London Presbyterians and the British Revolutions, 1638–64

London presbyterians and the British revolutionspresents a case study in the politics of religion during the middle decades of the seventeenth-century. The first full-length work on the London presbyterian movement of the period between 1638 and 1664, it locates the London presbyterians in the metropolitan, parliamentarian and British politics of the mid-seventeenth-century crisis. The book explores the presbyterian movement's emergence in London from the collapse of Charles I's monarchies, its influence on the parliamentarian political struggles of the civil war and Interregnum and the beginnings of Restoration nonconformity in London. Covering the political, intellectual and social history of the movement, it looks at the development of ideas of presbyterian church government and political theory, as well as investigating the London presbyterians' mobilisation to establish their vision of reforming the Reformation. It also addresses the use of the 'information revolution' in the British revolution, analysing religious disputation, the political use of rumour and gossip and the interface between oral and written culture. Ultimately, the book argues that the London presbyterian movement, whose participants are often presented in historical writing as the foils of other individuals or groups, was critical to the political dynamic of the period. London presbyterians and the British revolutions fills a notable gap in the current historiography of the British revolutions, exploring a movement that, while often mentioned in historical analysis, has rarely been thoroughly explored.