English Presbyterianism, 1590–1640

Written by Polly Ha Reviewed By Andrew Cinnamond

Received tradition since Patrick Collinson's seminal 1967 work The Elizabethan Puritan Movement holds that in the 1590s the Elizabethan Presbyterian movement was driven underground by state persecution, and to all intents and purposes, destroyed. Polly Ha's groundbreaking research, based on her excellent 2006 Cambridge University PhD thesis, shows that far from reappearing only in the 1640s during the Civil War, Presbyterianism never really went away, and the discovery of Walter Travers's encrypted papers (at one point in French using Greek letters!) at Trinity College, Dublin sheds vital new light on the movement during nearly half a century of alleged silence. New manuscript sources show a demonstrable continuity between the Elizabethan Presbyterians and their seventeenth-century successors. The book is helpfully divided into three parts, beginning with the wider theological-political context, then the emergence of a distinctive Presbyterian process, and finally analysing the example of the English Reformed churches in the Netherlands.

Part One, 'English Presbyterianism and the Church of England', admirably sets out the background of the early Presbyterians and their influential contribution to later ecclesiology, especially their sustained assault on episcopacy, which Hooker memorably defended. Travers and his colleagues needed to both uphold royal supremacy and deny any sense of separatism or sedition-the frequent charge of 'popularity' was a serious one to the Early Modern mind. Presbyterians were very keen to separate civil and ecclesiastical authority, but understood that minister and magistrate had to work closely together. The rule of one bishop was deeply mistrusted, and 'the discipline', a system of courts and synods, was devised to ensure doctrinal orthodoxy and correct behaviour.

It is too general to see a 'Puritan versus conformist' dichotomy in the period. Within nonconformity, even at an early period, there were various competing voices. Ha very helpfully traces out the implications of competing Presbyterian and Congregationalist ideologies. Puritanism was a nuanced and pluriform movement with fertile tensions and renegotiations constantly present. Although scholars such as Nicholas Tyacke want to emphasise a so-called 'Calvinist Consensus' in the period ca.1570-1620, it would be misleading to gloss over the divisions within the Puritan movement. This was not just an English controversy, as different congregations and ministers took their radical positions overseas, influencing other Christian groupings. Throughout this book English Puritanism is rightly rehabilitated as part of a much wider international Calvinism.

Part Two, 'The Evolution of English Ecclesiology', shows how intra-Puritan debates sought to find a godly and biblical ecclesiology that eschewed both clerical hierarchy and separatism. Presbyterians such as Travers were deeply suspicious of congregational experiments, such as those of Henry Jacob and pioneers in New England. Ha's unearthing of previously unknown sources reveal the depth and passion of the debate between Puritans over ecclesiology. Presbyterians showed an impressive flexibility of approach in their arguments against Congregationalists and bishops, constantly marshalling biblical exegesis and church tradition.

Ha very helpfully places Travers in a wider context of church history and shows how Patristic study, and in particular the role of councils and synods, helped mould a distinctively Presbyterian process, a shared commitment which sought resolution through conflict with disparate groups. Presbyterianism is thus seen as more of a process, a theological and ecclesial method, than a movement for ecclesiastical or moral reform. The collective weighing up of evidence and establishment of a hierarchy of authorities helped to tackle heresy and the example of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 provided a powerful antecedent of this principle. Although thoroughly Reformed adherents of the principle of sola scriptura, the Presbyterians greatly valued antiquity and a more rounded and mature picture of Puritanism gradually emerges. Ha thus helps to explode the caricature of a self-serving, introspective, overly individualistic Calvinism.

In Part Three, 'From Theory to Practice', the Presbyterian commitment to a universal visible church is reflected in a complex range of international networks, including kinship, clerical fraternities and commercial enterprise. Presbyterians fostered links with Members of Parliament, livery companies, merchants, and especially lawyers, who challenged episcopal corruptions in the English Church. Popular antagonism against ecclesiastical courts and anti-clericalism were harnessed by Presbyterians, but later protests would compare a zealous eldership with the worst excesses of the bishops.

The system of elders and the consistory played a major role in Presbyterian thinking and the imperative of Matt 18:17, 'tell it to the church', was thus put into operation in a culture where reputation was crucially important and public confession a serious deterrent. Ha's case study is the English Reformed Church in Amsterdam and how a surprisingly diverse range of people were involved in radical experiments in Reformed ecclesiology. Previous studies have focused on the clergy and the 'middling sort', but Ha's research concludes that the laity, including women and lower socio-economic groups, were actively involved in disciplinary structures and the decision-making process.

As befits a work based on a Cambridge doctorate, this volume is replete with sixty-seven pages of endnotes, twenty-one pages of bibliography, and a useful eleven-page general index. It therefore represents an immensely wide-ranging and informative study for the reader and researcher in Elizabethan and Early Stuart theology and politics. Ha's scholarly detective work is a splendid exercise in historical theology, factoring Presbyterianism back into Early Modern English political and religious life. Figures such as Travers were catalysts for powerful intellectual currents, which challenged the established institutions which many Christians took for granted. At times both deeply radical and conservative, the Presbyterians challenged their opponents to defend and articulate their ideas (Richard Hooker would do so in his seminal Lawes of Ecclesiastical Polity.)Ha skillfully shows how these controversies and articulations would profoundly influence the future trajectories of religious thinking in both the Old and New World.


Andrew Cinnamond

Andrew Cinnamond
St. Lawrence Church, Lechlade
Gloucestershire, England, UK

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