Chapter 10 - The Cromwellian Church

Summary

While the Cromwellian ecclesiastical establishment has often been portrayed in negative terms as the absence of a national church, Chapter 10 supports the case for seeing this establishment in many practical respects (and in the eyes of many serving ministers) as a continuation of the pre-war national church. The chapter discusses how many aspects of the Church settlement were conceptualized and organized at a national level, and the sustained pressure for religious uniformity. A further section discusses the ‘half-life’ of the reforms of the 1640s – an existing Reformation that lurked constantly in the background in this decade, its formularies reprinted and in some cases still deployed. The chapter also seeks to capture something of the Cromwellian church on the ground, where gathered and parochial church forms existed rather awkwardly side by side, where local practice was marked by creativity and improvisation, and where the ritual life of parishes was not as attenuated and token as is sometimes suggested. A final section explores how far the reformers of the 1650s -- and even its most radical spirits -- still situated their positions with reference to the past history of the Church of England and some of its famous figures.