'Settling the Peace of the Church': 1662 Revisited - Hardcover

"...will for many readers provide a joy of discovery and are likely to promote further research. (Nicholas Fisher, The Seventeenth Century.)

This book is the best analysis of religious changes at the beginning of the Restoration period in England that has yet appeared, and it is the place to begin for further research and reflection. (W.B. Patterson, Anglican and Episcopal History)

The nine essays examine the effects of the Act not only in England but also in Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands and New England, and overall the exhilarating sweep of the survey does not disappoint ... excellent. (Nicholas Fisher, Institute of English Studies, University of London)

This is a valuable and wide ranging collection. The essays are well chosen, relfect original research and are of a high standard throughout. (Alan Argent, Congregational History Society Magazine.)

chapters will for many readers provide a joy of discovery and are likely to promote further research ... excellent book (Nicholas Fisher, The Seventeenth Century)

this volume contains significant insights into the politics, literature, and culture of early modern England. Historians whose first interest may not be the religious issues of that period can still find much benefit from the studies this book contains, which provide for a fuller understanding of important aspects of English society during the Restoration. (Warren Johnston, H-Albion)

Considered as a stand-alone volume, Settling the Peace of the Church: 1662 Revisited can be seen as setting a new standard for writing about the Restoration-era exclusion of over 2,000 preachers and countless more parishioners from the national church of England. (Kenneth J. Stewart, Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology)

This collection is to be commended, for it does what the blurb claims in that 'it constitutes the most wide-ranging and sustained discussion of this episode for fifty years. (Andrew Foster, University of Kent.)

The 1662 Act of Uniformity and the consequent 'ejections' on 24th August (St. Bartholomew's Day) of those who refused to comply with its stringent conditions comprise perhaps the single most significant episode in post-Reformation English religious history. Intended, in its own words, 'to settle the peace of the church' by banishing dissent and outlawing Puritan opinion it instead led to penal religious legislation and persecution, vituperative controversy, and repeated attempts to diversify the religious life of the nation until, with the Toleration Act of 1689, its aspiration was finally abandoned and the freedom of the individual conscience and the right to dissent were, within limits, legally recognised. Bartholomew Day was hence, unintentionally but momentously, the first step towards today's pluralist and multicultural society.

This volume brings together nine original essays which on the basis of new research examine afresh the nature and occasion of the Act, its repercussions and consequences and the competing ways in which its effects were shaped in public memory. A substantial introduction sets out the historical context. The result is an interdisciplinary volume which avoids partisanship to engage with episcopalian, nonconformist, and separatist perspectives; it understands 'English' history as part of 'British' history, taking in the Scottish and Irish experience; it recognises the importance of European and transatlantic relations by including the Netherlands and New England in its scope; and it engages with literary history in its discussions of the memorialisation of these events in autobiography, memoirs, and historiography. This collection constitutes the most wide-ranging and sustained discussion of this episode for fifty years.