The Puritans on Independence : The First Examination, Defence, and Second Examination
- Submitting institution
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The University of East Anglia
- Unit of assessment
- 28 - History
- Output identifier
- 182636877
- Type
- B - Edited book
- DOI
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- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- ISBN
- 9780199664825
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- October
- Year of publication
- 2017
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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2
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- Independents emerged during the 1640s as leading radicals in the English Revolution and as the most vocal advocates for liberty of conscience. The introduction to the edition, written by Ha is the first to explain how puritan independents transformed (rather than simply revived) classical notions of liberty. The documents were transcribed by Ha, Moore and Frankot on the AHRC-funded project on ‘Independence in the English-speaking world’. The volume introduces new material which has hitherto remained unrecognized in any scholarly work and includes marginal cross-references, and biblical and theological notes, a general index and a scripture index.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The Puritans on Independence provides unprecedented insight into the earliest and most extensive arguments over the notion of freedom as ‘independence’ in the English-speaking world. The introduction to the edition is the first to explain how puritan independents transformed (rather than simply revived) classical notions of liberty by applying those ideas to the New Testament, thereby stretching them across wider social and gender hierarchies, and using independence to redefine the freedom of consent, conscience, association, and self-authenticating society. The texts are accompanied by extensive footnotes and images of key passages from the originals. In addition to commenting on the condition and layout of the manuscripts themselves, the editors' annotations define archaic terms, provide references to sources mentioned in the text and explain more obscure references. The introductory chapter traces the development of radical notions of liberty among puritans over the first half of the seventeenth century through to the English Revolution. Its original contribution lies in the explanation of how puritan independents transformed (rather than simply revived) classical notions of liberty by applying those ideas to the New Testament, thereby stretching them across wider social and gender hierarchies, and using independence to redefine the freedom of consent, conscience, association, and self-authenticating society. The texts presented provide unprecedented insight into divisions among the godly in England before the public contentions over church government in the Westminster Assembly. Although once mis-catalogued as anti-separatist polemic, they in fact document the Presbyterians' clandestine 'First Examination' of Henry Jacob's argument for 'independent' liberty and ecclesiology. The edition includes Jacob's 'Defence' of his early congregational experiment in response to the 'First Examination'. The volume concludes with the Presbyterians' 'Second Examination' of Jacob's 'Defence' in 1620, written several years after the erection of Jacob's independent church in Southwark.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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