In the early eighteenth century Scottish universities played a crucial role in the education of dissenters in both England and Ireland, particularly in the training of ministers. Glasgow University was predominant in this role throughout the first half of the century and was a central feature of the network of reformed churches across the British Isles. In the second and third decades of the eighteenth century Glasgow University was troubled by two particular problems. The first was student unrest, based on the students’ attempts to revive their ancient right to elect the rector, much of it led by students from England and Ireland. The second stemmed from accusations of heresy against the professor of divinity. Both of these processes were linked to the wider questions of non-subscription that animated so much dissenting thinking in both England and Ireland at the same time. They linked in too with a widespread fear of the transmission of Arian doctrine that some thought was being concealed by non-subscription. This thesis examines the development of New Light or non-subscribing views amongst dissenters in England and Ireland as part of a movement across the British Isles that was underpinned by the central relationship that many church leaders had with the University. Glasgow avoided the taking of sides in the subscription debates but neither did it exclude the non-subscribers and, after the initial debates had cooled towards the end of the 1720s, affirmed the permissibility of their approach by some of its actions.

This Thesis sets out to examine in its eighteenth century context a Scottish Calvinist sectarian group of churches deriving the main features of their faith and practice from the writings of John Glas and Robert Sandeman. It proceeds by way of a description of the milieu out of which they came to describe the birth and spread in Scotland of these groups, the Glassites, the Scotch Baptists and the Old Scots Independents, and a similar group, the Bereans. Using some manuscript evidence and other sources, it looks at the social origin of the churches, and the composition of the groups. Some main theological distinctives are outlined, and the social and religious life of the groups illustrated, from contemporary sources. With this material as the evidence, an attempt is made to place the group in a wider setting, by comparison with other sectarian movements, and the conclusion drawn that the eighteenth century Independent movement in Scotland can be classified as a variety of the Revolutionary type of Sect, although other characteristics occur. That both social change and deeply held theological and ecelesiological beliefs contributed to the special shape of the groups is demonstrated.

In his preface to the Sacrorum Parallelorum Libri Tres, Junius expresses the confidence that, if he has not attained the goal in writing the book which he yearned to achieve, he has at least pointed out to others the way of proving more successful. As the first monograph on the use of the Old Testament in the New, the Sacri Paralleli opened up new exegetical territory into which hosts of explorers and, indeed, settlers have since moved. The earlier scouts in this region often remind us that they are travelling in the pioneering footsteps of Franciscus Junius. Thus, Andreas Kesler in the seventeenth century makes use of the Sacri Paralleli, as does the great Surenhusius of Amsterdam in the eighteenth century. Even as recently as a hundred years ago Eduard Bdhl, in the historical introduction to his own dissertation on the Old Testament citations in the New Testament, wrote: "Dass ein Mann wie Franciscus Junius, welcher mit Tremellius das berühmte lateinische Bibelwerk herausgab, viel Gutes bietet, lasst sich erwarten". Yet, more recent surveys of past literature on the bi-testamental passages omit any mention of the original spade-work in the field. Ellis, for example, begins his summary of "the more direct study of NT quotations" with the notes which Drusius wrote around 1594. No account of such research, however, can justly pass over the thorough work of Franciscus Junius. Some have considered it, with good reason, the most important book of one of the most influential exegetes in the Age of Orthodoxy. As Cuno observes, the Sacri Paralleli were truly epoch-making in the history of exegesis. The present study of the Sacrorum Parallelorum Liber Primus begins with a rather full account of the life of Junius for two reasons. First, there is no delineation of his life available in English longer than the brief article in the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. Secondly, the life of Junius not only is very interesting, but also sheds much light on the rationale of the Sacri Paralleli. There follow discussions of this rationale, the history of the Sacri Paralleli and the various editions, and the hermeneutical principles employed by Junius in the Liber Primus. In the course of his investigation of the several editions of the Sacri Paralleli, the author has examined all copies of the book which he could locate in the public repositories of Scotland and so hopes that his treatment may prove useful to the rare book librarians of the collections concerned. The translation of the Liber Primus was executed on the basis of the first folio edition (1607) of the works of Junius, this printing being a reliable, specimen of the text and the earliest copy available in the Library of the University of St Andrews. Some minor textual corruptions, however, in the 1607 edition have been corrected on the basis of the original edition of 1588. Likewise, the Biblical and patristic citations which appeared in the margins of the original edition have been noted as marginal references here, rather than being into the text in the manner of the folio editions (which sometimes match these citations to the wrong, sentences in the text). The translation here, nevertheless, follows the paragraph divisions of the folio printings, since such divisions are so few in the original edition. The third volume of this dissertation contains several pertinent appendices: The first is a photographic copy of the specimen of the original edition of the Sacrorum Parallelorum Liber Primus in the possession of the Library of New College, Edinburgh. Mention has been made in the course of this appendix if a note relating to a given page occurs in the "Errata", listed at the end of the copy of the Sacri Paralleli used here. Copies of the 1607 printing of the Sacri Paralleli are available in so many British libraries that to provide a copy of the Liber Primus of that edition here would be superfluous. The second appendix is a photographic copy of the "Praefatio" to the Sacri Paralleli (New Col- lege specimen again). The Roman numeral at the bottom of each page has been supplied here to facilitate reference to this "Praefatio" in the course of this study. There follows an annotated translation of the "Praefatio".

