The subject of this research thesis is religious diversity and division within the early modern English Church. Its objective –– in a development of my Master’s dissertation research into the Admonition Controversy of the 1570s1 –– is to reveal the nature of disagreements which culminated in the split between the Church of England and Nonconformity in the early 1660s, the ‘Great Ejection’. What were the imperative incentives, the religious convictions, which motivated the participants, given the deprivation suffered by those driven from their positions of ministry, and the consequences suffered by the national Church in England? The thesis makes a comparative study of events in the late sixteenth century, when controversy in the Elizabethan Church did not result in division: rather the incentive was towards consensus, and a rejection of separation. Why was this, given that the issues at stake were not dissimilar and no less contentious? Having defined the terminology to be used, and explored the historiographical and analytical contributions from historians and theologians, the thesis moves to an exploration of primary evidence from the times under review, the documentary evidence extant from religious controversies during the periods, and the polemical literature from principal participants in religious debate in the late sixteenth, and mid-seventeenth centuries in England. The thesis draws together conclusions resulting from this research, and seeks to make meaningful observations regarding the nature and causes of religious divisions in any century, and then to make comment upon disagreements between Christian believers in our own time, drawing upon the nature of division as revealed in English Christendom’s post-Reformation history.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:677011 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Tanner, Michael David |
| Contributors | Crankshaw, David James ; Ticciati, Susannah |
| Publisher | King's College London (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/conscience-conviction-and-contention(52e06bc2-e023-48dc-8168-ec23d929c961).html |
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