bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Ministry of the Word
Authors: Mullan David George
Published: October 2003

God revealed himself in two ways—the book of nature, and the Bible. It was this latter that was decisive in that it taught the way of salvation, and ministers understood that it was their task, under the influence of the dynamic Holy Spirit, to preach its contents unto the conversion of hearers. So preaching must be done on a popular level, and in a plain style, which eschewed grandiose rhetoric and impenetrable divinity. Scottish Puritans had a generally high view of the sacraments—not as saving ordinances, but as seals of the covenant of grace made in Jesus Christ. Presbyterians were convinced of the equality of all ministers, and so turned against any form of episcopacy, to the point of deposition and exile.
Conversion and Assurance
Authors: Mullan David George
Published: October 2003

If conversion was the task of the preacher, God himself was at work in the world chastising men and women through war, sickness, and other hardships to drive them from self‐centredness and unto him. Conscience also had its role to play, not as an independent entity, but as an internalization of the teaching of the Bible. This chapter relates the conversion stories of three different women who wrestle with the darkness of sin. Puritanism might call people to a sense of assurance of salvation but it also cautioned against ‘security,’ which might actually be a sense of false confidence, and so it encouraged an internal agitation that might drive some people toward suicide. Divines did, however, offer some signs of election, notably good works and love of true piety, by which the psychological distress might be quietened.
The Pilgrim's Progress
Authors: Mullan David George
Published: October 2003

Puritanism made the notion of pilgrimage central to piety—the Christian could not expect an easy road to perfection in this world, but rather a difficult passage to the blessed estate. The journey included mortification—putting to death the old Adam and his sinful predilections; suffering—including persecution for maintaining the truth of the gospel; and of course death, which both repelled and sometimes attracted those weary of this sinful world. Self‐examination was a crucial element in any progress one might make toward heaven, and this might entail the keeping of diaries, as did both clergy and laity. Presbyterianism recoiled from the notion of the gathered church, and yet this piety also pushed many Puritans in a sectarian direction, though Separatism and Independency never attained the same appeal in Scotland as in England.
The Ambiguity of the Feminine
Authors: Mullan David George
Published: October 2003

While Puritan divinity hewed closely to contemporary limitations on women's public roles, its promoters took seriously the spiritual needs of female parishioners and incorporated the feminine into their discourse. Marriage, if not theoretically between absolute equals, was based upon mutual affection, and it is clear that ministers were emotionally bound to their beloved spouses and took ‘godly’ women seriously as advisers. But women, while the weaker sex, retained the power to subvert the stronger sex, and so must behave modestly. Men who beat their wives behaved badly and were liable to censure. Women did take part in religious life in the home and were frequent participants when religion controversy went into the streets.
A Schism Defined
Authors: Mullan David George
Published: October 2003

Predestination was a required belief right from the Scots Confession of 1560. Knox wrote a lengthy tract on the subject, and no committed Presbyterian ever challenged the doctrine. But Scottish divines were aware of the emergence of Arminianism in the Low Countries and cautioned against it, though their use of the term tended in the direction of English usage, to describe the programme of ‘high’ church reform urged by William Laud and his associates. In the 1630s, there were a few Scottish critics of the Reformation doctrine, and it appears that St Andrews was the focal point of its rather limited presence in the country. Those who leaned toward a less than enthusiastic embrace of Augustinian and Calvinist predestinarian doctrine and toward an acceptance of liturgical changes, Episcopal polity, and the royal supremacy placed a greater value than Presbyterians on the authority of Christian antiquity.
Political and National Divinity
Authors: Mullan David George
Published: October 2003

Presbyterianism favoured limited monarchy, rejecting any form of human absolutism in state, church, and family. However, in the period covered by this book, they were generally political conservatives, and up until the eve of the National Covenant had little to say about advocating rebellion, though they did uphold the Melvillian notion of the two kingdoms in which church and state, while inseparably linked, also tended to different areas of human interest, meaning that when the king tried to interfere with sermon content and liturgy, there was bound to be trouble. Scotland was favoured by God, and defection from the truth would lead inexorably to God's departure from the land—a theme counterbalanced by covenantal notions, again nourished by the Hebrew Bible, that God would at least spare a remnant, so that Scotland's future, while dire, was not without all hope. There was similarly a deep tension in that political change must be effected by the lesser magistrates, the nobility—a caste of men who had for decades shown themselves generally to favour personal advantage over religious loyalty.
The Damnable Covenant
Authors: Mullan David George
Published: October 2003

