nature of the English Church, and how this related to the Roman Catholic and Reformed Churches of the Continent. The book's conclusions explain the nature of English religious culture and its role in provoking the Civil War. In 1600 Andrew Willet had urged anti-popery as the main vocation of the Church of England. Anthony Milton. Includes Biblographical References (p. 547-578) And Index.