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Presbyterianism in the City of London, 1645–1647

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Michael Mahony
Michael Mahony
Affiliation:
Mansfield College, Oxford
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Extract

The importance of presbyterianism in London politics during the 1640s has long been recognized, but only recently have its secular aspects received their proper emphasis. The burdens and uncertainties generated by prolonged warfare found expression in a rising tide of moderation and concern for property and social order. ‘City shopkeepers and merchants’ saw in a presbyterian system of church government the means of reimposing discipline upon parochial life through the offices of vestrymen and ruling elder. Of course, London presbyterianism was not merely an expression of economic and social dislocation. Indeed, this study will be very much concerned with the activities of a group of religiously committed presbyterians who were able to secure considerable political influence by exploiting the more amorphous presbyterian sentiment of many of the propertied citizens.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , March 1979 , pp. 93 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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References

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66 Richard Drake was the sequestered minister of Radwinter in Essex. Ibid. fo. 52V.

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70 Juxon's journal, Add. MSS 25,465, fos. 41V–42. Further light is shed upon this presbyterian activity in the parishes by Juxon's account and the pamphlets and written comments of George Thomason.

71 Anthony Bickerstaffe, Gervase Blackwall, John Vicars, Nicholas Widmerpole. Harman Sheaffe also seems to have been connected with Christchurch.

72 Above, p. 109.

73 Edwards, Gangraena, part in, 63. Anon., A vindication of certaine citizens that lately went to the leaguer, then before Oxford (1646), p. 8Google Scholar. Lords journal, VIII, 401, 403.

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