The National Covenant (28 February 1638) once again bound the country to God to withstand all innovations in church and state, and under the wave of Presbyterian nationalism, which followed those who opposed the covenant were subjected to various forms of coercion. There followed in November the Glasgow General Assembly of the church, and it was dominated by the aristocrats who seized upon the occasion to press their political agenda. By then political resistance had found its way into pulpit discourse, though not without an acceptance, indeed an assertion of the leadership of the nobility. The royalist/Episcopalian opposition, soon to be scattered, struck back at the covenanters, accusing them of Jesuit politics of resistance and revolt, representing a tit for tat exchange of allegations of popery.
The English Hymn
Authors: Watson J. R.
Published: October 2003

The English Hymn is a literary form that has been undervalued by literary criticism. This book, subtitled ‘a critical and historical study’, seeks to re‐establish it as a form that deserves serious attention, and which should be taken into account in any attempt to revise the canon of literature. There is a brief discussion of hymn theory, and of the relationship between words and music. The historical coverage begins with the metrical psalms of the Reformation and the sacred poetry of the seventeenth century, and continues through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the publication of Songs of Praise in 1925. A short postscript deals with movements in hymn writing since that time. The book deals with the texts of hymns in the light of church history and changing belief. It establishes the English hymn as a form that is worthy of serious critical consideration, with a significance that takes it from being a part of church worship to being as valid a statement of human aspiration and emotion as other forms of literature can be.
The Singing of Hymns, and the Experience of Metre
Authors: Watson J. R.
Published: October 2003

Discusses the relation of text to music, the relation of singing to writing, and Derrida's phoncentrism. The chapter also examines the use of different hymn metres; the structure of hymns, with attention to line, verse, and whole hymn; and the importance of rhyme. It also discusses what James Montgomery says on hymn writing and hymn structure.
Laud Unto the Lord: The Whole Booke of Psalmes
Authors: Watson J. R.
Published: October 2003

Discusses the importance of psalms at the Reformation, particularly among the Protestant exiles in Geneva. The chapter also talks about the influence of Calvin. It also examines the development of psalm singing, and the publication of Sternhold and Hopkins, The Whole Booke of Psalmes (the ‘Old Version’).
Keeping Company With David's Psalms: George Wither and Others
Authors: Watson J. R.
Published: October 2003

Discusses George Wither's Hymnes and Songs of the Church of 1623. The chapter also reviews the beginning of hymnody in the sacred poetry of John Donne, George Herbert, and Henry Vaughan.
After the Wesleys
Authors: Watson J. R.
Published: October 2003

Discusses about John Byrom. Reviews the hymns of the Evangelical Revival: Toplady, Smart. Cowper and Newton and the publication of Olney Hymns.
The Romantic Period: Montgomery, Heber, Keble
Authors: Watson J. R.
Published: October 2003

Discusses Hymn writing and the sublime and the influence of Coleridge. Also talks about James Montgomery, Reginald Heber, John Keble and also reviews Keble and sacred poetry: The Christian Year.
The Victorian Hymn
Authors: Watson J. R.
Published: October 2003

Discusses the continuation of Romantic‐period hymnody and the evidence from Victorian fiction (George Eliot). Also talks about Hymnological Darwinism and the work of Henry Francis Lyte.
American Hymnody
Authors: Watson J. R.
Published: October 2003

The consequences of American independence for hymn writing and the importance of American Unitarianism and the high seriousness that went with it are discussed. Reviews the Civil War and slavery. Also talks about the love of nature and sublime landscape.
Different Traditions
Authors: Watson J. R.
Published: October 2003

Various kinds of hymnody that do not fit into the categories above are considered here. They include nature hymns, and the Rivulet controversy; the hymns of Moody and Sankey, the evangelists; Afro‐American slave hymns; Scottish hymns; and children's hymnody.
Into the Twentieth Century
Authors: Watson J. R.
Published: October 2003

Discusses the end of the dominance of Hymns Ancient and Modern; Robert Bridges and the Yattendon Hymnal. Reviews Percy Dearmer, the English Hymnal, and Songs of Praise; the beginnings of broadcast hymnody, and the BBC Hymn Book. Also discusses the ‘hymn explosion’ and prospects for the future (bleak).
Church and Society in Eighteenth-Century France Volume 1: The Clerical Establishment and its Social Ramifications
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

