Protestant Bishops in Restoration England

Bishops were among the most important instruments of royal, religious, national and local authority in seventeenth-century England and their influence can be felt acutely throughout the period. Bishops and Power in Early Modern England explores the role and involvement of Bishops at the very core of both government and belief in the early modern world. It probes the controversial topics which sparked parliamentary agitation, religious reform as well as actual war in this context, whilst arguing that episcopal writers claimed for themselves their identity as reformed agents of church authority. Charting the development of this identity over a hundred and fifty years, this book allows us to trace the history of early modern England from an original and yet hugely significant perspective.