Parish Communities and Religious Conflict in the Vale of Gloucester, 1590–1690

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Harvard University Press, 25.11.1998 - 462 Seiten

Many historians have attempted to understand the violent religious conflicts of the seventeenth century from viewpoints dominated by concepts of class, gender, and demography. But few studies have explored the cultural process whereby religious symbolism created social cohesion and political allegiance. This book examines religious conflict in the parish communities of early modern England using an interdisciplinary approach that includes all these perspectives.

Daniel Beaver studies the urban parish of Tewkesbury and six rural parishes in its hinterland over a period of one hundred years, drawing on local ecclesiastical court records, sermons, parish records, corporate minutes and charity books, and probate documents. He discusses the centrality of religious symbols and ceremonies in the ordering of local societies, particularly in local conceptions of place, personal identity, and the life cycle. Four phases in the transformation of parish communities emerge and are examined in this book.

This exploration of the interrelationship of religion, politics, and society, and the transformation of local communities in civil war, has a value beyond the particular history of early modern England, contributing to a broader understanding of religious revivals, fundamentalisms, and the persistent link between religion, nationalism, and ethnic identity in the modern world.

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Inhalt

Church History as a Cultural System
1
Reverend Histories Geography and Landscape
25
Parts Persons and Participants in the Commonwealth Social Relations Institutions and Authority
45
Under the Hand of God Parish Communities and Rites of Mortality
86
Circumcisions of the Heart Church Courts Social Relations and Religious Conflict 15911620
113
A Circle of Order The Politics of Religious Symbolism 16311640
155
To Unchurch a Church Civil War and Revolution 16421660
195
Astraea Redux Religious Conflict Restoration and the Parish 16601665
245
Bloody Stratagems and Busy Heads Persecution Avoidance and the Structure of Religion 16661689
261
Symbol and Boundary Religious Belief Ceremony and Social Order
323
Tables
331
Accusations of Witchcraft in Tewkesbury
343
Notes
345
Manuscript Sources
439
Index
443
Urheberrecht

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Autoren-Profil (1998)

Daniel C. Beaver is Assistant Professor of History, Pennsylvania State University.

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