This study of the Catholic Church and religious life in eighteenth‐century France seeks to ‘recapture the atmosphere of the times, and to appreciate the beliefs, aspirations, hopes, and fears of four generations. This first volume deals with the question of Church and State, including the alliance between the clerical and secular powers, the wealth of the Church, and the general assemblies of the clergy and clerical taxation, and secondly with the religious establishment, meaning not only the higher clergy, cathedral chapters, and the monastic orders, but also the ordinary curés, the parish structure, and the mass of lower and marginal clerics. It shows how the constant pressure of worldly interests influenced religious vocations and allegiance among the clergy and laity because of the Gallican Church's close integration into the social order. The lifestyle of the clergy is evoked from the aristocratic bishops at the summit of the ecclesiastical hierarchy to the humblest and poorest of the religious orders, male and female. The motives and vocations of all sections of the clergy are analysed through individual portraits and discussion of their social actions, e.g. in education and caring for the sick and poor. A major theme emerging from the wide‐ranging examination of the relationship between the clergy and the rest of society is how the archaic structures of the Gallican Church and the ancien régime slowed down all pastoral initiatives meant to respond to the needs of a rapidly changing social and intellectual environment. Diocesan and parish organizations handicapped responses to changes in population; the complex regulations governing benefices put a premium on influence and opportunism; and most reforming schemes in monasteries and convents were rendered ineffective by the rules governing religious orders. Similarly, the growth of the Enlightenment critique of established religion runs like a leitmotif through all aspects of the study. Nevertheless, the discussion avoids abusive generalizations, views the dilemmas facing the clergy with sympathy, and pays due tribute to genuine religious vocations and how people sincerely pursued useful work in the world.
The Religion of Versailles
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

The château of Versailles housed a sizeable ecclesiastical establishment, of which the most important was the grand aumônier. Religious life at court followed an elaborate routine of ‘boring magnificence’, enlivened by the Advent and Lent series of sermons before the king, when preachers had to tread a fine line of licensed criticism of the king and royal sycophancy. Churchmen inevitably became embroiled in factional politics, though many of the influential confessors to the royal family did manage to remain above it. The king could do favours through his control of appointments to bishoprics and headships of the great abbeys. The feuille des benefices, controlling these posts, passed through many hands, pious and otherwise, during the eighteenth century, but the system worked reasonably well in protecting the interests of the Church and not making too many unworthy appointments.
The Wealth of the Church
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

The immense wealth of the Church was based on property ownership, most important in northern France, and the tithe, which in some southern dioceses was the clergy's only means of support. Property, mostly leased out to farmers, brought with it further income in the form of seigneurial and feudal rights and dues, often bitterly resented by the peasantry. Tithe and their collection were a constant source of friction, lawsuits, and fraud, and extremely unpopular. They were attacked on historical and moral grounds by the philosophes and on economic grounds by the physiocrats. The last 20 years of the ancien regime saw a smouldering revolt against tithes across the south.
Dioceses
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

The diocesan map of France was amazingly complex and confused. Dioceses varied in size enormously; fragmentation of jurisdiction was normal; ecclesiastical and secular jurisdictions did not coincide; and attempts at simplification came to nothing. But the Gallican Church did possess a highly developed sense of identity, embodied in the corps of bishops. Each diocese was divided into archdeaconries, though with little geographical or demographic consistency, and its own system of church courts. Bishops also made a real effort to maintain diocesan seminaries to keep up a supply of priests, though their austerity and narrow education attracted criticism.
The Bishops: Fathers in God
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

A bishop's contacts with the people of his diocese were few, only through pastoral letters and visitation tours. Visitations were often delegated to archdeacons or other subordinates, and the extent of bishops’ participation varied widely and depended on the individual. As far as relations with the lower clergy are concerned, diocesan synods died out almost completely, but more informal conférences ecclésiastiques persisted, based in the rural deaneries. Relations with curés were distant, determined by the priests’ independence and their inferior social status. Bishops were judged above all by their generosity to the poor, shown in charitable works, behaviour during plagues and fires, and provisions in their wills: most attempted to do their duty, but this fitted uneasily with the maintenance of episcopal splendour and supporting members of their family.
Parishes
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

Parish boundaries were antiquated and had long since ceased to correspond with social realities or pastoral needs, while the administrative structure of parishes over France as a whole ‘almost defies description by its complexity’. Responsibility for the administration of church property and revenues and the maintenance of the church building lay with the churchwardens and the vestry or fabrique, while wealthy urban parishes might employ a variety of officials. The state of churches was improving overall, but there were still many examples of dilapidated and badly maintained buildings. Disputes over the costs of repairing church buildings and presbyteries could cause long and acrimonious disputes between priests and parishioners.
The ‘Bon Curé’
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

The moral condition and worthiness of the parochial clergy was superior in the eighteenth century to what it had been in the early seventeenth century, with only a small minority guilty of gross misconduct. Parishioners did not expect their curé to live an austere life; rather they expected him to be helpful, honest, and generous to the poor. The priest was expected to have good relations with the local seigneur, for the benefit of the people, and where relations between people and lord were bad, the priest was usually on the people's side. Generosity to the poor was considered a particular duty of the curé.
Canons and Chapters
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

