For a Decent Order in the Church'
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THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL 'For a decent order in the Church': Ceremony, Culture and Conformity in an Early Stuart Diocese, with particular reference to the See of Winchester being a Thesis submitted for the Degree of PhD by Peter Lawrence Abraham BA History/Music (Cardiff 1993) MA History (1995) August 2002. CONTENTS Abstract i Acknowledgements ii Abbreviations and Conventions iv Introduction: Historiographical Background and Note on Sources 1 Prologue: The Diocese 17 PART ONE: Ceremony 55 Chapter One: The Externals of Worship 58 Chapter Two: The Liturgy 110 PART TWO: Culture 149 Chapter Three: The Visual Arts and the Use of Space 151 Chapter Four: The Aural Arts 193 Chapter Five: The 'Culture' of Puritanism 233 PART THREE: Conformity 267 Chapter Six: The Defence of Conformity 270 Chapter Seven: The Imposition of Conformity 298 Epilogue: Case Studies 341 Conclusion 373 Appendices 377 Bibliography 384 i ABSTRACT The title of this thesis is taken from the Book of Common Prayer, specifically from the section 'Of Ceremonies: Why some be Abolished and some Retained'. It takes as its premise the theory that arguments over the way in which worship was conducted were more important than doctrinal matters in the religious tensions which arose before the Civil War, focussing attention upon the diocese of Winchester. The thesis is split into three broad sections. The first section deals with the ceremonies of the church, and is split into two chapters. The first of these chapters is based largely around the physical structure of a church, whilst the second is more concerned with the rites and rubrics as laid down in the Book of Common Prayer. The second section, in three chapters, focusses upon the use of the arts in the early Stuart church. The first of these chapters concentrates on the visual arts, and the way in which they were used, particularly with regard to their hierarchical arrangement. The second turns attention to the aural arts, examining the differences, and similarities, in approach taken at the time. The third examines the idea that there was a specific culture which can be associated with Puritanism. The final section focusses upon the defence of hierarchy within the church. The first chapter in this section examines defences of Episcopal government which were produced by clerics who worked in the diocese. The second chapter looks at attempts to induce greater conformity within the diocese, and places this in the context of national events. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the course of preparing this thesis I have accumulated numerous debts, and it is only right that I should attempt to express my gratitude to all who have helped me in the completion of my research. Primarily, thanks must be given to my supervisor, Professor Glenn Burgess, who has caused me to consider alternative interpretations, hinted about further useful material, and provided a certain degree of criticism (which has always been constructive). Without his support throughout my research this thesis would have been a lesser work. The staff at various libraries have always been helpful, particularly those at the British Library and the Brynmor Jones Library at the University of Hull. In the latter, the nature of my research has meant that the Inter-Library Loans department has been particularly busy with requests from me. At a more local level, help at Winchester Cathedral was provided by the Cathedral librarian, John Hardacre. The number of Record Offices which were consulted means that a full list of staff who helped my research would be unduly long, but some people must be selected for especial thanks. At Southampton City Archives, Jo Smith arranged for a microfiche copy to be made for me of the St. Lawrence churchwardens' accounts, and Richard Smout at the Isle of Wight Record Office kindly allowed me to borrow microfilm reels of the accounts of Newport. My research on the Channel Islands would have been impossible without the help of Darryl Ogier at Guernsey Island Archives, and, for Jersey documents, Helen Evans, who is currently working on her PhD at Cambridge. Other than the aforementioned, the iii staff of the Hampshire Record Office, Surrey History Service and London Metropolitan Archives deserve my thanks. Several people have heard, or read, portions of my thesis at various times, and commented upon them. I am grateful to them, and would like to particularly mention Rod Ambler, Peter Lake and Arnold Hunt for various comments made on these occasions. Two people merit thanks for the impact which they had on me before my research into this area began. The supervisor for my MA, Tony Johnson, has continued to support me since leaving his tutelage, and I would like to express my ongoing gratitude. Posthumous thanks is also due to Brian Lyndon, who first inspired my interest