Restoration, Reformation, and Reform, 1660-1828: Archbishops of Canterbury and their Diocese(Oxford Historical Monographs)

This wide-ranging and original book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the Church of England in the long eighteenth century. It explores the nature of the Restoration ecclesiastical regime, the character of the clerical profession, the quality of the clergy's pastoral work, and the question of Church reform through a detailed study of the diocese of the archbishops of Canterbury. In so doing the book covers the political, social, economic, cultural, intellectual and pastoral functions of the Church and, by adopting a broad chronological span, it allows the problems and difficulties often ascribed to the eighteenth-century Church to be viewed as emerging from the seventeenth century and as continuing well into the nineteenth century. Moreover, the author argues that some of the traditional periodizations and characterisations of conventional religious history need modification. Much of the evidence presented here indicates that clergy in the one hundred and seventy years after 1660 were preoccupied with difficulties which had concerned their forebears and would concern their successors. In many ways, clergy in the diocese of Canterbury between 1660 and 1828 continued the work of seventeenth-century clergy, particularly in following through, and in some instances instigating, the pastoral and professional aims of the Reformation, as well as participating in processes relating to Church reform, and further anticipating some of the deals of the Evangelical and Oxford Movements. Reluctance to recognise this has led historians to neglect the strengths of the Church between the Restoration and the 1830s, which, it is argued, should not be judged primarily for its failure to attain the ideals of these other movements, but as an institution possessing its own coherent and positive rationale.

Review :
`This is a valuable addition to a growing body of work which is redrawing the eighteenth-century religious landscape' Eamon Duffy, Times Literary Supplement `Gregory is particularly good on the greatly increased availability of the rite of confirmation' Eamon Duffy, Times Literary Supplement `It will be essential reading for serious students of the eighteenth-century English church' American Historical Review `self-consciously revisionist one that sets out to contest received notions about stagnation and tepidity in the life of the Church of England' American Historical Review `a paradigm of archival research ... Gregory enters the mind of the eighteenth-century churchman more completely than any previous historian of the period ... By synthesizing archival material from a wide variety of sources Gregory has established a new benchmark in writing the history of the post-Restoration Church, and one that significantly advances our understanding of the Church and society. This book sheds new light on the religious culture of the Church, and reaches beyond a local study to one with important implications for the whole Church. Those studying the Church in the period will find this book indispensable.' William Gibson `a contribution to the study of the Church of England's place in English society between the Restoration and the advent of 'reform' movements in the 1830s.' (J.M.) Contemporary Review, Nov.2000. `The book is also something of a (welcome) defence of the church's 'long eighteenth century' in which it established itself in the life of the nation.' (J.M.) Contemporary Review, Nov. 2000.