There were over 600 chapters of cathedrals and collegiate churches in France, with perhaps 12,000 canons, ‘a few very rich, many comfortably off, some living a meagre and threadbare existence’. In most chapters, membership was gained through family and social influence and provided a comfortable position for life. Canons were much criticized for laziness, but most took on administrative or other duties at some time in their lives. Cathedrals and the great collegiate churches attracted a horde of minor ecclesiastical and lay employees, making meagre livings but with some social prestige. The great chapters were proud corporations, jealous of their privileges, and had few friends: townspeople resented them and they were in frequent dispute with both bishops and parish priests.
Monastic Wealth and the Social Order
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

The monastic houses of France were immensely wealthy, and the crown used its powers of appointment and the system of holding abbeys in commende to benefit the aristocracy. The nobility gained for its children, the use of the wealth of the religious houses and, while life in the great houses was only rarely scandalous, it was comfortable and easy‐going. Bourgeois families were equally anxious to place their children in the less wealthy abbeys and convents. For boys, becoming the abbot of one or more houses represented one opportunity among many, but for girls of noble birth, the convents were indispensable establishments for the provision of security, lifelong if necessary, and the only available outlet for useful activity. Forced vocations of women were rare, but informal pressures within the family made many girls enter religion as a matter of family policy.
The Religious Vocation and Social Usefulness: Women
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

Membership of monastic or quasi‐monastic institutions, either on a permanent or temporary basis, provided women with work and a vocation in educating children and caring for the sick and poor. Girls of the upper classes were all educated by nuns of the dedicated teaching orders, most prominently the Ursulines, while free education for the less well‐off was increasingly available at ‘secular’ institutes established by female members of the Third Orders of older congregations. The female religious also played a dominant role in the various institutions known as ‘hospitals’, caring not only for the sick, but the whole range of the excluded and condemned, from the destitute to lunatics and prostitutes. The most remarkable and wide‐ranging work in this field was that of the Filles de la Charité, whose vows, simple and renewed annually, were all for activity in the world rather than religious contemplation.
The Commission Des Réguliers
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

The Commission des Réguliers was set up in 1765, after the expulsion of the Jesuits, to inquire into and reform the regular orders. The documentation it produced provides an impressionistic view of the diversity of monastic institutions and topics, including conflicts between monks and their superiors, the influence of Jansenism, and the scholarly endeavours of the Maurists. Some small and moribund Orders were wound up and some decayed houses suppressed, but overall the limited nature of the Commission's achievements illustrates the impossibility of radical reform under the ancien régime, given the wide range of lay and clerical interests at stake.
Vocation and the Art of Obtaining a Benefice
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

The ideal of an ecclesiastical vocation, defined by theologians and taught in the seminaries, was formulaic but high‐minded. But the reality of what needed to be done in order to get ordained and established in a benefice was very different. The law and practice governing presentation to benefices varied widely, with numerous regional and local rules, and any aspirant to the place of curé would have to court a diversity of patrons, including bishops, abbeys, chapters, and laymen, and pursue a variety of courses which could involve going as far as the royal court or Rome. In practice many benefices were kept within families by a process of resignation, and for most families, places in the Church were pursued as a normal part of social and economic planning and strategy.
From Baptism to the Requiescat in Pace
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

Baptism was obligatory and universal by the laws on Church and State and the rules laid down by the Church were universally obeyed. As far as the other sacraments are concerned, the practice of confirmation was haphazard, but in all except the most neglected of parishes, young people preparing for the First Communion were thoroughly drilled in their catechism. A multitude of manuals for catechism were available, many reflecting Jansenist influence, but all affirming the authority of the Church and in the second half of the century adopting an increasingly moralistic tone. There was some tension between church and state over marriage; the secular law stressed the inferior status of the wife, while the Church tried in vain to moderate the folkloric practices surrounding the marriage ceremony. The church ceremonies surrounding death and social observances as much as religious practices were universally followed, despite the scepticism of Enlightenment thinkers.
Liturgical Worship
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

The reforming clergy made considerable efforts to encourage the intelligent participation of the laity in the liturgical services. They stressed the centrality of the mass and the reverence to be shown in its practice, with the Jansenists being particularly austere in this matter. The vernacular translations of the Bible and other texts were widely available to the laity, despite the attitude of Rome and some conservative clergy. The eighteenth century was a great age of liturgical reform and simplification. New breviaries and missals, produced in considerable numbers, became objects of contention between Jansenists and their adversaries. Paris took the lead in reform, with the Parisian liturgy replacing the Roman, either wholly or in part, in most of France, while Strasbourg and Lyon were particularly strongly influenced by Jansenist ideas.
The Curé's Prône and Parish Missions
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

