![Cover of Ecclesiastical History of England, Volume 3—The Church of the Restoration [part 1]](/covers/65334.jpg)
Public-domain ebook
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In: History - British·History - Modern (1750+)·History - Religious
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #65334.
John Stoughton’s Ecclesiastical History of England, Volume 3, The Church of the Restoration [part 1] is a scholarly survey of the English church from the Restoration of Charles II through the early years of James II. The work opens with a meticulous statement of sources, ranging from parliamentary journals and state papers to unpublished manuscripts in the Record Office, the British Museum, and Dr Williams’ Library. Stoughton lists the types of documents he consulted, official petitions, private letters, spy‑books, and diaries, showing how they underpin his narrative of the Act of Uniformity, the re‑establishment of the episcopacy, and the attendant political and social turmoil. The introductory passage also outlines the book’s structure, previewing chapters that trace the shifting fortunes of Presbyterians, Independents, and Nonconformists, and the legislative battles that shaped the church’s post‑Civil‑War settlement.
Written in a nineteenth‑century academic voice, the text combines exhaustive foot‑notes with a narrative that seeks both factual detail and broader religious context. Its dense, source‑driven style will appeal to readers who relish archival research, church historians, and those interested in the interplay of politics and religion in early modern Britain. Those accustomed to modern prose may find the prose formal, but anyone seeking a richly documented account of Restoration‑era ecclesiastical politics will find Stoughton’s methodical approach rewarding.
The opening · free to read
It may be well to indicate the sources from which my materials are drawn.
The printed Journals of the Lords and Commons,--the Parliamentary History of England,--_Cardwell's Synodalia_,--_Thurloe's State Papers_,--and other similar collections, which did not exist in the days of Kennet, Collier, and Neal,--supply, together with Burnet's and Baxter's contemporary accounts, the backbone of the following narrative. Journals, diaries, and biographies of the period, with newspapers and tracts, of which extraordinarily rich collections are found in the British Museum and in Dr. Williams' Library, have helped to clothe the skeleton. But the sources of illustration, upon which I rest some slight claim to originality, are found in certain unpublished MSS. which it has been my privilege to examine and employ.
I. Amongst these the first place belongs to the Collection of Papers in the Record Office. Besides the assistance furnished by the published calendars of Mrs. Green, extending from 1660 to 1667, I have been favoured with the use of that lady's unpublished notes down to the close of 1669; these helps have greatly facilitated my inquiries into the history of the first decade embraced within these volumes. From that period to the Revolution, I have been left with no other clue than the Office catalogue of the books and bundles chronologically arranged; and all the documents which I could find bearing on domestic affairs--and they amount to many hundreds--I have carefully examined. Although those which relate to ecclesiastical matters are by no means so numerous as those which relate to political, commercial, and other subjects, they are of very great value to the Church historian. They may be classified as follows:--
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![Cover of Ecclesiastical History of England, Volume 4—The Church of the Restoration [part 2]](/covers/67413.jpg)
