Product Description
This revised edition of the classic text on Episcopal Church history brings the story of the Church up-to-date with a new chapter on the 1990's. This new chapter pays special attention to the Church's renewal efforts, Presiding Bishop Browning's time in office, the issue of homosexuality, changing leadership dynamics, liturgical change, and Lambeth 1998.

"A truly inclusive story of the church's life in the USA and overseas. The attention to women, African-Americans, Native-Americans, and hearing-impaired, and also to those of recent 'lifestyles' is well done."
-The Rev. Samuel M. Garrett, Professor Emeritus Church Divinity School of the Pacific

Robert W. Prichard is Professor of Church History at the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Informative
I found this to be a very good summary and overview of the history of the Episcopal Church.I learned more about how the church was formed and developed than from other history books of the Episcopal Church.

great book
A great look at the history of the Episcopal Church, and one that provides the basis for delving deeper.I was handed this by my rector when I asked about the history of our church.Not too many years later, I found myself in seminary, on myway to becoming a priest.Add to that, my instructor was the author of this book!

A good introduction
Robert Prichard's `History of the Episcopal Church' is one of the more accessible of church histories available on the official Anglican version of the church in the United States - the Episcopal Church, sometimes called ECUSA, whose official name, the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America, is a bit of a tongue-twister.

Despite the fact that many people came to the Americas for religious freedom (and one of the churches against which they were rebelling was the Anglican church), the Anglican church arrived on American shores very early, with the establishment of colonies on the southern coast of North America (Virginia, the Carolinas), which had official sanction by the Royal authority, and thus official ties to the official church.However, this was a strange situation for Anglicans to find themselves in - while still the official state religion and dominant group back home, they were outnumbered by other immigrants to North America by a significant margin, and this did not even count the numbers of Native Americans.Continuing immigration from non-Anglican parts of the British Isles (Scotland, Ireland, and non-Anglican English and Welsh) caused religious ambiguity in colonial social life and governance also in the New England settlements, which had prior Dutch Calvinist colonies already.

Prichard traces this beginning through the Great Awakening, which had Anglicans experiencing internal difficulties, and the Revolutionary War period, where many Anglicans were viewed with suspicion for their ties to the Royalist cause.One of the difficulties caused for Anglicans in America by the Revolutionary War was a suspension of formal ties to the Church of England, where bishops had to swear allegiance to the crown, something the newly independent Americans were not willing or able to do.The consecration of Seabury took place therefore under the auspices of the Anglican church in Scotland, who required as covenant for their transference of episcopal orders the acceptance by the new institution in America of certain liturgical forms, such as the prayer of consecration from 1549 rather than the more common 1552.

This also represented the period of the growth of Methodism, with the figure of John Wesley prominent in the activity - Prichard states that while the Methodist movement grew out of and had respect for the Anglican traditions and institution, the only Anglican clergyman whose authority they accepted over themselves was that of John Wesley.Prichard's discussion of the strands that came from earliest Anglicanism is interesting for the future development of various denominations in America, and shows how much common lineage the Christian community in America shares.

Prichard's text continues with discussion of the mission and expansion period of American growth, the Civil War period, the settlement of the West and looking toward foreign missions, the Depression and War periods, and finally the second half of the twentieth century with its period of institutional strength, shifting theologies, and prospects for renewal.

In each of these sections, Prichard draws upon a variety of historical resources.He does not confine himself to looking simply at events, institutions, or personalities, but weaves these together as they are necessary to achieve an overall narrative story.Liturgical and theological shifts are discussed but not fully developed (this is not a theology or a liturgy text); attendant events and developments in the general history of the United States are brought in both for context and for influence.

There is a generous assortment of illustrations - line art, wood cut and photographs - as well as tables of information (dioceses admitted to the church as states were admitted to the union, etc.).There are no maps, which might in a few instances have aided the discussion.There is a useful index.Each chapter has a series of endnotes immediately following the chapter, but there is no general bibliography or list of selected readings.

In general, this is a very good text for learning the history of the church in the United States.There are occasional mis-statements, and occasional omissions one might quibble about, but on the whole, it is accessible, readable, and useful for the general reader and student.

