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“The Naked Truth”: A Plea for Church Unity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Extract
In 1676 an anonymous tract made its appearance on the London bookstalls. The title, The Naked Truth: Or, The True State of the Primitive Church, was calculated to appeal to the theologically minded reader, which at that time meant most laymen as well as clergymen. If by posterity the tract has been remembered—when it has been remembered at all —as having inspired Andrew Marvell to create the memorable figure of Mr. Smirke, to its contemporaries it was one of the major events, both from a literary and from a politico-religious standpoint, of its year.
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- Copyright © American Society of Church History 1938
References
1 Athenae Oxonienses (London, 1820), part I of Vol. IV, pp. 309–311.Google Scholar
2 Such bishops as those of Norwich and of London (who instructed Kidder to administer the sacrament even to those who would not kneel, Sykes, Norman, Church and State in England in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, 1934), p. 4)Google Scholar definite ly adopted a conciliatory attitude toward those who had scruples about ceremonial matters. See Matthews, A. G., Calamy Revised (Oxford, 1934)Google Scholar, for other instances of moderation, pp. 129, 253, 416, 438, 475, 483; and Kennett, White, Register Ecclesiastical and Civil (London, 1724), 804–805, 814.Google Scholar
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