People and Piety: Protestant Devotional Identities in Early Modern England

• Published in: Bunyan studies no. 25; pp. 119 - 123
• Main Author: Wilcox, Helen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Newcastle Upon Tyne Northumbria University, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences 01.01.2021
• Subjects: 17th century; Dutch language; Essays; God; Note taking; Prisons; Religion; Sermons; Spirituality; Writing; United Kingdom > UK; England
• ISSN: 0954-0970

Ann Hughes explores the significant role of sermon note-taking, an oft-neglected but vital aspect of Protestant piety, in the devotional lives of Katherine Gell and her family, and ably demonstrates the communal nature of such writing, particularly among female relatives. Michael Durrant offers an intriguing interpretation of the Dutch printer's device on the title page of Katherine Sutton's Experiences (1663) as an instance of 'the bibliographical coordinates of the printing house and the devotional coordinates of the convert coming into expressive alignment'. The outcome is her exhilarating claim that, since the incarcerated individual can become a redeemable soul, the prison cell is 'a potentially sacred space'.