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Lady Brilliana Harley’s Letters and Puritan Intellectual Culture
Author(s) -
Harris Johanna
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
literature compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.158
H-Index - 4
ISSN - 1741-4113
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-4113.2011.00810.x
Subject(s) - protestantism , witness , humanism , intellectualism , literature , orthodoxy , unification , intellectual history , calvinism , politics , classics , history , philosophy , religious studies , art , law , political science , epistemology , theology , linguistics , computer science , programming language
The letters of Brilliana Harley (c. 1600–1643) witness to the intellectual consistency of early modern English puritanism. However, the insight these letters give to Harley’s intellectualism has not been systematically explored, nor has the concept of epistolary community been recognised for its centrality to early modern puritanism. Harley’s letters reflect her classical and Christian humanist education fuelled by a radical Protestant heritage, her political acuity and discussion of ecclesiastical disputes, and the breadth of her literary influences. Harley’s letter writing enables us to examine her intellectual formation and to observe the centrality of the genre itself to the practical and pastoral needs of the early Stuart puritan community. It embodies the literal unification of a self‐identifying community and acts as a factional means of negotiating doctrinal orthodoxy within it.