Just the facts, ma'am
Oh my.The back cover of Prichard's *History* correctly says that "many people today are looking for a history of the Episcopal Church that is brief, comprehensive, easy to read, and inclusive."But the book lacks all of these qualities except possibly the first (depending on whether you consider a 300+ page book "brief").

To his credit, Prichard does try to cover the history of the church in America, taking us from the first years of colonization up to the election of Frank Griswold as Presiding Bishop.This is a formidable task, and Prichard is to be commended for giving it a go.

Having said that, however, three things about the book are troublesome.First, I'm afraid that it's written in the dryest style imaginable, bringing back unpleasant memories of standardized textbooks struggled through in high school.

Second, it's more of a rather breathless compendium than an integrated history.By that, I mean that the approach is rather positivistic:history is presented as little more than one fact after another arranged in chronological fashion.There's very little attempt to weave these facts into a broader context or to show interrelations between them.As a consequence, the social context of the church is all but ignored.Instead, Prichard focuses ad tedium on the institutional development of the church.This is obvious an important part of its history.But how informative or fruitful for the general layreader is a history of General Convention?

Finally, Prichard never makes any systematic effort to tie together theology and history.He focuses exclusively on the institutional church but ignores its spiritual progression.As a consequence, the account seems, at best, lopsided.To give but one example:on pp. 188-89 Prichard writes of William Porcher DuBose, arguably the greatest episcopalian theologian of the 19th century.But he mentions him primarily in reference to an historical debate about church structure, and throws in only a one-line aside about DuBose's incarnationalist theology.This refusal to weave spiritual and institutional history renders Prichard's work rather soulless, if I may use that word in this context.

The book is worthwhile as a quick reference for dates and events.But I'm afraid that a popular history of the Episcopal Church still remains to be written.

An excellent introduction and handy reference
This book is a revised edition of Prichard's work originally published in 1991. According to its preface, the author particularly rewrote the tenth and eleventh chapters, adding sections discussing the development of the Episcopal Church in the last decade of the twentieth century. This update helped me enormously to understand the current situation of the Church as I read it just before the General Convention that the Episcopal Church held in Denver, Colorado, this summer.

This book is very readable. It contains many illustrations, which are quite helpful. Compared to David L. Holmes' _A Brief History of the Episcopal Church_ (1993), Prichard narrates the history mostly chronologically and not thematically. He discusses different theological trends that existed in the Church, and follows their interactions and developments. He talks of the changes in women's status in the Church. He neither leaves out the Church's works among ethnic minorities nor foreign missions. The author touches many other historical events as well as important figures. These facts makes the book an excellent introduction and handy reference to the history of the Episcopal Church. ... Read more

Product Description
PREFACE.
rjlHE present edition of the Annotated Prayer Book has been, carefully revised in -*- eveiy part, many additions have been made, and the form of the page has been so altered as to bring, the. references conveniently together, with letters of reference carried across the page through both columns in regular succession.
[lj. The Historical Introduction has been entirely rewritten, and much additional matter has been included. This is especially the case in the account of the Revision of 1661, where the constitutional manner in which the Ecclesiastical work of revision was ratified by the Civil authorities is now much more fully illustrated from the Journals of the Houses of Lords and Commons.
[2] The Notes on the Minor Festivals have also been entirely rewritten by their author, the Rev. Joseph Thomas Fowler of Durham, who has spared no pains in the endeavour to give them a critical value as trustworthy, though necessarily very condensed, accounts of the Saints commemorated o

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.

Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the difficult to read text. Read books online for free at http://www.forgottenbooks.org ... Read more

Product Description
"Common Worship" is the official liturgy of the Church of England. This useful booklet presents the recommended Bible readings (references only) for every day and Principal Festivals worked out for the year between Advent 2006 and Advent 2007. Readings for weekdays are also included. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

church of engkland
this book is blatantly anti Anglicanism, and a bit of over dramaticing his own effectiveness as an Anglican priest. i'm surprised the Church put up with him as long as they did.If so wonderful, why is he not a Catholic priest? Book has interesting insight, but darn if he can't quash even that with his own emotional biases.

state religion church of england
As an American Episcopalian ina 27 year partnership with another gay man, I wanted to read this book to gain an inight into the workings of the Church of England -our spiritual leader - as seen by a gay priest who left the chuch.

