History, Memory, and the English Reformation

Abstract

Modern History at the University of Cambridge, delivered on  Oct. . It explores how the religious upheavals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries reshaped perceptions of the past, stimulated shifts in historical method, and transformed the culture of memory, before turning to the interrelated question of when and why contemporaries began to remember the English Reformation as a decisive juncture and critical turning point in history. Investigating the interaction between personal recollection and social memory, it traces the manner in which remembrance of the events of the s, s, and s evolved and splintered between  and . A further theme is the role of religious and intellectual developments in the early modern period in forging prevailing models of historical periodization and teleological paradigms of interpretation.

The Rational Apocalypse of the Latitudinarians in Restoration England

“…The sixteenth-century Protestants turned their eyes toward history in order to establish the significance of the Reformation in sacred, providential history. 8 Instead of insisting on making a clear distinction between sacred history and secular history, Protestant historiography assumed that the course of salvation would be realised in history. From this historiographical perspective, the sixteenth-century reformers understood the Reformation as the great work of divine providence with respect to the fulfilment of the prophecies in human history.…”

“…The apocalyptic beliefs that the world would be terminated in accordance with God's providence as explained in the Scriptures, and that Christ would defeat antichristian religion were embedded in seventeenth-century English Protestantism. 8 This latitudinarian or moderate perception of the apocalypse and Antichrist could profitably be explored in more depth.…”

“…78 Ibid., 133-34. 79 Ibid.,[4][5][6][7][8] interests of the flesh'. The second was its 'genuine simplicity and perspicuity'.…”

“…It is fitting that the contemporary charge of Erastianism, Socinianism or 99 Parkin, 'Taming the Leviathan: Reading Hobbes in Seventeenth-Century Europe ', in Early Modern Natural Law Theories: Contexts and Strategies in the Early Enlightenment, eds., T. J. Hochstrasser and Peter Schröder (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, 2003), 39. 100 Burnet,Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time,[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Ibid.,217. Hobbism against the latitudinarians should be understood along with their call for the role of godly ruler in settling religious divisions between denominations.…”

“…Cope argues that 'latitudinarianism has come to be synonymous with Anglican tolerationism in the best sense'. 8 Henry G. van Leeuwen explores the contributions the latitudinarians preaching up Christian moral duties. Spurr suggests that a call for rational religion was not the preserve of the latitudinarians alone.…”