The Song of Songs was the most commented upon biblical text in medieval Europe and became the cornerstone of the Western mystical tradition, but our knowledge of its use in Latin Christian communities before the time of Ambrose and Jerome is largely fragmentary. The thesis is a study of the use and interpretation of the Song in the Latin West during the period 250 – 380 CE, with a focus on the Tractatus de Epithalamio of Gregory of Elvira (c. 320-392), which is the earliest extant Song commentary composed in Latin. The research demonstrates that there was a robust tradition of Song exegesis in early Latin Christianity, although the mystical-affective interpretation that marks the later tradition is entirely absent. The poem is, rather, interpreted in an ecclesiological mode and is put in the service of communal selfdefinition. Gregory’s Tractatus, which I argue should be dated to 350-55, is a key source in recovering this largely lost tradition. The first part of the thesis traces in detail all of the citations of the Song in Latin Christian literature during the period in question, focusing on the writings of Cyprian of Carthage, Optatus of Milevis, Tyconius, Pacian of Barcelona, and Augustine. There emerge a cluster of passages from the Song that become key proof texts in ecclesiological controversies in North Africa and Spain. The second part engages problems in Gregorian scholarship, particularly issues pertaining to Gregory’s supposed direct knowledge and use of Origen’s writings. Scholars assert that his exegetical writings reflect the Origenist turn of the late fourth century. Using the tools of source criticism and theological analysis, I contest this hypothesis, demonstrating that the evidence of Origen’s influence has been greatly exaggerated and that the points of contact which do exist must be explained with reference to intermediary Latin sources. The third part sets the Tractatus de Epithalamio within its precise historical context and offers a close reading of the text, giving an account of its Christology, ecclesiology, and use of sources. The Tractatus, I argue, represents a ‘fusion’ of a distinctly Latin tradition of ecclesiological exegesis with a particularly Spanish mode of Christological reflection, which treats the enfleshment of the Word in the Incarnation and the embodiment of the risen Christ in the church as conceptually inseparable. Related historical problems, such as the chronology of Gregory’s career, are treated in appendices.

The title- "James Hog of Carnock (1658-1734), Leader in the Evangelical Party in Early Eighteenth Century Scotland" -has been the limiting factor in the development and scope of this thesis. It is not without significance that Hog is described as "Leader in the Evangelical Party": the claim is not that he was the leader of that school; but he is presented herein as one of the leaders in the Evangelical party. This means that the share of Thomas Boston, the Erskines, and others of that group in Evangelical leadership is by no means denied, but it is not the scope of this thesis to give an exhaustive study of these particular men, of their party, or even of the various controversies herein discussed. Their contributions are for the most part not included in the thesis, or are included only insofar as is necessary to establish Hog's function in the various scenes, to balance the discussion, or to throw light upon the overall picture. In other words, the various subjects presented in the thesis are developed as James Hog impinged upon them, or as they impinged upon James Hog. The words "Evangelical Party" are intended to apply in a broad way, for it is an accepted fact that there was, during the period under consideration, no hard and fast Evangelical--as opposed to Moderate--party. It was more properly an Evangelical school and as such the words are understood and developed. It is the early eighteenth century with which the thesis is concerned primarily, but as it is impossible to plunge into the current of events and thought in ecclesiastical and theological studies without a retrospective presentation of the contextual situation preceding the immediate problem, an introductory section, rooted in the seventeenth century background, is placed at the beginning of each chapter. The decision to take this approach was taken after consultation with my principal adviser, Principal Emeritus Hugh Watt, whose wise counsel has led the writer clear of many Charybdian hazards. In thus presenting the introductory sections, each chapter serves as a setting for that which follows, climaxing in the crucial chapter on the controversy concerning The Marrow of Modern Divinity.

