The Caroline Captivity of the Church

Abstract

This analysis of the religious policy and ecclesiastical practice of the Church of England in the reign of Charles I offers a new interpretation of the Caroline Church, firmly based on the documentary evidence. The author examines the roles of Charles I and of Archbishop Laud, demonstrating both Laud's essential conservatism in religious matters and Charles's highly personal notion of sacral kingship, which he was attempting to realize through his prerogative as Supreme Governor of the Church. As a vital arm in the political apparatus of the state and as the vehicle for Caroline ideology, the established church under Charles I became more highly politicized than ever before. This book reassesses the significance of doctrinal Arminianism in the seventeenth-century church, taking issue with a number of scholars and bringing to the forefront of the debate constitutional issues that have recently been underplayed.

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