The parish priest's preaching duties or prône were laid down by the bishops and influenced by local conditions. It was meant to be kept short and to reflect the rural or urban milieu and mentality of the parishioners: successful curés would be entertaining and topical, relating religion to the lives of their hearers. The Paris missions, their technique elaborated in the seventeenth century, were ‘the most dramatic mass demonstration of the age of the Enlightenment’. Sometimes the curé led missions, and some bishops also took a lead, but different religious orders used different methods to effect the individual conversions to be induced by missions. Collective ceremonies would demonstrate the new commitment to lead a religious life, if only temporarily, and while failure was frequently admitted, most missionary preachers could point to evidence of success.
On the Margins of Official Religion
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

To the reformist clergy, some of the traditional pieties of Catholicism, notably processions, the cult of relics, pilgrimages, and the presence and life of hermits, had become marginal and at best in need of oversight. All of these, however, remained popular with ordinary people, and the majority of the clergy supported and took part in them. Marginal activities covered a wide range of practices, from ostentatious processions in towns and long pilgrimages to manifestations of local piety, originating in ancient vows and expressing the unity of the community. They also provided occasions for social enjoyment and merriment; viewed with irony by reformers and Enlightened thinkers, but not considered by the majority as incompatible with true piety.
Popular Religion and Clerical Reformers
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

Methodological problems abound in the study of the history of popular religion, and it is better not to make too rigid a division between the religion of the people and that of the clerical establishment. Literacy was growing in the eighteenth century and most reading matter had a religious content, but its use for the understanding of popular mentalities is limited. The reforming clergy saw themselves as the guardians of morals and made a consistent effort to suppress frivolity at religious festivities and to limit the number of holidays; here acting in concert with the state and Enlightenment reformers who wished to limit the days on which people did not work. The clergy also sought to control the credulity of the people by asserting their control over what should be considered a miracle and by absorbing folk practices into the fabric of routine institutional religion.
The Dark Side of the Supernatural
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

After the ‘crisis of Satanism’ in seventeenth‐century France, eighteenth‐century churchmen, without denying the reality of witchcraft and demonic possession, took a sceptical attitude towards the existence of a ‘witch cult’ and the fears that had led to the witch craze. Despite the elaborate theories of a minority of die‐hard believers in organized Satanism, the bishops followed a policy of ‘quiet containment’, treating each case on its merits. The use of spells to gain material rewards, for example, in treasure hunting, persisted, especially but not exclusively, in the rural areas, but when such cases came before the courts, the secular judges were more severe than their ecclesiastical counterparts.
The Confessional
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

Confession was a universal obligation for the Catholic people, but only a tiny minority from the upper classes would have a personal directeur de conscience providing moral and spiritual direction, with varying degrees of sincerity ranging from a genuine pious intensity to mere outward show. Absolution opened the door to receiving communion, and the secret of the confessional was inviolable. Confessional handbooks for priests laid down rigid rules, with the Jansenists being particularly harsh about penances, but were usually impractical if followed to the letter. The hope of the Counter‐Reformation that the confessional would generate discipline among the people and bridge the gap between belief and conduct was revealed in the eighteenth century as an illusion. Priests habitually condemned the vices of their parishioners, especially drunkenness and violent behaviour. Anti‐clericals attacked the harsh routine of the confessional, but genuine scandals were rare.
Commercial Loans and Lotteries
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

The question of loans for interest or ‘usury’ was much debated by eighteenth‐century churchmen, with the traditional ban being upheld in theory. But the legitimacy of reward for risk was accepted with regard to lotteries, provided they were for a good cause, and gambling in general, provided it was done in moderation. The ban on usury still made sense as far as protecting the peasantry was concerned, but was archaic with regard to commercial transactions. It was recognized by, for example, the Jesuits of Lyon, and largely ignored in practice.
The Theatre
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

Clerics, following the lead of Bossuet in Louis XIV's reign, continued their attacks on the wickedness of the theatre throughout the eighteenth century, but the rigidity and harshness laid down in theory was generally evaded by the laity and sections of the clergy alike. The theatre‐going public, including the court and the higher aristocracy, ignored clerical fulminations, while within the Church, the Jesuits in particular, who used the theatre for didactic purposes in their schools, were in an ambiguous position. In practice, the Church viewed the theatre as neither a Satanic invention encouraging sexual desire nor as a potentially educative institution, but as ‘an inevitable evil to be regulated as far as possible’. The harshness of official policy varied from diocese to diocese, while attempts to deny Christian burial to actors, as members of an immoral profession, were unpopular and contributed to anti‐clericalism.
The Jansenist Quarrel
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