The intention of this thesis is an examination of the conflict and interaction between the Presbyterian and Congregational church polities, as seen in the polemic and apologetic material published concerning the "New England way" between 1641 and 1662. No attempt is made to describe the historical influence of one polity on the development of the other, except by the way; the aim is rather to present a systematic view of the arguments actually used by each side in attack and defence. In the works under survey, the attack was largely made by the Presbyterian divines, the defence by the New Englanders; as a result, the emphasis is on the Congregational system under Presbyterian criticism, rather than vice versa. The New England writers, alone among contemporary Independents, spoke from the experience of an established Congregationalism; this, the Presbyterians could not afford to ignore. It is this which makes a study of the controversy between them especially interesting. Scottish and English Presbyterians had not only to prove that the New England way was theoretically wrong, but also that practically it was a failure. This gave added urgency to the debate. These works reveal not only the differences between the two sides, but many of their common presuppositions as well; and a knowledge of each of these things is important for those who have followed in their steps. For the spiritual descendents of these men often use arguments in defending the polities they have inherited, which have little or no relation to the principles used by their forefathers in establishing them. We can only benefit from a greater understanding of some of the forgotten principles which lie behind our systems and their differences. Absolute scriptural literalism, double predestination, covenant theology, millennialism, and the idea of the Roman Catholic Church as "Great Mysterie Babylon," are more or less foreign to the thought of most modern churchmen; and Ramism, repugnance for democracy, the philosophy of Social Contract, and "the duties of the Magistrate in the first table of the Law," are, for almost all, as relics of an age long dead. Yet this is the native soil of New England Congregationalism, and of Westminster Presbyterianism as well. One may hope that an increased understanding of some of the reasons behind their quarrel may be some help to us in making it up.

This thesis comprises an attempt to re-evaluate the experience and the survival of the indigenous Christian population of al-Andalus. It is a response to two problematic aspects of the historiography, whose authority has only recently begun to be questioned: first, the inordinate focus upon the polemical and problematic mid-ninth-century Cordoban hagiography and apologetic of Eulogius and Paul Albar, whose prejudiced vision has not only been accepted as a source of social history, but also projected onto all Andalusī Christianity to support the second – the assertion that conversion happened early and en masse, and led to their eradication in the early twelfth century. Eulogius and Albar’s account of a Córdoba oppressed and Christians persecuted (a trope herein dubbed the ecclesia destituta) has dominated thinking about the indigenous Christians of al-Andalus, due to its championing by Catholic historians since the texts’ rediscovery and publication in 1574, and by nineteenth-century Spanish nationalists to whose ideological and patriotic purposes it was amenable. The Cordobans’ account is here re-evaluated as regards its value as a historical artefact and its internal problems are outlined. The discrepancies between the picture created by Eulogius and Albar and that of other contemporary reports, and the problematic hagiography, are then explained to some degree by the literary models Eulogius had at his disposal – of primary interest are the classical pagan poetics of Vergil, Horace and Juvenal and the late antique theology of Augustine. Albar’s famous despair at the Arabisation of the Christian youth has, in conjunction with Eulogius’ ecclesia destituta and the relative scarcity of documentary evidence for the Christians of Andalusī territory, formed the crux of assumptions regarding the speed and extent of Arabisation and conversion. In reassessing Richard Bulliet’s ‘curve of conversion’, which seemed on a faulty reading to prove these assumptions, the second part of the thesis seeks to argue that profound Arabisation did not impact until a century later than is thought and resulted not in assimilative decline but in a late cultural flowering, and show the long, and in many places unbroken, survival of indigenous Christian communities in al-Andalus to the early fifteenth century.

This thesis considers the civic elite in Coventry during the Reformation, from 1530-1580. It describes how the presence of a longstanding civic and political culture, dating back to the late middle ages, helped to mitigate religious change and bring other economic and social priorities to the fore during this period. The thesis looks at contemporary understanding of ideas of the city, including civic history and political power, as well as the economic forces which shaped the civic government?s interaction with other political hierarchies and the broader social world of the kingdom. It is argued that, although the corporation was keen to protect and define the political and physical boundaries of the city, they lived in an environment that was permeable to outside influence and the presence of geographically broad social and political networks. Urban political disputes are also examined, with the aim of elucidating those principles which ensured the smooth running of civic government and the control of the city by the corporation and the civic elite. Religious disagreements during the 1540s and 1550s are examined in detail, to show why, despite the potential for turmoil, the city never saw the breakdown of order or the political hierarchy. The spread of protestantism during later decades is dissected, alongside attempts to maintain urban religious provision at an acceptable standard, and to preserve the structures and hierarchies of civic religion. The thesis concludes that, even in cities like Coventry, where the effects of the dispute and dissonance that came with the growth of a new religion were strongest, it was possible for the traditional moral rules of urban governance to ensure that the city was an ordered and successful society well into the latter half of the sixteenth century.

