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Forms of Dissent in Seventeenth-Century Nonconformist Spiritual Autobiographies

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Forms of Dissent in Seventeenth-Century Nonconformist Spiritual Autobiographies View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Northumbria Research Link ‘To give myself up to a serious examination’: Forms of Dissent in Seventeenth-Century Nonconformist Spiritual Autobiographies. Barry Hall PhD 2011 ‘To give myself up to a serious examination’: Forms of Dissent in Seventeenth-Century Nonconformist Spiritual Autobiographies. Barry Hall A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Northumbria at Newcastle for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Research undertaken in School of Arts and Social Sciences September 2011 Abstract This thesis explores the ways in which seventeenth-century nonconformist writers used the Puritan model of spiritual autobiography to record their individual forms of dissent. Spiritual autobiography is read against the political and religious turmoil that existed in England in the aftermath of the Civil Wars and during the subsequent Restoration. Through a study of four dissenting writers I show how a genre seen usually as a record of spiritual crisis and ultimate reconciliation, was also used as a way of communicating gendered, psychological, domestic, and religious dissent by writers from the extreme margins of society. The argument differs from other studies of spiritual autobiography in that I situate the genre beyond the strict confines of soteriology and adopt an interdisciplinary approach that deploys literary, historical, and theoretical readings. I draw upon the theories of Jean- François Lyotard in order to illustrate a mood analogous to postmodernism apparent in the nonconformist psyche as well as to contextualise the wider dissent shown to exist in the seventeenth century. By applying Lyotard’s concepts of Svelteness, competing Phrase Regimens, and the Differend to spiritual autobiographies by John Bunyan, Agnes Beaumont, Laurence Clarkson, and Richard Norwood this study raises questions with regard to assumptions associated with the genre, the context in which they were written, and so presents new readings of often marginal texts. Contents Introduction p. 1 Chapter One: ‘I was in diverse frames of spirit’: Legitimacy, Conflict, and p. 34 Grace Abounding Chapter Two: ‘Very much in prayre with god’: Crisis, Dissent, and The p. 78 Narrative of the Persecutions of Agnes Beaumont Chapter Three: Laurence Clarkson: Svelte Captain of the Rant p. 127 Chapter Four: ‘... dangerously poisoned and forestalled with a heathenish and p. 168 harsh conceit of God.’ Physical Manifestations of Religious Dissent in Richard Norwood’s Confessions ‘... after many a sad and weary journey’: Conclusion p. 203 Bibliography p. 214 Acknowledgements This thesis would not have reached completion without the input of my supervisory team, Professor Richard Terry and Professor Stuart Sim. Their encouragement and advice have driven this project and I want to express my profound gratitude to them both here. I would like to extend thanks in particular to Professor Sim who has supervised this PhD with patience and enthusiasm over the course of one decade and two universities. Thanks must also go to the staff of the Library at the University of Sunderland for their kindness and support, to the English Department at Northumbria University, and to the members of the North East Postgraduate Forum for the Long Eighteenth Century. Finally, I’d like to thank my family for their belief and understanding and especially Leanne for her baffling levels of emotional and practical support. This thesis is dedicated to the memory of my father, Alan Hall. Declaration I declare that the work contained in this thesis has not been submitted for any other award and that it is all my own work. Name: Signature: Date: Introduction This thesis explores the ways in which seventeenth-century nonconformist writers used the Puritan model of spiritual autobiography to record their individual forms of dissent. Spiritual autobiography is read against the political and religious turmoil that existed in England in the aftermath of the Civil Wars and during the subsequent Restoration. Through a study of four dissenting writers I show how a genre seen usually as a record of spiritual crisis and ultimate reconciliation, was also employed as a means of communicating gendered, psychological, domestic, and religious dissent by writers from the extreme margins of society. The argument differs from other studies of spiritual autobiography in that I situate the genre beyond the strict confines of soteriology and adopt an interdisciplinary approach that deploys literary, historical, and theoretical readings. I draw upon the theories of Jean- François Lyotard in order to illustrate a mood