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Conscience and Conformity: Some Moral Dilemmas in Seventeenth-Century England1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2013

Christopher Haigh
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Abstract

This paper considers how issues of conscience might be considered in seventeenth-century England. It looks at how some of the moral problems arising from the restoration of an episcopal Church of England in 1660 were debated, and focuses on the response of the clergy to the demands for conformity to the Book of Common Prayer, renunciation of the Solemn League and Covenant, and episcopal ordination. A large number of books were published on these subjects, and contemporary diaries show that ministers read these books and discussed the problems among themselves, in reaching difficult and often painful decisions.

Keywords

casuistryChurch of EnglandconformityconsciencenonconformityRestoration
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Anglican Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , May 2013 , pp. 65 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © The Journal of Anglican Studies Trust 2013

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Footnotes

1.

This is a revised version of a public lecture delivered in Toowoomba, Queensland, at the invitation of the University of Southern Queensland. I am grateful to the University for that invitation and its hospitality. Seventeenth-century English casuistry and the impact of the 1662 Act of Uniformity have received separate scholarly attention, but there has been little study of the application of moral principles in the specific context of the Restoration.

2.

Christopher Haigh retired in 2009 as Student (i.e. Fellow) of Christ Church, Oxford, and head of the History Faculty at the University of Oxford.

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