Recent decades have proven to be rich for studying sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Protestantism. Once commonly viewed as a time of doctrinal stagnation and simplistic division, the period has increasingly been noted for its fascinating religious complexity. On the one hand, theologians such as Richard Muller have shown that instead of merely restating the theology of the Reformers, the Protestant scholastics clarified, elaborated, codified, and defended Reformed doctrines. On the other hand, historians such as Nicholas Tyacke, John Spurr, and Anthony Milton have demonstrated that the convictions of even the most influential religious thinkers of the time were influenced by all manner of events and circumstances, and vice versa.

One of the consequences of this turn in the study of early modern religion has been an increased caution in the nomenclature used to describe it. For example, the term “Anglicanism” has increasingly been dismissed as anachronistic, more a product of the nineteenth century than the seventeenth. Many have also shown reluctance in using the label “Calvinism” on the basis that John Calvin (1509–1564) was only one among a variety of influences upon the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Reformed orthodoxy, and not the most prevalent one at that. Even the word “puritanism,” while still useful, has been shown to be more nuanced than previously thought.

In this new volume, Jake Griesel (lecturer in Church History and Anglican Studies at George Whitefield College, Cape Town) and Esther Counsell (PhD candidate at Trinity College, Cambridge) have assembled a strong cast of scholars to consider the usefulness of another label commonly employed in discussions of early modern religion—“conformity.” Over eleven chapters, the book aims to explore how England’s “broadly understood Reformed identity informed or was reflected in recurring contests concerning conformity to the Church of England across the vicissitudes of its ‘long Reformation,’ from the Elizabethan Settlement to the Hanoverian Succession” (p. 2).

There are numerous strengths to the essays assembled by Griesel and Counsell. One is that the collection features conformity not only in its doctrinal dimension but also in its more social ones. This reflects the fact that religion was a public, and not a private, matter in the early modern period, invading every facet of society. Accordingly, the first part of the book explores how ecclesiastical, political, and liturgical issues were closely connected to questions of conformity throughout England’s long Reformation. In chapter 1, Jacqueline Rose provides a survey of Reformed debates over matters indifferent and the varying contexts in which the concept was invoked. This is followed by an essay on oath-taking by Counsell, in which she argues that the Subscription Crisis of 1583–1585 was more a controversy of ecclesiastical politics than one of personal conscience. In chapter 3, Alice J. Soulieux-Evans shows how engagement with cathedral practice in the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods did not fall neatly down either “puritan” or “conformist” lines but rather manifested itself in different ways in different places. Next is a chapter by Jonathan C. Harris on puritan-parliamentarian Sir Francis Hastings (c. 1546–1610), which casts light on the fundamental discontent in the Jacobean Church on issues related to church government. In the last essay of the section, Elliot Vernon looks beyond the strict liturgical forms of the Restoration period to uncover a more mixed picture of conformity in parochial worship.

The volume’s second section turns to more doctrinal matters, commencing with an essay by Torrance Kirby on conformist Richard Hooker’s (1554–1600) moral theology. Kirby shows how Hooker connected “virtue ethics” to his understanding of justifying grace. Thus, contrary to how it has sometimes been characterised, Hooker’s theology of the order of salvation was consistent with Reformed orthodoxy, particularly the Thirty-Nine Articles. There follow chapters by Peter Lake and Anthony Milton highlighting the presence of Reformed conformists in the mid-seventeenth century. Lake examines the role played by Daniel Featley (1582–1645), Griffith Williams (c. 1589–1672), and John Prideaux (1578–1650) in promoting a moderately Reformed vision for the Church of England at a time of potential (though ultimately unrealised) change to the prevailing Laudian regime in the late 1630s. Milton further develops this theme in his chapter on the neglected role played by Reformed conformists in the highly controversial debates of the following two decades. The ninth chapter is written by Christy Wang about the somewhat elusive figure of Edward Reynolds (1599–1676). Wang shows how the churchman’s pursuit of moderation defies the common historiographical dichotomies. Mark Goldie offers an analysis of a debate between Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and Bishop John Bramhall (1594–1663), arguing that in his ecclesiology, the philosopher shared significant continuity with the magisterial reformers. In the final chapter, Griesel argues that conformity in the later Stuart church was not only an ecclesio-political and liturgical issue. Rather, a large minority of conformists saw it as a necessary consequence of their Reformed theology. The volume is capped off with an afterword by Diarmaid MacCulloch, an elder statesman of early modern church history, which draws together various themes raised in the volume and suggests avenues for further study.

While this volume will inevitably appeal to those with a particular interest in the subjects discussed, the collection should not escape the attention of those with a more general interest in the period. In addition to including non-doctrinal themes, the collection stands out for considering the experiences of churchmen alongside those of other influential figures in early modern life. Valuable, too, is the diversity of source material cited in its pages: from ecclesiastical statutes and liturgy to parliamentary diaries and speeches, to published sermons and private letters. Not only does this volume help demonstrate the ubiquitous influence of the long Reformation in early modern England, but it also serves to establish conformity as an important, but multifaceted, concept in our understanding of it.

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