analogous to postmodernism apparent in the nonconformist psyche as well as to contextualise the wider sense of dissent shown to exist in the seventeenth century. By applying Lyotard’s concepts of svelteness, competing phrase regimens, and the differend to spiritual autobiographies by John Bunyan, Agnes Beaumont, Laurence Clarkson, and Richard Norwood this study raises questions with regard to assumptions associated with the genre, the context in which they were written, and so presents new readings of often marginal texts. I also interrogate the literary inheritance of spiritual autobiography: primarily the early novels of Daniel Defoe, and consider the extent to 1 which my reading of the antecedent seventeenth-century mode might affect our understanding of this later genre. The seventeenth-century spiritual autobiography gives invaluable insight into the nonconformist tradition. A literary genre that espoused Calvinist predestinarian doctrine for radical groups like Independents, Fifth Monarchists, and Baptists, spiritual autobiographies present in often stark detail the fear, doubt, and hope that characterised the desperate search for evidence of salvation undertaken by devout men and women in the aftermath of the Civil Wars. The reason for their composition, the manner in which they were written and read, is all bound to the spiritual environment of the age. As N.H. Keeble has written, the nonconformist writer had a very specific agenda and was, ‘above all else concerned about the bearing of his theme upon the daily lives of his readers, and will expend his greatest energies on drawing out its implications for their behaviour. Whatever he writes about, he applies, practically, morally and spiritually.’1 While undeniable, this didactic intent is overshadowed somewhat by the tendency of some writers of spiritual autobiographies to deviate from soteriological matters and – in some cases, inadvertently – present a deeply personal view of the world, explore the often painful psychological crises that accompanied such intense spiritual self-scrutiny, and write with startling honesty about marginalised, occasionally anarchic, sections of society. Far from being a pedantic form of spiritual record-keeping, these autobiographies begin to look more like the writings of highly individual people whose dissent runs deeper than we might have previously assumed. This thesis will identify the forms of dissent alluded to in the spiritual autobiographies of four nonconformists writing in the middle decades of the seventeenth century. I will show how the stylistic model of the genre was used by extremely marginalized figures like Agnes Beaumont and Laurence Clarkson to record not only their soteriological assurance, and 1 N.H. Keeble, The Literary Culture of Nonconformity (Leicester: Leicester University Press) 1987, p. 146. 2 indeed, I argue that the conversion process might not be an authoritative confirmation of grace at all, but also to provide a commentary on the domestic situation of men and women of the ‘middling sort’. This reading will assume a theoretical position based on the postmodern writing of Jean-François Lyotard, principally his notions of the differend and svelteness, both of which would, as I argue, seem to be applicable to the texts and the historical context in which the texts under consideration here were written. Predestination and the Spiritual Autobiography The importance of the spiritual autobiography to the nonconformist sectarian community in the middle decades of the seventeenth century cannot be overestimated. For religious dissenters like John Bunyan, himself a ‘mechanick preacher’ at the First Independent Church at Bedford, written testimony of the visitation of God’s grace would have been a condition of membership of a nonconformist congregation. Indeed, as Vera Camden has said, the doctrines of the Bedford Church were ‘moderately Calvinistic, tolerant in matters of baptism and communion, while adamantly predestinarian in their emphasis on the need for calling and public testimony of conversion for its members’2. The spiritual autobiography met the necessary soteriological requirements by adapting to the Calvinist leanings of the congregation until there emerged a set of conventions to which writers of these religious testimonials adhered. This classic model is perhaps best illustrated in Bunyan’s own Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners3 but the structural template can be seen in many other examples from the Civil War and Restoration periods. 2 Vera Camden, The Narrative of the Persecutions of Agnes Beaumont (East Lansing: Colleagues Press) 1992, p. 2. 3 John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (Oxford: The Clarendon Press) 1962. All further quotations will be from this edition. 3 It is unsurprising that predestination dominated proceedings at these
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