Heresy, Literature and Politics in Early Modern English Culture

This interdisciplinary volume of essays brings together a team of leading early modern historians and literary scholars in order to examine the changing conceptions, character, and condemnation of 'heresy' in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. Definitions of 'heresy' and 'heretics' were the subject of heated controversies in England from the English Reformation to the end of the seventeenth century. These essays illuminate the significant literary issues involved in both defending and demonising heretical beliefs, including the contested hermeneutic strategies applied to the interpretation of the Bible, and they examine how debates over heresy stimulated the increasing articulation of arguments for religious toleration in England. Offering fresh perspectives on John Milton, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and others, this volume should be of interest to all literary, religious and political historians working on early modern English culture.

Introduction David Loewenstein and John Marshall; 1. Writing and the persecution of heretics in Henry VIII's England: The Examinations of Anne Askew David Loewenstein; 2. Anabaptism and anti-Anabaptism in the early English Reformation: defining Protestant heresy and orthodoxy during the reign of Edward VI Carrie Euler; 3. 'Godlie matrons' and 'loose-bodied dames': heresy and gender in the Family of Love Christopher Marsh; 4. Puritanism, familism, and heresy in Early Stuart England: the case of John Etherington revisited Peter Lake; 5. A ticklish business: defining heresy and orthodoxy in the Puritan Revolution John Coffey; 6. Thomas Edwards's Gangraena and heresiological traditions Ann Hughes; 7. 'And if God was one of us': Paul Best, John Biddle, and anti-Trinitarian heresy in seventeenth-century England Nigel Smith; 8. The road to George Hill: the heretical dynamic of Winstanley's early prose Thomas N. Corns; 9. Milton and the heretical priesthood of Christ John Rogers; 10. An Historical Narration Concerning Heresie: Thomas Hobbes, Thomas Barlow and the Restoration debate over 'heresy' J. A. I. Champion; 11. Defining and redefining heresy up to Locke's Letters Concerning Toleration John Marshall; 12. 'Take heed of being too forward in imposing on others': orthodoxy and heresy in the Baxterian tradition N. H. Keeble; Index.

This interdisciplinary volume of essays examines the changing conceptions, character and condemnation of 'heresy' in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. Offering fresh perspectives on John Milton, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and others, this volume will interest all literary, religious, and political historians working on early modern English culture.