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Conferences and Combination Lectures in the Elizabethan Church, 1582–1590

2006; Oxford University Press; Volume: CXXI; Issue: 490 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/ehr/cej064

1477-4534

Mark Byford,

Historical Influence and Diplomacy

Conferences and Combination Lectures in the Elizabethan Church, 1582–1590, ed. Patrick Collinson, John Craig and Brett Usher (Woodbridge: Boydell P., 2003; pp. cxvi + 299. £60). At last the student of Elizabethan religion has a worthy edition of the unique archive on the Dedham conference that was gathered by Richard Parker, its secretary. Few documents bring us closer to the untidy realities for many committed protestants of living in the Elizabethan Church, and some of the history of the next century of English religion can be seen here in embryo. The previous edition of 1905, edited by R.G. Usher, had some inaccuracies, such as leaving out William Byrd as a founder member, and misconstruing names of places and persons. Usher also chose to omit some key documents appended by Parker to the minutes, notably an impassioned letter to the conference from Richard Crick, ostracised by them for accepting the office of pastor in East Bergholt at the parishioners' behest, and in preference to another conference member. These faults have all been remedied in the current edition. By far the most important contribution of this new edition, however, is its much greater insight into the lives and motives of the dramatis personae of the conference, and their relationship to the wider Elizabethan religious context. The editors have an unrivalled collective knowledge, both of Elizabethan religion in general, and of the dioceses of London and Norwich in particular. Helpfully they have retained Usher's original device of a biographical register of the clergy. As a result, this no doubt striking group of a dozen or so dark-robed ministers, supposedly meeting clandestinely (if that were possible in these small villages of Essex and Suffolk), become proper individuals. We glimpse the importance of affinity. So at Boxford, for example, we learn that Henry Sandes, who had been appointed preacher there by 1582, was son-in-law to the rector, William Byrd, which may have helped reconcile the latter to playing ‘second fiddle’. On a different note, members' differing views are carefully observed, most notably that the compromising approach of Edmund Chapman was distinctive and not, as Usher thought, representative of all Puritan leaders in contrast to their flocks. The editors' forensic thoroughness in the ecclesiastical archives also means that we are able to see the limitations of Bishop Aylmer's power in the face of determined alliances of magistrates and ministers. Although anyone who has used these archives knows their limitations, it is surprising that the introduction to the volume does not contain a little more analysis based on what facts remain. By the reviewer's own estimate, based on the biographical register, at least thirteen of the eighteen members of the Dedham conference were presented in the ecclesiastical courts for non-conformity of some flavour, and of these at least eleven were suspended at some point, some of them several times. Yet almost all were effectively able to continue their ministry, all but four of them dying in their cure, having spent on average no fewer than seventeen years in their last post. Only three of these owed this to a locally funded preaching position. It is significant that this volume does not describe Dedham and its fellow conferences in isolation, but locates them alongside combination lectures and by implication the earlier prophesyings that they had replaced following Grindal's suspension in 1577. This reflects Collinson's insight of half a century ago that there were significant parallels and links between the creation by the godly of public lectures and private conferences. An important new contribution in this respect is John Craig's rediscovery and transcription here of Thomas Rogers's narrative of events surrounding his exclusion from the Monday ‘exercise’ at Bury St Edmunds in 1590.