Lay Empowerment and the Development of Puritanism

248 Pages·2015·1.533 MB·English

by  Francis J. Bremer (auth.)

Lay Empowerment and the Development of Puritanism
ChristianitiesintheTrans-AtlanticWorld,1500–1800
GeneralEditors:
CrawfordGribben,Queen’sUniversityBelfast,UK
ScottSpurlock,UniversityofGlasgow,UK
EditorialBoard:
JohnCoffey,LeicesterUniversity
JeffJue,WestminsterTheologicalSeminary
SusanHardmanMoore,UniversityofEdinburgh
JohnMorrill,UniversityofCambridge
DavidMullan,CapeBretonUniversity
RichardMuller,CalvinTheologicalSeminary
JaneOhlmeyer,TrinityCollegeDublin
MargoTodd,UniversityofPennsylvania
ArthurWilliamson,UniversityofCalifornia,Sacramento
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Titlesinclude:
BenjaminBankhurst
ULSTERPRESBYTERIANSANDTHESCOTSIRISHDIASPORA,1750–1764
FrancisJ.Bremer
LAYEMPOWERMENTANDTHEDEVELOPMENTOFPURITANISM
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CrawfordGribbenandScottSpurlock(editors)
PURITANISMINTHETRANS-ATLANTICWORLD1600–1800
MarkSweetnam
MISSIONANDEMPIREINTHEEARLYMODERNPUBLICSPHERE
ChristianitiesintheTrans-AtlanticWorld,1500-1800
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Lay Empowerment and the
Development of Puritanism
Francis J. Bremer
ProfessorEmeritus,MillersvilleUniversity,USA
©FrancisJ.Bremer2015
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-35288-0
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Bremer,FrancisJ.
LayempowermentandthedevelopmentofPuritanism/FrancisJ.Bremer,
ProfessorEmeritus,MillersvilleUniversity,USA.
pagescm.—(Christianitiesinthetrans-atlanticworld,1500–1800)
Includesbibliographicalreferences.
1. Puritans. 2. Laity. I. Title.
BX9323.B262015
285(cid:2).909032—dc23 2015001200
For all my family
and
the memories of
Francis and Marie Bremer
and
Alice Woodlock
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Contents
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction 1
1 TheExperienceandMeaningofGod’sCaress 5
2 ThinkingoftheLaityintheEnglishReformation 10
3 LayPuritansinStuartEngland 27
4 GatheringsoftheSaints
inEnglandandtheNetherlands 49
5 ShapingtheNewEnglandWay 69
6 TheFreeGraceControversyand
RedefiningtheRoleofLayBelievers 87
7 TheRoleoftheLaity
inEngland’sPuritanRevolution 105
8 VarietiesofLayEnthusiasm
inNewEnglandandEngland 127
9 Respondingtothe
ChallengesofDiversity,1640–60 144
10 ClergyandLaityinthe
LaterSeventeenthCentury 157
Epilogue:
LookingBackwards,andAhead 177
Notes 182
Bibliography 216
Index 233
vii
Acknowledgments
IfirstbegantoreflectonthetopicofthisbookwhileaLongRoomFel-
low at Trinity College, Dublin in the spring of 2012. I wish to thank
Crawford Gribben for encouraging me to apply for that fellowship,
and the Long Room staff for making my stay comfortable and produc-
tive. I would also like to thank Crawford and his students for valuable
conversationsduringmytenure.
DuringthecourseofresearchandwritingIhavebenefited,asalways,
from the community of puritan scholars in England and America who
are friends as well as scholars and who have shaped my understand-
ing of the field over the years. But in particular I would like to single
out L. Baird Tipson, Jr. and Joel Halcomb, both of whom read the
entire manuscript and provided numerous helpful suggestions. After
the book was essentially finished I benefitted from the suggestions of
Margo Todd and the students in her graduate seminar at the Univer-
sityofPennsylvaniawhowerekindenoughtoreadthemanuscriptand
discussitwithme.
This is the first study I have undertaken since my retirement from
Millersville University. I thank the university for having granted me
emeritusstatusandtheabilitytodrawuponthelibraryresourcesinget-
tingaccesstonumerousworkscitedhere.AndIwouldliketothankmy
family,whichhasalwaysbeentherockonwhichmylifeisgrounded.
viii
Introduction
Diarmaid MacCulloch has written that religious institutions “create
their own silences, by exclusions and by shared assumptions,
which...silences are often at the expense of many of the people who
could be thought of as actually constituting the Church.”1 My goal in
the pages that follow is to examine one such silence—the substantial
omissionoftheroleplayedbycountlessnamedandunnamedmenand
womeninthestoryoftheshapingofpuritanism.Theearliesthistories
of puritanism were written by clergymen and highlighted the impor-
tance of the clergy. William Hubbard, whose General History of New
England was commissioned by the Massachusetts General Court in the
1670s,statedthat“Inthebeginningoftimeswasoccasionedmuchdis-
advantagetothegovernmentofthechurchbymakingittoopopular.”2
Clerical authors such as Cotton Mather in New England and Samuel
Clarke in England were themselves invested in the importance of the
ministryandnotunsurprisinglydownplayedtheroleofthelaityinthe
churchesandfocusedontheroleofprominentclergyintheiraccounts.
Later writers, many writing from an institutional perspective, fol-
lowedtheirlead,thoughnotallexclusionofthelaitywastheresultof
institutional bias. The fact that the vast proportion of surviving puri-
tan writings were composed by ministers reinforced this perspective.
I myself titled one of my books Shaping New Englands: Puritan Clergy-
men in Seventeenth Century England and New England.3 Even those who,
likeDarrettRutman,pausedtowondertowhatextentthemessagefrom
the pulpit was imbibed by those in the pews took it for granted that
themessagewasshapedbytheclergy.4Thelaymenandlaywomenwho
entered the story were typically those described by the clergy of their
time and by later historians as radicals—the Anne Hutchinsons and
MaryDyers,theLevellersandtheQuakers.5EvenChristopherHill,who
1