3 - Sermons at Court

Summary

I hope you have the same convenience that the rest of the family has, of sleeping out most of the time.

So Charles II reflected to his sister in February 1664 on the turgid sermons at the court of Louis XIV. But the king's flippant assessment detracts from the lively culture of his own Chapel Royal, a theatre for early modern monarchical devotional performance. The return at the Restoration to frequent and regular public royal worship was part of the symbolically potent reconstitution of the Stuart court in London. The sermons delivered during that worship engaged with the politics of the Restoration period, with changes in royal religious policy, the difficulties and dangers presented by Protestant Nonconformity, Roman Catholicism, political disloyalty and the immorality of king and court. Religious and moral disputes were played out by those preaching from, or sitting before, the Chapel Royal pulpit. Furthermore, as a result of the appearance of court sermons and their animadversions in print, the audience for – and participants in – these debates were wider than the denizens of Whitehall, Winchester or Newmarket. This chapter shows how court preachers presented an assertive front against the more controversial members of their congregation. It further considers how Charles II's policy of playing different sides of a dispute off against one another could colour even his treatment of churchmen at court. Court sermons constituted an element of the court's involvement in the Restoration public sphere and this chapter looks at the way that court preachers were at the vanguard of those tackling the (un)ethical fallout of the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes and his apparent disciples.

Between 1660 and 1685 over 500 churchmen were appointed to serve at court, ranging from archbishops to domestic chaplains. The Chapel Royal was headed by the Dean, who in turn appointed the Subdean and thirty-two Gentlemen of the Chapel. Twelve of these Gentlemen were clergymen; one of them was Confessor to the household. The remaining twenty Gentlemen were Clerks of the Chapel who assisted in the performance of services. The most influential religious court offices were those of Dean, Subdean, Almoner and Clerk of the Closet.