It has some interesting facts about the church, but it left me wondering if this guy is a drama queen who thinks he is writing a lot from the inside,'stuff' just to get it off his chest. Even more confusing is his pitch for the Church of Rome, a church that has gone out of its way to give gay relationships the least legal credibility possible. Callng our sexual an intrinsic evil one an example. And he finds this church welcoming? This ex priest must find this ok, even if he (still)is in a partnership w/another gay man. I find it somewhat 'plastic' that he gives himself an "A" in priestly responsibilities with the masses of Anglican parishoners who supposedly cared very much about him and depairing his leaving the church. As a final void, he mentions an Anglican priest who was to become a bishop, relates a version of why he chose to not accept the position, yet gives no credible instances of just how he knows what he does, or even knows the priest involved. This could have been a good and insightful book. It is nether. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

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These essays examine Protestantism in Tudor England, seeking to give a sense of the clash of ideas which produced the political developments of the sixteenth century in Church history. ... Read more

Product Description
This series of essays addresses the issue regarding the ministry of women in the church. The essays deal with grammatical, linguistic, exegetical, hermeneutical, and theological points and constitute one of the most comprehensive treatments to date on the subject. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

The Rarest Fruits are the Sweetest
Rarely does a book earn the status of the definitive work on any subject as quickly as "Women in the Church." Heralded by scholars and theologians like D.A. Carson, Scott Hafemann, Peter T. O'Brien and John Piper. The design of this book is to walk a reader through all the various hermeneutical and exegetical stages in interpreting any text of Scripture. The reader is expertly guided through stages like historical research, genre analysis, word study, syntactical analysis, etc. . . The real challenged posed by this book is not ideological but exegetical. You may not like the conclusions of the contributors, but their conclusions result from careful, detailed, and sound exegesis. This book is the standard exegetical work on 1 Timothy 2:9-15 and has yet to meet any serious rival. In fact, because of its enduring contribution a revised second edition is slated for publication.

Drop your biases and examine the text
That basically sums it up for the approach taken by Kostenberger, et. al., in this book. Most interesting is the survey across secular literature regarding the NT hapax /authentew/ (pardon the transliteration). The arguments and conclusions are not based on emotional appeal but rather on cold, hard examination of the text of the original. Several chapters by several authors examine different aspects of a complete interpretation of this troubling yet frequently written about text. No matter what you think about the issue of women in the leadership of the church, Kostenberger et. al. demand your attention -- and you'll be glad you gave it. This book helps immensely in seperating the wheat from the chaff when examining this particular issue.

Be Careful If You Choose to Read this Book
"By Their Fruit You Shall Know Them."This book is currently OUT OF PRINT.That should tell you something!Instead of wasting your time trying to find a copy of this outdated and biased book, take a look at the bestselling title called "Why Not Women?: A Fresh Look at Scripture on Women in Missions, Ministry and Leadership"by Loren Cunningham to find the truth about the difficult scriptures regarding women.

Must buy for those seeking truth
The editors of this book did an outstanding job of compiling authors of the highest caliber and those who would take the exegetical task seriously.This book offers the serious reader an opportunity to see the goldavailabe in 1 Timothy 2.If anyone is willing to push aside their emotionsand ready to see what scripture has to say regarding women's role in thechurch, this book will give you an historic, but exciting new look at 1Timothy 2. ... Read more

Product Description
In this volume of The New Church's Teaching Series, Stephen Holmgren introduces us to the world of Anglican ethics and moral theology. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Fresh approach to Christianity
I highly recommend this book. It's a very fresh, diverse, and multicultural approach to Christianity and moral ethics in general. It's very easy reading in lay person's terms.

