Caroline Divines
[1] However, of these four nations, it is Caroline England which is most commonly considered to have fostered a golden age of Anglican scholarship and devotional writing, despite the socio-cultural upset of civil war, regicide, and military rule under Oliver Cromwell.
Importantly, the term divine is restricted neither to canonised saints nor to Anglican figures, but is used of many writers and thinkers in the wider Christian church.
"[3] These theologians regarded Scripture as authoritative in matters concerning salvation, although they drew upon tradition and reason as well, the latter in the form of deductive logic and the former with special reference to the Church Fathers.
Their promotion of more elaborate ceremonial and their valuation of visual beauty in art and church architecture was variously labelled as "popish", "Romish", "Lutheran", or “Arminian” by their Puritan opponents.
[4] Rather than face a choice between an austere Puritanism or an elaborate Roman ceremonial, the Caroline divines presented their countrymen with a via media in which they could remain within the established church and also participate in ancient forms of religion.
The most popular devotional work in seventeenth-century England was the king's own autobiographical Eikon Basilike (Ancient Greek: Εἰκὼν Βασιλική, romanized: Eikṑn Basilikḗ, lit.
[7] He defended popular recreational activities through his re-publication of the Book of Sports in 1633, which was originally promulgated by his father, King James VI, in 1617.
Charles I also stood against the advance of extreme predestinarian theology in the Church of England, principally through his Declaration on the Articles of Religion (1628).
[8] Like both his predecessors and successors, Charles I was said to have the Royal touch, which he practised during his lifetime, and miracle stories were attributed to the king's relics after his death.
Lancelot Andrewes (1555 – 25 September 1626) was an English priest and scholar, who held high positions in the Church of England during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I.
His most popular work has proven to be his Preces Privatae (Private Prayers), which was published posthumously and has remained in print since renewed interest in Andrewes developed in the 19th century.
Cosin was elected Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge in 1634, succeeding Matthew Wren, and decorated the chapel there according to High Church principles.
[11] Among his writings (most of which were published posthumously) are a Historia Transubstantiationis Papalis (1675), Notes and Collections on the Book of Common Prayer (1710) and A Scholastical History of the Canon of Holy Scripture (1657).
Nonjuror liturgical, theological, and devotional writing proved to have a considerable impact upon the Anglican tradition, in part due to the influence of the nineteenth-century Oxford Movement.
In the preceding year he had gained a reputation by his poem To the Happie Memory of the most Renowned Prince Oliver, Lord Protector (London, 1659), and he was afterwards well known as a wit, preacher, and man of letters.
[15] George Herbert (1593–1633) was a Welsh-born priest who served at the rural parish of Fugglestone St Peter near Salisbury, but is primarily known as a skilled orator and poet.
He gave up his secular ambitions in his mid-thirties and took holy orders in the Church of England, spending the rest of his life as rector at Fugglestone St Peter.
