Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- INTRODUCTION
- PART I THE MAKING OF A PROTESTANT CITY, c.1560–1619
- PART II RELIGIOUS CHANGE AND GODLY REACTION IN THE 1620s
- PART III CONFESSIONAL DISCORD AND THE IMPACT OF LAUDIANISM IN THE 1630s
- PART IV TRACING THE PURITAN REVOLUTION IN NORWICH
- 10 Puritan Diaspora, 1636–40
- 11 Puritan Revolution, 1640–43
- CONCLUSION
- Select Bibliography
- Index
10 - Puritan Diaspora, 1636–40
from PART IV - TRACING THE PURITAN REVOLUTION IN NORWICH
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- INTRODUCTION
- PART I THE MAKING OF A PROTESTANT CITY, c.1560–1619
- PART II RELIGIOUS CHANGE AND GODLY REACTION IN THE 1620s
- PART III CONFESSIONAL DISCORD AND THE IMPACT OF LAUDIANISM IN THE 1630s
- PART IV TRACING THE PURITAN REVOLUTION IN NORWICH
- 10 Puritan Diaspora, 1636–40
- 11 Puritan Revolution, 1640–43
- CONCLUSION
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The years between Wren's visitation in 1636 and the summoning of the Long Parliament in 1640 are seen as a dark time for East Anglian puritanism. From the perspective of later dissent, Wren's harrowing of Norwich's celebrated preaching fraternity has been viewed as defining moment in the history of nonconformity, so much so that it proved fertile grounds for a mediocre Victorian pot-boiler – Andrew Reed's Alice Bridge of Norwich: a Tale of the Time of Charles the First – published in 1879. Reed came from a Congregationalist background. Son of his famous namesake Andrew senior – a hymnodist and energetic philanthropist, as well as founder of several orphanages including Reedham Asylum near Croydon – the younger Reed followed his father's vocation to become the Congregationalist minister at St Leonards-on-Sea. But he also spent time in Norfolk. There he acquired an ‘interest in the romance of Puritan times’ and duly proceeded to write about them with gushing sentimentality – and with his target audience of children in mind – through the eyes of Alice, an entirely fictitious daughter of the Reverend William Bridge, forced to flee Norwich where
civic liberty was a shadow. Every place swarmed with spies and heavy fines suppressed all curious talk … a hasty word against any Church officials brought speedy penalties. Presence at a conventicle or opposition to Popish ceremonies was punished most severely.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Godly Reformers and their Opponents in Early Modern EnglandReligion in Norwich, c.1560–1643, pp. 217 - 235Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2005