In 1660–88, Protestant Dissenters had been stigmatized as naturally rebellious and regicidal. However, from 1689–1716, they reshaped their image and became something of a ‘model minority’ in terms of their producing a number of loyalist political sermons in favour of George I far out of proportion to their actual percentage of the Christian population of England. How did they attempt to effect a change in public attitudes towards them, altering their reputation from radical fringe element to model minority? This essay uses James J. Caudle’s database/bibliography of the political sermons of 1714–17 in order to analyse patterns in the geography of Dissenter communities and publishing houses.
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