HIS PRESBYTERIANISM

We can find precisely the same links between Dering's style of evangelical protestantism and presbyterianism in the career of Laurence Chaderton. Having come up to Christ's College in 1562 Chaderton was to spend the rest of his active career in the university, first at Christ's and then at the new puritan foundation, Emmanuel. In many ways he can be regarded as Dering's successor. Of his two printed works one was a piece of presbyterian propaganda printed at the height of the subscription crisis of 1583/4. It is this that forms the basis of the present chapter. But his first printed sermon was preached at St Paul's Cross in 1578 and published in 1580. This is dealt with below in the section on puritan practical divinity. For our present purpose it is sufficient to note that its main theme – the need for good works as a validating sign of true faith – came straight from the heart of Dering's style of moral exhortation. Chaderton was concerned with the hypocritical and purely formal profession of many English protestants and attempted in the sermon to awaken his audience to a true zeal and a lively faith through the power of the word preached.

Chaderton's presbyterianism represented the transfer of these attitudes from the realm of personal belief and behaviour to the external sphere of church government.