This thesis examines the representations of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux produced by the Carmel of Lisieux in the years between the saint’s death in 1897, and that of her sister Céline Martin (Soeur Geneviève de la Sainte-Face) in 1959. It examines the construction of an iconographical foundation for the saint’s cult, the commercial distribution of this iconography, the debate about its authenticity that emerged in the 1920s, and the efforts by the originators of the image to maintain legal control of it. It explores the process of cultural legitimation of these images by the Carmel of Lisieux and, through these, of the cult itself, through a variety of methods, from the articulation of ideas of spiritual and artistic authority, to presence in the mass market, to apologetic, and the use of legislation. The thesis begins by examining the work of the Carmel of Lisieux to visually reshape Thérèse Martin and recast her as a saint through their posthumous representations of her, giving her a new face to fit the existing devotional landscape. Particular emphasis is placed on Céline Martin, as the director of the visual elements of the cult and author of the canonical images of Saint Thérèse, and her personal conceptions of the authentic holy image. The dissemination of the Carmel’s representations of the saint through a programme of popular publications and consumer products is then examined, exploring how the saint was promoted to the Catholic faithful in the religious marketplace, and how the market was used to establish Céline’s images in the economy of popular devotion, giving Thérèse a foothold as a saint who could be believed in. The thesis then turns to the reaction to the Carmel’s visual recasting of Saint Thérèse, examining a group of popular biographies of the saint that appeared in the early twentieth century. Here a body of literature is identified where anxieties over the authentic representation of holy figures are played out, and the emergence of a new paradigm for the representation of the saint is traced. The Carmel is shown to have responded to this with a series of apologetics, where they again articulated the alleged authenticity of their images. Finally, the series of legal cases launched by the convent against producers of unauthorised images of the saint is examined. Here it is shown that the Carmel sought to define Céline Martin as the sole authentic Theresian iconographer through recourse to ideas of religious and artistic authority, using the law of the secular state to make claims to religious authenticity. The first substantial piece of research placing Saint Thérèse in the context of the history of modern French popular religious culture, this thesis provides an insight into the creation of a commercial, devotional cult at the beginning of the twentieth century and the nature of Catholic visual culture in France in the years between the Dreyfus Affair and the Second Vatican Council. In examining the production and dissemination of a cult’s images, the intellectual and legal controversies that followed, and the use of these processes by the originators of the image to legitimate their representations, it also sheds light on prevalent ideas of religious and artistic authenticity in France in the early twentieth century and the search for the ‘true’ face of the saint during that period.

The conventional picture of Bishop Bonner as the 'butcherly beast" of the Marian persecutions has never been seriously investigated. Discussion of the problems of his family and his education, together with a study of his service in Wolsey's household and his relationship with Thomas Cromwell form the first part of this thesis. Bonner's diplomatic career as Henry VIII's ambassador in Rome, Germany, France and Spain between 1532 and 1543 as well as his government service in England between 1535 and 1541 are next considered. The diocesan financial structure and Bonner's policy in clerical appointments have been analyzed for both halves of his episcopate, the nature of the sources rendering it necessary to consider his episcopal administration as a whole. Finally the development of Bonner's theological views up to 1549 and the story of his trial in that year complete this study. Bonner's was a complex personality, quarrelsome and rude, yet probably obsequious and time-serving. He was certainly ambitious and clever, but he seems to have lacked both statesmanship and judgment. This is the picture of him as he was before he participated in the storms of the Marian Counter-Reformation. Much of the material for this thesis has been taken from the State Papers. There are, however, three other main manuscript sources which have been used. The Lechmere papers in the Worcestershire Record Office throw some light on Bonner's early youth and the volume of hiB despatches in the Yelverton collection in the British Museum revealS his activity in the winter of 1535-1536. The account books of the Bishop of London's Receiver-General for 1526-1521 and 1561-1568 in the Guildhall Library and the account rolls for 1549-1550 and 1555-1556 in the Public Record Office provide the basis for the analysis of the Bishop's diocesan administration.