Persecution and Toleration in Protestant England 1558-1689

<p>This fascinating work is the first overview of its subject to be published in over half a century. The issues it deals with are key to early modern political, religious and cultural history.<br><br>The seventeenth century is traditionally regarded as a period of expanding and extended liberalism, when superstition and received truth were overthrown. The book questions how far England moved towards becoming a liberal society at that time and whether or not the end of the century crowned a period of progress, or if one set of intolerant orthodoxies had simply been replaced by another.<br><br>The book examines what toleration means now and meant then, explaining why some early modern thinkers supported persecution and how a growing number came to advocate toleration. Introduced with a survey of concepts and theory, the book then studies the practice of toleration at the time of Elizabeth I and the Stuarts, the Puritan Revolution and the Restoration. The seventeenth century emerges as a turning point after which, for the first time, a good Christian society also had to be a tolerant one. <br><br>Persecution and Toleration is a critical addition to the study of early modern Britain and to religious and political history. </p> List of tables Preface 1. Introduction 2. The Protestant Theory o f Persecution 3. The Protestant Theory of Toleration 4. Elizabeth I and Protestant Unform ity, 1 5 5 8 —1 6 0 3 5. The Early Stuarts, 1 6 0 3 - 4 0 6. The Puritan Revolution, 1 6 4 0 - 6 0 7. The Restoration, 1 6 6 0 —8 8 8. 1 6 8 9 and the R ise o f Toleration Glossary Select Bibliography Index