Outlines the seventeenth‐century origins of the Jansenist controversy and the difficulties faced by the historian in arriving at a viable definition of Jansenism. The grim theology of Cornelius Jansen had given rise obliquely to a movement of great spirituality that posed questions about the nature of truth and the limits of secular and ecclesiastical authority. All the various aspects of Jansenism, including predestinarian theology, the questioning of papal authority, and reform of the Church involving a greater role for the laity in general and women in particular, came together in hostility to the Jesuits. In the eighteenth century it would involve the war of the parlements against the crown, the rising discontent of the lower clergy, and the convulsionist movement.
Unigenitus
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

The papal bull Unigenitus, issued in 1713, was intended to strike a fatal blow against the Jansenists and demonstrate papal infallibility. Its principal targets were the Réflexions morales of Pasquier Quesnel and through it, Louis‐Antoine de Noailles, cardinal‐archbishop of Paris. The complicated diplomatic manoeuvring leading to its promulgation was prompted by the Jesuits and their sympathizers, enemies of Noailles, and by the aged Louis XIV, which wished to destroy the Jansenists as ‘a republican party in Church and State’, while upholding the independence of the Gallican Church.
The Changing Face of Jansenism
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

Faced with repression, the Jansenist opponents of Unigenitus had to appeal to a wider public, notably through the clandestine Nouvelles ecclésiastiques, presenting a running chronicle of friends of the ‘truth’ and scandal about its enemies. Doctrinal divisions were now of little importance, but Jansenism tried to give the laity, including women, a new and leading role in the Church. Paris was the ‘fortress of Jansenism’, and it was here that the cult of the Jansenist ‘saint’, François de Pâris, began with miracles at his tomb in the cemetery of Saint‐Médard, a cult, which developed into the convulsionist movement. Convulsionism, and especially its sado‐masochistic lunatic fringe, divided the Jansenists, allowing Fleury to encourage moderate Jansenist scholars to denounce the cult of deacon Pâris, while police surveillance of the convulsionaries tightened in the 1740s.
Fleury's Repression and the Interventions of the Parlement
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

Between 1730, when Unigenitus was declared ‘a law of Church and State’, and his death in 1743, cardinal Fleury broke the power of Jansenism within the French clergy by the use of ecclesiastical patronage and promotion; the issue of lettres de cachet to send troublemakers to prison, monastery, or exile; police interventions, especially against authors and publishers; and the despatch of royal commissioners to overawe the assemblies of monastic orders and theology faculties. But enforcement of Unigenitus inevitably incurred the hostility of the sovereign courts, especially the parlement of Paris, the magistrates of which saw themselves as the guardians of legal process and individual liberty. Conflict with the parlement, itself not so much Jansenist as Gallican, in the 1730s involved a strike by avocats in 1731–32, but ended in defeat for the magistrates.
The Jesuits of France
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

Although ‘at the eye of the hurricane’ of political and ecclesiastical conflict, the war against Jansenism was only waged by a minority within the Society of Jesus. The Jesuits’ main concern was with education, where they provided the best available education for the bourgeois families of France, with the result that their ex‐pupils were to be found in influential positions in politics and throughout the worlds of administration, the law, and the Church, and among men of letters. They were also devoted to overseas missionary work in Canada, the West Indies, and within France, directed in particular at Protestants. Jesuits monopolized the post of confessor to the king from 1604 to 1764, and in the course of the early eighteenth century sought to impose an even stricter morality on Louis XV.
Cruelty and Compromise, 1700–1774
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

The Camisard revolt in the Cévennes in the early eighteenth century led not only to fierce repression of Protestantism in southern France but also to the reorganization of the clandestine Huguenot churches and strengthening of the faith in the period known in Protestant history as ‘the Desert’. The anti‐Huguenot edicts of Louis XIV remained in force under Louis XV, resulting in the cruel harassment of defiant Protestants and ‘new Catholics’, including the forceable removal of children from their parents to be educated as Catholics. The clandestine assemblies of Protestants were frequently broken up by the military, but as the century wore on, royal intendants withdrew their cooperation from the most fanatical of persecuting bishops. Repression and its attendant cruelties revolted public opinion, leading to a pamphlet debate in the 1750s, exacerbated by the Calas affair of 1762‐63, made famous by Voltaire. Despite the tolerant attitude of many individual curés, the Church remained firmly committed to the suppression of the Huguenots and took much of the blame for an unpopular policy.
The Twilight of Jansenism
Authors: McManners John
Published: October 2003

