Whereas "the sword Salue" invokes a small-pond fight between two writers, the other books Thomas purchases evoke more significant religious concerns, speaking both to the period's growing fervor over
Laudianism and to the cross-generational nature of spiritual dissent.
I have emphasized what I see as a weakness in this book (its claims for Milton's early "
Laudianism") because the book as a whole is so strong that it is likely to lend unwarranted authority to this one weak strand.
There is now no doubt that the 1630s witnessed the triumph of Archbishop William Laud's hegemony over the church but what is more contentious is the nature and significance of this '
Laudianism'.
Modern historians have been too ready to take at face value the claim of these Puritans to speak for the nation at large in their condemnation of
Laudianism.
'
Laudianism' and 'Laudian Movement', as Graham Parry recognizes, are not wholly adequate terms to describe the varied cultural achievements documented in this carefully-researched and well-written book.
Because of its long and traditional association with Reformation thought, Cambridge University ("a seminary of Puritanism") was not as sympathetic to
Laudianism as Oxford.
Browne also appears to defend
Laudianism at the very time that Parliament was dismantling Laud's church.
According to Conrad Russell, a `stress on the sacraments rather than preaching' can only be found among `a lonely and often submerged group' in Elizabethan England, isolated from `mainstream Protestantism'.(140) According to Kenneth Fincham, the Laudians introduced `a different vision of the ministerial office' because of `the great weight placed on prayer and the sacraments rather than preaching'.(141) And Peter Lake has declared that
Laudianism `played up the role of prayer, public worship, and the sacraments at the expense of preaching'.(142) This view, as I have already suggested, is fundamentally mistaken in associating puritanism with preaching,
Laudianism with the sacraments, as if these were two different forms of religion.
But it is also an implicit attack on
Laudianism which thought of liturgical order and vestments as essential to holiness.
However, while these clergy all increasingly disliked
Laudianism, they disagreed on how best to respond.