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

by Daniel C. Beaver

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674758452
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	11/25/1998
Series:	Harvard Historical Studies , #129
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	476
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

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

Table of Contents

Introduction: Church History as a Cultural System

Part I: Social Form, 1590-1690

Reverend Histories: Geography and Landscape

Parts, Persons, and Participants in the Commonwealth: Social Relations, Institutions, and Authority

Under the Hand of God: Parish Communities and Rites of Mortality

Part II: Social Process, 1590-1690

Circumcisions of the Heart: Church Courts, Social Relations, and Religious Conflict, 1591-1620

A Circle of Order: The Politics of Religious Symbolism, 1631-1640

To Unchurch a Church: Civil War and Revolution, 1642-1660

Astraea Redux: Religious Conflict, Restoration, and the Parish, 1660-1689

Bloody Stratagems and Busy Heads: Persecution, Avoidance, and the Structure of Religion, 1666-1689

Conclusion. Symbol and Boundary: Relgious Belief, Ceremony, and Social Order

Appendix 1. Tables

Appendix 2. Accusations of Witchcraft in Tewkesbury

Notes

Manuscript Sources

Index

What People are Saying About This

David E. Underdown

A significant historical study. . . This is not simply a work of local history, as it throws considerable light on wider aspects of the great conflict that convulsed Stuart England. . .No other book that I know of covers the experience of a region (as distinct from a town) throughout the entire troubled history of seventeenth-century England in anything like this depth.

Editorial Reviews

Beaver wishes to cast his nets widely, to capture the nuance of change and opinion in society and culture as they altered across the century he examines...This is a valuable book...in its attempt to explore the fissiparous nature of belief under the Stuarts while at the same time respecting the strength of the many layers of continuity that existed in the Vale of Gloucester, one gains a renewed and subtle appreciation for the role of a market town as a linchpin.

Sixteenth Century Journal - Susan Wabuda

Beaver reveals impressive powers of historical imagination, as his ingenious and convincing analysis of the import of the various versions of the Thomas Hickes story evidences.

Journal of Modern History - Paul S. Seaver

In an intriguing argument, Beaver suggests that the reception of the Reformation into the Vale of Gloucester, where it lacked broad support, enabled dissenting religious groups to reject the territorial parish, in favour of the 'imagined communities' of the like-minded...His work is an important one. It translates the conflict of the seventeenth century into a local study that has a wider theoretical application...Beaver has written a perceptive and incisive study of religious and communal conflict in Stuart England, and one that is central to our understanding of seventeenth century society.

Albion - William Gibson

A significant historical study...This is not simply a work of local history, as it throws considerable light on wider aspects of the great conflict that convulsed Stuart England...The discussions are confident, sensible, and well grounded in the evidence...No other book that I know of covers the experience of a region (as distinct from a town) throughout the entire troubled history of seventeenth-century England in anything like this depth...It is original in the systematic way it applies anthropological concepts to English political and religious conflicts.

David E. Underdown

Daniel Beaver has written a volume grounded in extensive manuscript sources and combining the methodologies of social and cultural history with the theories of cultural anthropology. His geographical focus is the single-parish town of Tewkesbury and its environs (an area of approximately twelve square miles) in the county of Gloucester. Chronologically and thematically, however, his range is much broader, encompassing a wide range of topics relating to parish communities and religious conflict in the tumultuous seventeenth century...Beaver's reliance on rich local manuscript sources, complemented by his anthropological approach, provides useful insights into the particular local manifestations of dramatic shifts in the policies of the nation state during that time of unprecedented religious and political change.

Journal of Ecclesiastical History - Caroline Litzenberger

Parish Communities and Religious Conflict in the Vale of Gloucester examines the belief and activities of ordinary men and women in the Vale of Gloucestershire during the last years of Elizabeth's reign and throughout most of the seventeenth century. It goes beyond most regional studies, however, in emphasizing the effect of religious change and conflict on local communities. Class and gender as well as religious convictions are seen as important factors determining social cohesion and political allegiance...this is a valuable study that should interest historians as well as students of religion in England.

History

He turns a local study into something that has theoretical force, as well as taking issue with other historians of Tudor-Stuart England on matters like the impact of the Civil War, 'revolution,' 'Restoration,' Laudianism and the like.

David D. Hall

Beaver wishes to cast his nets widely, to capture the nuance of change and opinion in society and culture as they altered across the century he examines...This is a valuable book...in its attempt to explore the fissiparous nature of belief under the Stuarts while at the same time respecting the strength of the many layers of continuity that existed in the Vale of Gloucester, one gains a renewed and subtle appreciation for the role of a market town as a linchpin.
— Susan Wabuda

Sixteenth Century Journal

Beaver reveals impressive powers of historical imagination, as his ingenious and convincing analysis of the import of the various versions of the Thomas Hickes story evidences.

— Paul S. Seaver

Journal of Modern History

Daniel Beaver has written a volume grounded in extensive manuscript sources and combining the methodologies of social and cultural history with the theories of cultural anthropology. His geographical focus is the single-parish town of Tewkesbury and its environs (an area of approximately twelve square miles) in the county of Gloucester. Chronologically and thematically, however, his range is much broader, encompassing a wide range of topics relating to parish communities and religious conflict in the tumultuous seventeenth century...Beaver's reliance on rich local manuscript sources, complemented by his anthropological approach, provides useful insights into the particular local manifestations of dramatic shifts in the policies of the nation state during that time of unprecedented religious and political change.
— Caroline Litzenberger

Journal of Ecclesiastical History

In an intriguing argument, Beaver suggests that the reception of the Reformation into the Vale of Gloucester, where it lacked broad support, enabled dissenting religious groups to reject the territorial parish, in favour of the 'imagined communities' of the like-minded...His work is an important one. It translates the conflict of the seventeenth century into a local study that has a wider theoretical application...Beaver has written a perceptive and incisive study of religious and communal conflict in Stuart England, and one that is central to our understanding of seventeenth century society.

— William Gibson

Albion

He turns a local study into something that has theoretical force, as well as taking issue with other historians of Tudor-Stuart England on matters like the impact of the Civil War, 'revolution,' 'Restoration,' Laudianism and the like.

Harvard Divinity School David D. Hall

A significant historical study...This is not simply a work of local history, as it throws considerable light on wider aspects of the great conflict that convulsed Stuart England...The discussions are confident, sensible, and well grounded in the evidence...No other book that I know of covers the experience of a region (as distinct from a town) throughout the entire troubled history of seventeenth-century England in anything like this depth...It is original in the systematic way it applies anthropological concepts to English political and religious conflicts.

Yale University
David E. Underdown

Beaver reveals impressive powers of historical imagination, as his ingenious and convincing analysis of the import of the various versions of the Thomas Hickes story evidences.

— Paul S. Seaver

Journal of Modern History