Jansenists were still excluded from the ministry of the Church by the necessity of having to sign the formulary accepting Unigenitus, but many clergy had been formed by a Jansenist‐inspired education, and the attempts by reactionary bishops to act against Jansenists came to be seen as anachronistic. With its triumph over the Jesuits, Jansenism dwindled into insignificance as a political force. In the struggle between the crown and the parlements, culminating in the ‘Maupeou revolution’ and the temporary abolition of the parlements, the ‘Jansenist’ party, the driving force behind parlementaire petitions and remonstrances, was gradually transformed into a ‘patriot’ party. Ideas and modes of thought associated with Jansenism may still be discerned behind the calls for an Estates General in the 1780s, but by the time the Revolution began Jansenism as such was an irrelevance.
Discipleship and Imagination
Authors: Brown David
Published: October 2003

In this sequel to Tradition and Imagination , Brown continues to argue for an understanding of revelation that takes post‐biblical developments seriously. In the first three chapters, changing attitudes in Christian discipleship are explored by taking successively the issue of the equality of the sexes, imitation of the saints and eschatology. It is argued that any assertion of total equality between the sexes cannot be justified on the basis of Scripture alone, and so the move of the medieval Church towards a cult of saints and a heavenly realization of eschatology cannot be condemned simply because the focus is different from Scripture. The middle two chapters then look in detail at two examples of the impact changing experience has had on the formulation of Christian doctrine. This is explored first with respect to attitudes to suffering as these have been mediated across the centuries through interpretations of the Book of Job. Then the treatment of the Virgin Mary is examined, and in particular, the way in which defective christologies have lead to compensating emphases in understandings of Mary's role. Finally, the last two chapters investigate questions of authority and truth. The positive value of conflict in securing recognition of truth is offered as one way of reading Christian history, while great insistence is also placed on the capacity of imaginative, fictive writing to convey truths no less significant than what is offered by more narrowly factual or historical writing.
Job and Innocent Suffering
Authors: Brown David
Published: October 2003

Three interpretations of the book are examined and the way in which they generated alternative trajectories for subsequent Jewish thinking in writings such as in the Testament of Job and the Zohar. The history of Christian exegesis is pursued through Gregory the Great, Aquinas, and Calvin before concluding in William Blake. Throughout, the different underlying assumptions about providence are noted, in particular, the reasons behind the modern retreat from agent‐specific notions of directional providence.
Apostolicity and Conflict: Peter and Paul
Authors: Brown David
Published: October 2003

The conflict between Peter and Paul is explored and taken as indicative of deep‐seated conflicts within the New Testament. These, however, are not viewed negatively but as part of the creative process working towards truth, which is then seen to continue in the subsequent history of the Church, with heresy in the patristic period and Reformation conflicts alike benefiting the Church's search for the truth. The chapter then ends with an exploration of literary and artistic images of Peter and Paul and their relevance to this more complex notion of a discovered rather than established authority.
Introduction
Authors: Ludlow Morwenna
Published: October 2003

The introduction summarizes the long and varied history of Christian universalism, from Origen to the present day. The study of one patristic and one modern theologian is explained, and the specific choice of Gregory and Rahner is justified in terms of their general theological interests and method. The main problems and issues raised by the idea of universal salvation are discussed: whether Scripture primarily asserts the universal love of God or an eternal hell; how universalism is linked to Christian doctrines about God, Christ, evil, justice, and punishment; how one should assess the role of human free will, faith, and moral virtue.
Gregory of Nyssa's Eschatology in Context
Authors: Ludlow Morwenna
Published: October 2003

This chapter sets out what we know of Gregory of Nyssa's life and of his philosophical influences. It examines Gregory's theological method, especially his interpretation of Scripture (hermeneutics), and his ‘mysticism’. It gives a brief summary of earlier patristic eschatology, particularly in the thought of Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Methodius of Olympus, Basil of Caesarea, and Gregory of Nazianzus. Finally, it gives a philological analysis of the Greek term ‘apokatastasis’, which is often used to mean universal salvation.
Perfection in Resurrection
Authors: Ludlow Morwenna
Published: October 2003

This chapter examines Gregory of Nyssa's key claim that the resurrection will restore human beings to their original state before the Fall. It assesses his theological anthropology as expressed through the doctrines of creation (especially the ideas of humanity's creation in God's image/the imago dei and of the ‘double creation’) and the Fall. It concludes that Gregory has a teleological view of humanity heading towards eschatological perfection, which means that one should not take the notion of a ‘return’ too literally. The idea of eschatological perfection is examined with particular reference to human desire and love (the problem of apatheia), and to Gregory's imaginative descriptions of heaven.
The Background to Karl Rahner's Eschatology
Authors: Ludlow Morwenna
Published: October 2003

This chapter begins with a brief introduction to the life of Karl Rahner and then deals with his theological and philosophical method, asserting the priority of the former over the latter. The influence of Transcendental Thomism is dealt with by examining how the thought of Thomas Aquinas and Immanuel Kant affected Rahner's analysis of human knowledge, the ‘Vorgriff’ (preapprehension), and transcendental experience.

