The outpouring of apocalyptic thought in the late sixteenth- and seventeenth-centuries in England has been acknowledged, the sources of these ideas have not been explored sufficiently. The aim of this study is to redress that imbalance by showing the pervasiveness of fear aroused by the Antichrist and the sense of imminent judgment that affected mentalities of the Later Middle Ages and Reformation. Particularly in the case of the Lollards, one finds a heightened sense of the impending "Day of the Lord" because they perceived that the principal foe of Christ, the horrific Antichrist, had seized the Holy See of the established church; hence, Christ must soon appear to vanquish his enemy. The identification of the papacy as the dreaded Antichrist was more than a rhetorical ploy used by the Lollards to cast aspersions on their opponent. They corroborated the historical record of the papacy's rise to power with the absolute standard of the 'law of Christ'. Biblical prophecies of the Antichrist's tactics were confirmed by their experiences before episcopal commissions--at times concluded by death at the stake. In homes and in secret gathering places, they communicated the revolutionary vision that the Antichrist was a 'corporate' entity, not a super-human megalomaniac nor a mere symbol of evil; indeed, the 'Abomination of Desolation' reigned from within the church. Denouncing the Roman church as the " sinagogue of Satan", they resisted the hegemonic control stealthily acquired by the Antichrist, propagated through church law and papal accretions of dogma. They exposed the machinations of the Beast attempting to gain absolute control over secular authorities as well. Thus, the Lollards abrogated the authority claimed by the medieval church as they formed their own concept of church and community. A reform movement, initiated from the 'ivory tower' of Oxford University, penetrated into the fields, villages and towns of late medieval and Reformation England. The measure of its impact is reflected in the concerted effort of church and crown to eradicate Lollardy and in its legacy--that harried Elizabeth I, while it motivated Oliver Cromwell.

This study considers the career of Thomas of Bayeux, the first Norman archbishop of York. Through the patronage of William of Normandy and his half-brother, Odo, Thomas rose from treasurer of Bayeux to royal chaplain, and then to archbishop of York. Thomas' notorious "loss" of the primacy dispute has been misrepresented, for the archbishop made only a qualified profession to Lanfranc, and none to Anselm. Other aspects of Thomas' archiepiscopate have been equally misunderstood or neglected. In re-evaluating Thomas of Bayeux's career, this thesis draws on archiepiscopal acts and letters, charters, chronicles, Domesday Book and ancillary surveys, and the architectural remains of York's Norman minster. In his capacity as metropolitan of the northern province, Thomas of Bayeux granted his first undisputed suffragan, St. Cuthbert's, Durham, special privileges. The archbishop also capitalized on Lanfranc's empty grant of Scotland to annex two more suffragans to his province. Thomas offset York's loss of Lincoln and Worcester with St. Andrews and Orkney, freeing the province from Canterbury's assistance at northern consecrations. As diocesan, Thomas ministered to the collegiate churches at Ripon, Beverley, and Southwell by drawing on flourishing chapters to bolster weaker institutions. Where circumstances permitted, the archbishop reconstituted collegiate churches to mirror changes at the mother church, but the archbishop also recognized the Anglo-Saxon virtues of canonical common life. Relations between secular and monastic foundations in Thomas' diocese prove rosier than current opinion has allowed. Thomas not only countenanced but supported the growth of the Benedictines in the north. In his own church of St. Peter's, York, Thomas transformed a tiny, quasi-monastic chapter into a body of canons endowed with dignities and fixed prebends, and poised for mensal independence, The archbishop's use of prebendaries to develop waste land should not be overstated. Domesday entries, Thomas' patronage of York's ancient hospital, and the unusual architectural arrangement of the new Norman cathedral testify to the archbishop's pastoral commitment to his flock. Eloquent, good-natured, and the best musician of his age, above all Thomas proved a shrewd politician. He dealt strategically with two royal courts, weathered the destruction of a patron (Odo of Bayeux) and a suffragan (William of St. Calais), and established a secular cathedral during the height of a monastic revival, without making an enemy. Interesting in its own right, Thomas' career tells us much about the northern province's post-Conquest history and York's secular "reform", and ultimately about politics and patronage in the Anglo-Norman church.

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My thesis argues for the significance of individual spiritual counselling within post-Reformation English Protestantism. In particular, it demonstrates the prevalence of pastoral letter-writing and explores the purpose and dynamics of these networks. This research represents the first large-scale, comparative examination of a frequently neglected topic. It draws on many little-known letter collections and a number of unexplored manuscripts, alongside some more familiar epistolary sources. Chapter one situates my research in relation to existing literature on individual spiritual counselling and confession. As a counterpoint to the scholarly claim that contemporary accounts of the post-Reformation ministry emphasise the centrality of preaching at the expense of almost all other pastoral functions, I demonstrate the importance which many divines attributed to directing individual consciences, as well as highlighting contemporary thought on the role of the laity as providers of religious counselling. Chapter two uses Nehemiah Wallington's manuscript volume of exemplary spiritual correspondence to demonstrate the importance of epistolary counselling in the ministries of several early modern clergymen. The second section of the chapter argues that Wallington's own engagement with epistolary counselling ultimately served to uphold ministerial authority. Chapter three investigates the spiritual letter-writing relationships of early seventeenth-century Protestant ministers and their gentry patrons and demonstrates the significant potential which existed for clergymen to exercise religious agency and influence with pious elites. Chapter four explores the authoritative and spiritually intimate correspondences in which Richard Baxter engaged with laypeople from across the social spectrum during the 1650s. Current knowledge of his counselling of the Derbyshire gentlewoman, Katherine Gell, is extended through an original reflection on the significance of networks of pastoral direction in early modern English Protestantism. Chapter five explores the nature of religious advice-giving amongst the laity and uncovers its pious motivations. This characteristically 'godly' activity is both compared and contrasted with contemporary clerical counselling.

The interpretation of the letter to the Hebrews made a distinctive contribution to doctrinal construction, polemical controversy, and evolution of scripture-critical technique in the early modern period. This was because many of its themes and passages were considered significant to contemporary theological debates. Hebrews therefore offers an important case study for biblical reception history. This thesis adopts a diachronic approach, highlighting the priorities and worries of English Hebrews exegetes between the reigns of Edward VI and Charles II, and asks how these shifts catalysed hermeneutical advances towards higher biblical criticism. Calvin interpreted Hebrews' theology of sacrifice as an antidote to Catholic christology, soteriology, and beliefs about the mass. His thinking was adopted by Elizabethan Protestant readers, popularised through public documents like the Reformation Bibles (chapter one), and analysed in detail by sermons and lectures (chapter two). The reception of Hebrews also illustrates established historiography about the break-down of Reformed hegemony in England. Chapter three demonstrates how the use of the epistle by anti-puritans clashed with the censored Reformed exegete William Jones. Scholars of the seventeenth century have largely ignored how Hebrews' latent supersessionism promoted innovation in Church and society. Chapter four explores the way in which civil war Socinians expounded Christ's priesthood in terms of heavenly expiation, while radicals seized on the epistle's potential to support their vision of politico-religious liberation. Initially the Reformed countered by defending the trinity and Chalcedonian christology, as shown from mid-century exegesis in chapter five. However, two writers realised the underlying challenge of supersessionism and wrote Hebrews commentaries which served as systematic rebuttals. William Gouge deployed typology and Ramism to rebind the two dispensations (chapter six), and John Owen revised received expressions of the covenant in order to permit more development within God's plan while retaining unity of purpose before and after Jesus (chapter seven).

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