England's Second Reformation: The Battle for the Church of England 16251662 [Hardcover]

This compelling new history situates the religious upheavals of the civil war years within the broader history of the Church of England.This compelling new history situates the religious upheavals of the civil war years within the broader history of the Church of England and demonstrates how, rather than a destructive aberration, this period is integral to (and indeed the climax of) England's post-Reformation history.This compelling new history situates the religious upheavals of the civil war years within the broader history of the Church of England and demonstrates how, rather than a destructive aberration, this period is integral to (and indeed the climax of) England's post-Reformation history.England's Second Reformation reassesses the religious upheavals of mid-seventeenth-century England, situating them within the broader history of the Church of England and its earlier Reformations. Rather than seeing the Civil War years as a destructive aberration, Anthony Milton demonstrates how they were integral to (and indeed the climax of) the Church of England's early history. All religious groups  parliamentarian and royalist alike  envisaged changes to the pre-war church, and all were forced to adapt their religious ideas and practices in response to the tumultuous events. Similarly, all saw themselves and their preferred reforms as standing in continuity with the Church's earlier history. By viewing this as a revolutionary 'second Reformation', which necessarily involved everyone and forced them to reconsider what the established church was and how its past should be understood, Milton presents a compelling case for rethinking England's religious history.Introduction; 1. An Unresolved Reformation; 2. Situating the Laudian Reformation; 3. Responses to the Laudian Reformation; 4. The Abortive Reformation 164042; 5. The End of Episcopalian Reformation; 6. Reformation by Negotiation; 7. The Westminster Reformation and the Parliamentarian Church of England 164249; 8.l