Rahner believed that transcendental experience showed human nature to be personal, free, and responsible, and consisting of a unity of matter and spirit. The chapter concludes by showing how this analysis of human experience fits with Rahner's key theological idea of God as both mystery and revelation. He sought to explain that God's self‐communication to humanity is both due to grace and intrinsic to human nature (the ‘supernatural existential’) and that it is the perfection of this that constitutes salvation.
Eschatology for a Modern World
Authors: Ludlow Morwenna
Published: October 2003

This chapter deals specifically with those elements of Karl Rahner's theology that have a direct impact on his eschatology. It surveys Rahner's views on the requirements for doctrine about the last things, which is meaningful in the modern context and which avoids errors such as individualism, demythologization, and secular utopianism (e.g. Marxism). His ‘hermeneutics of eschatological assertions’ stresses the paradox of hope: that although the future remains mystery, one can already proclaim the victory of Christ. One must therefore hope, but never predict, that Christ's victory will save all people. The chapter concludes by analysing Rahner's (closely connected) theologies of death and of history, which reveal a highly teleological concept of human nature and the world.
Introduction
Authors: Freeden Michael
Published: October 2003

This chapter discusses British liberalism from 1914 to 1939. It argues that liberalism was not dormant between the wars, nor was it a failure. It contends that some major British socialist thinkers were at times within the left-liberal tradition, and that the Labour party hosted left-liberal beliefs which overlapped with some of the socialist components of Labour ideology. An overview of the chapters included in this volume is presented.
Human Nature, Economic Laws, and the Reconstitution of Capitalism
Authors: Freeden Michael
Published: October 2003

This chapter examines the moderate brand of progressive liberalism that gained prominence during the 1920s. Progressive centrist-liberalism overlapped on several issues. It accepted a certain role of the state, but refused to subscribe to a faith in the state as the disinterested agent of the community, reverting instead to a more individualistic conception of human nature and social relations. It magnified the ideological differences between liberalism and a socialist/trade-unionist Labour party. It was also less reflective, philosophically oriented, or synthetic in the broad cultural sense of integrating various braches of human knowledge.
A Decade of Dormancy
Authors: Freeden Michael
Published: October 2003

Political thinking in England throughout the 1930s retreated into weariness and complacency. Liberalism and socialism were submerged beneath the political surface, emerging periodically to indicate their presence but with insufficient intellectual resources to stay afloat. Fascism lost its appeal among British socialists as its German variant loomed on the international scene. Communism repopularized a 19th century image of a materialist, capitalist liberalism cut-off from social life. The quality of political argument deteriorated further under these conditions.
Self-Interest and Public Interest in Western Politics
Authors: Lewin Leif
Published: October 2003

Is it self‐interest or public interest that dominates in public life? Rational‐choice theory, political philosophy, and electoral research were all used to answer this question. Analysing existing literature, Professor Leif Lewin shows that predominant consensus emerged on this issue by the 1980s. This consensus states that people in politics are driven mostly by their self‐interest and not by common good and society values. Although Professor Lewin is not testing existing views that ‘egoism rules’ on deep theoretical grounds, he strongly argues that empirical facts do not support such views and thus opens a new chapter in the debate on individuals’ rationality.

Combining research results and achievements of different research fields, mentioned above, the author adopts methodology never used before. Extensive literature review on studies of Western democracy provides a basis for analysis for many countries. Separate chapters of the book are devoted to the attitudes and actions of the electoral voters, politicians, and bureaucrats in power.

This allows the author to make broad conclusions, which challenges predominant views. He concludes that in most cases people in politics are driven by broader social interests rather than their own short‐term interests.
Self‐Interest and Public Interest
Authors: Lewin Leif
Published: October 2003

Provides some theoretical approaches to the subsequent chapters. In particular, it reflects on the ways in which different sub‐disciplines approach the question of whether any grounds exist for the predominance of self‐interest in Western politics.

Problems of ‘rational‐choice’ theory, of the philosophical method, and of the electoral research are then analysed. The discourse of each of these three scientific fields is presented on the basis of the analysis of corresponding literature.
Are Politicians Vote‐Maximizers?
Authors: Lewin Leif
Published: October 2003

According to the assumption of the public‐choice theory, politicians are guided by their self‐interest and vote maximization. By analysing studies based on theories of the political business cycle, Leif Lewin provides evidence of predominance of public interest over self‐interest in politics.

The author then proceeds to analyse the electoral strategies of European socialists supporting this argument. The facts presented clearly indicate that the image of the politicians as primarily vote‐maximizers has little empirical support.