in this period. Final thanks has to go to my parents. Without their support, which has come to me in ways far too numerous to mention, I would never have been able to complete this work. I therefore dedicate this thesis to them. iv ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS BL British Library DNB Dictionary of National Biography GIA Guernsey Island Archives Greffe The Greffe, Guernsey HRO Hampshire Record Office IAS Island Archives Service, Guernsey. IWRO Isle of Wight Record Office JECR Jersey Ecclesiastical Court Records LMA London Metropolitan Archives Mildon W.H.Mildon 'Puritanism in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight from the Reign of Elizabeth to the Restoration' (unpublished PhD thesis, University of London, 1934). OED Oxford English Dictionary PCRO Portsmouth City Record Office PRO SP Dom Public Record Office, State Papers (Domestic) SCA Southampton City Archives SHS Surrey History Services VCH Victoria County History Dates used in the thesis are Old Style, but with the year beginning on 1 January. Unless stated otherwise, the place of publication of cited works is London. A footnote marked with + indicates my translation from the French; those marked with * my translation from the Latin. 1 INTRODUCTION Historiographical Background and Note on Sources At the time of the Restoration of the Crown in 1660, the immediate religious causes of the Civil War seemed to be fairly clear cut. The rise of Puritan opposition to the policies of Archbishop Laud in the 1630s had disastrous effects not only on the church, but also in the state. One of the first comments upon the outbreak of the War, for example, came from Thomas Hobbes, who queried Had it not been much better that these seditious ministers [Puritans], which were not perhaps 1000, had all been killed before they preached? It had been (I confess) a great massacre; but the killing of 100,000 [in the Civil War] is a greater...' Similarly, in the first detailed examination of the Civil War, Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, placed the blame with the puritan clergy, who 'had much to answer for; it was they, above all, who had raised the political temperature to such a height in the 1640s...by their inflammatory preaching'.2 A triumvirate of contemporary historians who attacked the Puritans for their role in the period before the onset of war was completed by Peter Heylyn, who has been seen as the most important of all, as until recently historians have 'swallowed wholesale the Royalist, Anglican tradition stemming from the writings of Laud's chaplain, Peter 1 • T.Hobbes Behemoth on the Long Parliament (ed. F. Tonnies, London, 1969), p.49, cited in R.C.Richardson The Debate on the English Revolution Revisited (1988), p.25. Richardson does go on to point out, however, that Hobbes tad no great love for clergymen of any persuasion'. 2 2 Heylin'.3 In many ways this was true - standard works emphasised the importance of Puritanism as a defining factor, and the Civil War became termed the 'Puritan Revolution'. Inherent to this view was the fact that the Church of England had developed a distinct position somewhere between the excesses of Geneva and the errors of Rome. This much vaunted via media, which found its first staunch adherent in Richard Hooker,4 has recently been seen as a means through which English churchmen, and subsequent historians, could ignore the radical nature of the Reformation in England.' Whilst the debate on the nature of the English Reformation will not be the central concern of this work, it is essential that some notice is taken of the arguments that have occurred.' On the one hand, the Reformation is seen as a long, drawn out process, which did not engender strong support amongst the population. To Jack Scarisbrick, for example, 'the spread of Protestantism in England was a slow and painful process'. 7 For other historians, the Reformation 'was a stripping away of familiar and beloved observances', and the Tudor population 'were no reformers'. 8 Agreeing with the idea that religious conservatism was more important during the sixteenth century than has hitherto been appreciated, 3 • A.Foster 'Church Policies of the 1630s', in R.Cust & A.Hughes (eds.) Conflict in Early Stuart England: Studies in Religion and Politics 1603-1642 (1989), p.194. Andrew Foster errs, however, when he states that Heylyn was Laud's chaplain. See N.Tyacke 'Archbishop Laud', in K.Fincham (ed.) The Early Stuart Church, 1603-1642 (Basingstoke, 1993), p.256, fn.3. 4 • R.Hooker Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Polity (1594-1597). 5 . N.Tyacke 'Anglican Attitudes: Some Recent Writings on English Religious History, from the Reformation to the Civil War', Journal of British Studies, vol.35 (April 1996). 6 . A good introduction to the debate can be found in R.O'Day The Debate on the English Reformation (1986). 7 . J.J.Scarisbtick The Reformation and the English People (1984) p.56.