Public Duty and Private Conscience in Seventeenth-Century England
Essays Presented to G.E. Aylmer
Published on 15. April 1993
Book
Hardback
360 pages
978-0-19-820229-5 (ISBN)
Description
The tension between public duty and private conscience is a central theme of English history in the seventeenth century, when established authorities were questioned and violently disrupted. It has also been an important theme in the work of one of the foremost historians of the period, G. E. Aylmer. It makes, therefore, an especially appropriate subject for this volume.
The contributors are leading historians, whose topics range from contemporary writings on conscience and duty to the particular problems faced by individuals and groups, both Puritan and Royalist, at the centre and in the localities. These scholarly and original studies throw new light on the innumerable dilemmas of conscience of seventeenth-century men and women, and together make a distinguished contribution to seventeenth-century history.
Contributors: Christopher Hill, Gordon Leff, Austin Wollrych, Keith Thomas, Patricia Crawford, Kevin Sharpe, Conrad Russell, Neil Cuddy, Paul Slack, John Morrill, Claire Cross, P. R. Newman, Daniel Woolf, John Ferris, Richard S. Dunn, and William Sheils.
The contributors are leading historians, whose topics range from contemporary writings on conscience and duty to the particular problems faced by individuals and groups, both Puritan and Royalist, at the centre and in the localities. These scholarly and original studies throw new light on the innumerable dilemmas of conscience of seventeenth-century men and women, and together make a distinguished contribution to seventeenth-century history.
Contributors: Christopher Hill, Gordon Leff, Austin Wollrych, Keith Thomas, Patricia Crawford, Kevin Sharpe, Conrad Russell, Neil Cuddy, Paul Slack, John Morrill, Claire Cross, P. R. Newman, Daniel Woolf, John Ferris, Richard S. Dunn, and William Sheils.
Reviews / Votes
The theme chosen by the editors was broad enough to allow of many different interests and yet sufficiently precise to provide some common ground between them ... the research put into some of these essays has been prodigious. * EHR Oct 1993 * Most (if not all) of the essays address the book's theme directly, giving it s satisfying coherence. It would be surprising if such a bold thesis were to receive universal agreement. But even if it does not, its great value is that it provides a framework that helps to make intelligible the case-studies in the rest of the book. * Times Literary Supplement * Conscience, duty and loyalties, kings, earls, and godly types - there is so much in this volume ... Woolrych quotes Aylmer: "The first question to ask about any period is what matters most in it and why" (p.23). The contributors have fulfilled that expectation. * W.J. Jones, University of Alberta, Canadian Journal of History, XXVIII, December 1993 * interesting and rewarding collection. The whole collection is prefaced by three graceful tributes to the scholar to whom it is presented, by Christopher Hill, Austin Woolrych and Gordon Leff; and it concludes with a bibliography of his writings compiled by William Sheils. It is further adorned by an admirably characterful photograph of Dr Aylmer. This is a handsome volume, which all students of politics, government, and religion in seventeenth-century England will wish to consult. * Archives *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Oxford University Press
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
frontispiece, 2 maps
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
587 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-820229-5 (9780198202295)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Editor
Reader in Early Modern History, University of Cambridge, and Fellow ofReader in Early Modern History, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of, Selwyn College
Reader in Modern History, University of Oxford, and Fellow ofReader in Modern History, University of Oxford, and Fellow of, Exeter College
Associate Professor of HistoryAssociate Professor of History, Dalhousie University
Content
Gerald Aylmer at Balliol, Christopher Hill; Gerald Aylmer in Manchester and York, Gordon Leff; Gerald Aylmer as a scholar, Austin Woolrych; cases of conscience in 17th-century England, Keith Thomas; public duty, conscience and women in early modern England, Patricia Crawford; private conscience and public duty in the writings of James VI and I, Kevin Sharpe; divine rights in the early 17th century; the conflicting loyalties of a "vulgar counsellor" - the third Earl of Southampton 1597-1624, Neil Cuddy; the public conscience of Henry Sherfield, Paul Slack; William Dowsing - the bureaucratic Puritan, John Morrill; a man of conscience in 17th-century urban politics - Alderman Hoyle of York, Claire Cross; the King's servants - conscience, principles and sacrifice in armed royalism, P.R. Newman; conscience, constancy and ambition in the career and writings of James Howell, Daniel Woolf; official members in the Commons 1660-1689 - a study in multiple loyalties, John Ferris; William Penn's odyssey - from child of light to absentee landlord, Richard S. Dunn; a select bibliography of the writings of G.E. Aylmer 1957-1990, William Sheils.