George Herbert, parish ‘dexterity’, and the local modification of Laudianism

The rise of Laudianism continues to absorb historians of the Stuart Church. Despite disagreement over the movement's origin, nature, and primary architect, most historians agree that its effect was to polarize rival factions in the Caroline Church and erect ideological battle lines that hastened the descent into Civil War. Kevin Sharpe, however, has posited a non-ideological factor that helped determine contemporary reactions to Laudianism: 'When attitudes and reactions to ceremonies were strong they may well have been more affected by changes in circumstance and local custom than by any concerted position or opposition among the parishioners. Because episcopal practice had long varied, local reactions were quite different.'1 By Sharpe's estimation, the inertia of parish tradition - rather than complex theological or liturgical positions - played a significant role in determining local perceptions of and reactions to Laudianism. In addition, the reminder that 'episcopal practice had long varied' suggests that a certain degree of local variation may even be viewed as a feature of the via media that had defined the Church for decades. If the Jacobean Church can be seen as an accommodating consensus that allowed for some degree of local variety, by the 1630s an emerging Laudianism (intent on conformity and uniformity) was creating a more prescriptive version of church doctrine, liturgy, and worship - with less local variety. As Sharpe's assertion implies, it may well have been Laudianism's encroachment on local 'prerogative' rather than 'the beauty of holiness' that most antagonized its opponents.This article will argue that George Herbert's major prose work, the Country Parson (c. 1632), registers contemporary anxieties about Laudianism's impact on parish religion. Herbert's vision of the ideal parson has been variously treated by critics as character sketch, conduct book, and autobiography. In most of these treatments, the Country Parson (like Herbert's poetry) is used to sound the author's theological views, establish his liturgical preferences, and claim him for a faction of the English Church.2 Some, like Achsah Guibbory, have more usefully focused on Herbert's 'equivocal' attitude towards ceremonial conflicts.3 But I will argue that Herbert's vision of parish religion is not so much concerned with revealing his personal religious tastes as it is with endorsing a concept of local variety that had been a feature of the Jacobean Church. Given the climate of the 1630s, Herbert cannot be too overt about this endorsement - and he certainly does not have his parson ignore canons or confute bishops. Instead, he uses what Annabel Patterson has called 'disguised discourse' and 'oblique communication' to present a tacit challenge to the Laudian remaking of the local.4 Again and again, the Country Parson dwells on distinctions among parishes and emphasizes the parson's need to consider these differences in ordering the religious life of the parish. Moreover, the ideal parson repeatedly consults particular circumstances and individual experience (rather than broad rules) for epistemology, moral judgments, and even church ritual. In my reading, it is not really that Herbert objects to the 'beauty of holiness' or other elements of the Laudian programme. It is that these changes are being insisted upon across the board for all parishes. In this sense, the Country Parson constitutes a plea for traditional local 'autonomy' in the face of an increasingly rigid Laudianism.This article will begin by historicizing the local variety contained within the Jacobean Church. It will then chart the impact, beginning in the late 1620s, of the Laudian programme on parish religion. I will then offer an extended reading of the Country Parson as a response to these changes. Finally, I will assess the nature of Herbert's localism in terms of his larger vision of the English Church. My objective throughout is to bring the wealth of recent scholarship on Stuart church history to bear on the Country Parson and to show how this text both reflects and addresses an overlooked aspect of its cultural moment. …