How should one act?
The Episcopal church in the twentieth century took advantage of the general availability of publishing to good advantage, compiling through several auspices different collections and teaching series, the latest of which was only completed a few years ago. There have been 'unofficial' collections of teaching texts, such as the Anglican Studies Series by Morehouse press, put out in the 1980s, as well as an earlier teaching series. However, each generation approaches things anew; the New Church Teaching Series, published by Cowley Publications (a company operated as part of the ministry of the Society of St. John the Evangelist - SSJE - one of the religious/monastic communities in the Episcopal church, based in the Boston area) is the most recent series, and in its thirteen volumes, explores in depth and breadth the theology, history, liturgy, ethics, mission and more of the modern Anglican vision in America.

This ninth volume, 'Ethics after Easter' by Stephen Holmgren, looks at the issues of ethics and morality in an Anglican fashion.The first question Holmgren addresses is what are called to do from our Baptimal covenant?How now should we live?There are questions in this of worship, of theology and of spirituality, but Holmgren specifically addresses the question from the standpoint of moral theology - a high-sounding phrase that really focuses upon the basic question of our vision of God, and how God would want us to live.

There is much discernment to be done, by the individual and by the community.Holmgren addresses topics such as social justice, war and peace, sin, love, and other key issues.He sets out various approaches to ethics - do we look at the issue from the standpoint of human civil laws, or from the standpoint of God's desires for us, or both?Drawing from this, there are three ethical approaches - natural law, the historicist view, and the 'positivist' view, the one where we make a choice based on our own and communal discernment.None of these are guaranteed to give a right or wrong answer (indeed, all may lead to the wrong answer!), and rarely are any used in exclusion of the others.

Holmgren looks the issues of sin, love, law, justification, sanctification and many other 'theological' concepts in application to daily life and work, as well as broader planning and communal living and decision-making.At the end of each chapter, Holmgren sets forth axiomatic statements that build a framework (axioms are basic 'truths' widely accepted as being true, relevant and applicable generally).The system of twenty-two axioms are set out in the conclusion/appendix.

Stephen Holmgren is an Episcopal priest in Wisconsin, having also served in Tennessee.He is a professor of ethics and moral theology at Nashota House, one of the Episcopal seminaries in the church.He also is active in the area of medical ethics, and is a regular conference leader and speaker.

Each of the texts is relatively short (only two of the volumes exceed 200 pages), the print and text of each easy to read, designed not for scholars but for the regular church-goer, but not condescending either - the authors operate on the assumption that the readers are genuinely interested in deepening their faith and practice. Each volume concludes with questions for use in discussion group settings, and with annotated lists of further readings recommended.

Oh dear . . .
I've truly tried to appreciate this book.I really have.I've actually plowed my way through it on two different occasions.But with all due respect to its author, the book is just soooo boring, soooo tedious, and soooo simplistic that it's difficult to work up any enthusiasm for it.This is a shame, because Christian ethics is both an intrinsically exciting field and an excruciatingly important one for those of us who struggle to respond to the world as loyal members of a community of faith.

Perhaps one of the reasons this book is so dissatisfying is that it struggles so hard to play it safe.Author Holmgren provides a very traditional account of moral knowledge derived from reason and from revelation, nods to the very obvious fact that agreement on moral principles doesn't entail agreement about practice, and points out the equally obvious fact that principles are general and moral dilemmas are concrete and situational and that casuistry is the discipline of trying to apply the one to the other.All this is as predictable (and as stimulating) as the Baltimore Catechism.Holmgren only begins to enter into interesting waters when he reflects on the tension between the human desire for the good and human fallenness, but he quickly pulls back by offering the reader a deadly account of the seven deadly vices.Reading his book, one would never suspect that Christian ethics is an incredibly rich, incredibly complex, incredibly diverse, and incredibly rewarding area of investigation that draws on anthropology, psychology, sociology, and philosophy as well as scripture and tradition.There's a certain quaintness to the book that makes it seem as if it written in the mid-nineteenth century before moral theologians such as Rowan Williams, John Macquarrie, Gene Outka or Stanley Hauerwas were born!

