Getting Along? Religious Identities and Confessional Relations in Early Modern England - Essays in Honour of Professor W. J. Sheils

• Published in: Bunyan studies no. 18; p. 143
• Main Author: Willis, Jonathan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Newcastle Upon Tyne Northumbria University, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences 01.01.2014
• Subjects: British & Irish literature; Bunyan, John (1628-1688); English literature; Johnson, Simon; Watson, Emma
• ISSN: 0954-0970

The state seemed relatively uninterested in the burial of Catholics until the early part of the seventeenth century, when injunctions became increasingly concerned with identifying and preventing Catholics from being buried in consecrated churchyards, but from 1700 some areas with significant Catholic populations took 'pragmatic local decisions' to set aside a portion of the churchyard for the burial of Catholic parishioners. Robert Swanson contributes an intriguing essay, full of local colour, on the tensions present in the early part of the sixteenth century between some independently-minded chapelries and their mother parishes, while Peter Lake dissects Sir John Oldcastle, part I in order to show that the eponymous hero was used by the authors to present the loyal face of moderate Puritanism, in distinction from both radical extremists and 'conformists' with treasonous clericalist pretensions. Through a detailed reading of a range of cases, Watson concludes that it was actually often social concerns that lay behind disputes between clergy and laity, 'with the delicate religious and political situation of the time used to reinforce the position of the litigant' (p. 114).