Chaplains in early modern England

A pioneering collaboration between leading early modern historians and literary scholars. Chapters by Kenneth Fincham, David Crankshaw and Mary Morrissey analyse the legal structures governing the appointment and remit of chaplains and map their roles and functions within early modern England.

A pioneering collaboration between leading early modern historians and literary scholars. Chapters by Kenneth Fincham, David Crankshaw and Mary Morrissey analyse the legal structures governing the appointment and remit of chaplains and map their roles and functions within early modern England.

Who were early modern chaplains and what did they do? Chaplains are well known to have been pivotal figures within early modern England, their activities ranging from more conventionally religious roles (conducting church services, offering spiritual advice and instruction) to a surprisingly wide array of literary functions (writing poetry, or acting as scribes and editors). Chaplains in early modern England: Patronage, literature and religion explores the important, but often neglected, contributions made by chaplains of different kinds – royal, episcopal, noble, gentry, diplomatic – to early modern English culture. Addressing a period from the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries, it focuses on chaplains from the Church of England, examining their roles in church and politics, and within both domestic and cultural life. It also shows how understanding the significance of chaplains can illuminate wider cultural practices – patronage, religious life and institutions, and literary production – in the early modern period.

1. Introduction – Hugh Adlington, Tom Lockwood, Gillian Wright2. The roles and influence of household chaplains, c. 1600–c. 60 – Kenneth Fincham3. Chaplains to the Elizabethan nobility: Activities, categories and patterns – David Crankshaw4. Episcopal chaplains and control of the media, 1586–1642 – Mary Morrissey5. Chaplains to embassies: Daniel Featley, Anti-Catholic controversialist abroad – Hugh Adlington6. Poetry, patronage and cultural agency: the career of William Lewis – Tom Lockwood7. ‘His lordships first, and last, CHAPLEINE’: William Rawley and Francis Bacon – Angus Vine8. Richard Corbett and William Strode: Chaplaincy and verse in early seventeenth-century Oxford – Christopher Burlinson9. The Isham family and their clergy – Erica Longfellow10. A chaplain and his patron: Samuel Willes and Lord Huntingdon – William Gibson11. The reluctant chaplain: William Sancroft and the later Stuart Church – Grant TapsellSelect bibliographyIndex