I appreciate that the volumes in the New Church's Teaching Series, of which Holmgren's book is one, are intended as popular introductions to lay Anglicans.But the new series, with the notable exception of Margaret Guenther's beautiful book on prayer, tends, like Holmgren's book, to be simplistic, boring, and patronising.My guess is that they are bought and read by Anglicans more out of a sense of duty than joyful eagerness.That's a genuine pity, because the Anglican spiritual, theological, and moral tradition is a beautiful and insightful one.How in the world can the Episcopal Church hope to excite its members about their faith when it feeds them such pablum?! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A must for all Episcopalians and Anglicans!
The spiritual journey of George Carey, from rector to Archbishop of Canterbury.If our church survives its stodgy services and radical priests, then George Carey will deserve much of the credit. He is a spiritual giant among those who would turn this ancient tradition into ananything-goes modernism. ... Read more

Product Description
The Latitudinarians, a group of prominent clergymen in the lateseventeenth-century Church of England, were articulate opponents ofAnglicanism's intellectual foes. Against the challenges of Hobbism, Spinozism,Deism, scepticism, and Roman Catholicism, they presented a body of thoughtemphasizing reason in religion and practical morality over credal speculation.Their theology was designed to combat `practical atheism' and their sermonsstressed that the chief design of Christianity was `to make men good.' Theyadvocated an alliance of religion and science, and were early participants inthe Royal Society. In preaching, they developed a simpler sermon styleinfluential for English prose. As an important part of the Anglican Church atthe time of the Glorious Revolution, they helped in drafting the RevolutionSettlement, the seedbed, in Macaulay's words, of subsequent personalliberties.This definition and analysis of Latitudinarianism was completed by the lateMartin Griffin in 1962 and has been updated since his death in 1988 byProfessor Richard H. Popkin. ... Read more

Product Description
The revival of religious orders in the mid-nineteenth century opened up a field of Christian ministry for women distinct from previous types of church work, which had been voluntary, part-time, and necessarily limited by contemporary identification of women with the domestic sphere. The Deaconess Movement posed a threat to the accepted gender order of Victorian society, creating new spheres of activity and roles of authority for women outside the home. This volume, bringing together documents on the Movement from a variety of unpublished archives, offers an introduction to a neglected aspect of women's involvement in official Church ministry through the women's own voices. It provides a coherent illustration of the circumstances which fostered the revival of an ancient order of ministry for women, through the first-hand experience of some of the individuals who were involved in the early years. Socially divisive, theologically controversial, the claims of women to be part of an order analogous to that of the male diaconate formed the basis of their active participation in the ecclesiastical hierarchy right up to the present day. ... Read more

Product Description
From childbirth and baptism through to courtship, weddings, and funerals, every stage in the lifecycle of Tudor and Stuart England was accompanied by ritual. Even under the Protestantism of the reformed Church, the spiritual and social dramas of birth, marriage, and death were graced with elaborate ceremony. Powerful and controversial protocols were in operation, shaped and altered by the influences of the Reformation, the Revolution, and the Restoration.

Each of the major rituals was potentially an arena for argument, ambiguity, and dissent. Ideally, as classic rites of passage, these ceremonies worked to bring people together. But they also set up traps into which people could stumble, and tests which not everybody could pass. In practice, ritual performance revealed frictions and fractures that everyday local discourse attempted to hide or to heal.

Using fascinating first-hand evidence, David Cressy shows how the making and remaking of ritual formed part of a continuing debate, sometimes strained and occasionally acrimonious, which exposed the raw nerves of society in the midst of great historical events. In doing so, he vividly brings to life the common experiences of living and dying in Tudor and Stuart England. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A must read
I actually had to read this for an MA class in history and it's definitely a textbook of the Tudor and Stuart time period but it wasn't as dry as I had expected it to be, thanks to Mr. Cressy's amazing writing ability. But it is thoroughly researched and offers up very important conclusions about the social life of the Tudor/Stuart period and anyone who wants the recent and best literature on the subject should read this book.

Social history at its best
I've just finished writing a series of books about life in Elizabethan England, and this book was invaluable to me in my research. It is full of interesting details about how people in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century England approached and experienced the major transition points of the life cycle. I would have read and enjoyed Birth, Marriage, and Death even if I had not needed it as a reference, and I would heartily recommend it to any reader who wants to get a feel for this time period.

Great book!
Most historical books of this sort are amazingly dry; this one is not.Mr. Cressy has done a huge amount of research, and the text is peppered with primary source quotations.I now have a real feel for what theseexperiences were like in Tudor & Stuart England.I plan to buywhatever other material Mr. Cressy has written--I found him an easy,extremely informative read. ... Read more

Product Description
First published in 1935, this classic compilation provides a connected account of the theological literature of the Church of England during the 17th Century. Particularly invaluable to scholars and students, it contains a considerable number of passages which have not been printed since the original time of writing.In addition, since the doctrines of the Church of England have never been defined by the thinking of single theologian like Luther or Calvin, there has been always need to consult a considerable range of writings in order to resolve questions of doctrine and practice. This book brings together just such a range, providing a comprehensive insight into the theology of 17th Century Anglicanism. ... Read more

Product Description
With more than 3,000 written entries, this book is a reference for Episcopalians, both lay and ordained. It includes material specific to the Episcopal Church and its history and polity, liturgy and theology, as well as subjects relevant to the whole church. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Only Episcopalians need reply
This is quite a good bookfull of explanations ofwhy the priest wears purple in Lent and green in July and other liturgical facts and fancies. A tour de force for Episcopalians. We thrive on this sort of stuff.

Definitively helpful
Can you tell the difference between the ICEL and the ICET?Does a Lay Reader perform the Laying on of Hands?Do you know what EDS, CDSP, ETSS and 'General' have in common?What is fair about Fair Linen?

The answers to these and many other questions can be found in this book, 'An Episcopal Dictionary for the Church'.It is an encyclopedic dictionary, spanning nearly 600 pages of text (many dictionaries are more of a handbook variety, with brief definitions and far fewer pages).This dictionary has a roster of over thirty contributors from the length and breadth of the church, and a bibliography that is well over a hundred items in length.

Even with the number of pages, there are a few omissions.There is no entry for lavabo, for example; there are many definitions and descriptions that relate to vestments, church elements and architecture, music and liturgical elements, but every so often I find a term that is not included.Despite this, the book remains perhaps the most comprehensive single-volume dictionary available for Episcopalians and other Anglican types.

In addition to the more dictionary-definition types of entries, there are brief article-style entries on major concepts and theological issues.These are often not of concern to Episcopalians alone (terms such as 'baptism' and 'salvation' are included as entries), but these are set in a more Anglicanised context.There are also brief biographical entries on major figures in Episcopal history, broader Anglican history, and yet broader Christian history that ties in more closely with the Anglican heritage (this includes a good number of saints from the early church).

Because of its encyclopedic quality, it is very readable and holds the attention well.Although the entries aren't directly cross-referenced, they do lead well into one another, and invariably I find that whenever I am looking up a term, person or thing, I spend a great deal of time reading and skimming, learning yet more that I didn't know before.

So, if you want to be certain of being able to tell your apse from your Elohim, this just might be the book for you.It is a valuable reference tool for any Anglican or Episcopalian, and I find new things in the book each time I open it.

The title says it all -- A User-Friendly Reference
I found this to be a great reference book, with well written articles across a broad variety of topics on the Episcopal Church and Christianity in general.Ive already given away my first copy, and I can't wait to getmore copies. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR’d book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
Studies in Church Life in England under Edward III was first published in 1934 as part of the Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought series. Wood-Legh has chosen five topics of church history which frequently occur in the Patent Rolls of Edward III. Chancery documents were valuable sources of information on aspects of the medieval church, but had seldom been systematically studied by church historians before this. The five essays cover royal administration of religious houses, the visitation of hospitals, the application of the Statute of Mortmain, chantry chapels, and the appropriation of parish churches by religious houses. All of these topics are then related to three themes, public opinion of the church, the effects of the Black Death on the church, and the relationship between the church and central government. The book is a splendid example of how administrative sources can shed light on all aspects of history. ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishings Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the worlds literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

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1717. This work was drawn from antiquity; the light of nature; Holy Scripture; its noble nature; and from the dignity divine providence has put upon it. The Constitution of the New England churches as settled by their platform, may be fairly justified, from antiquity, the light of nature, Holy Scripture, and from the noble and excellent nature of the Constitution itself. And lastly from the providence of God dignifying it. Due to the age of the original we reproduced, some pages may be spotty or faded. Written in Old English. ... Read more