The Nineteenth-Century Church and English Society by Frances Knight (review)

484BOOK REVIEWS Tackett is less convincing when he downplays the extent to which Enlightenment values had been integrated into the deputies' assumptions about their world.WhUe Tackett's analysis of the deputies' writings demonstrates that abstract theories were generaUy not of interest to most of them (although, as he points out, a number were disciples ofVoltaire and Rousseau), he also shows that they had absorbed the overarching attitude of Enlightenment thought, which included a strong interest in the broadening of knowledge and awareness . It can be argued that this wülingness to move beyond the confines of narrow, parochial thinking made the deputies' participation in revolutionary change possible. In addition, the anticlericalism which was frequently a key component of Enlightenment writings was a significant factor in the subsequent radicalization of the Revolution. A thesis of this study is that the ideological mixture which the deputies of 1789 represented could have yielded any number of revolutions or counterrevolutions . By his richly detailed charting of the transformations which occurred in the attitudes of these deputies, Tackett has provided valuable insight into how their reactions to the political contingencies and social interactions which they experienced ultimately turned them into revolutionaries. Jo Ann Browning Seeley Alexandria, Virginia The Nineteenth-Century Church andEnglish Society. By Frances Knight. (New York: Cambridge University Press. 1995. Pp. xiii, 230. $54.95.) This is a study of the Church ofEngland in a period offar-reaching transition. Its scope is significantly more limited that the title might imply: in chronological terms the coverage effectively ends in 1870, and the evidence is drawn predominantly from the author's doctoral dissertation on the largely rural diocese of Lincoln, in eastern England. Nevertheless, an extensive range of primary evidence is deployed: Lincoln at that period was an enormous diocese extending as far south as Buckinghamshire, and material is also drawn from the adjoining diocese of Ely and from the diaries of three clergymen, Francis Massingberd, John RashdaU, andW K. Hamilton,which include reference to other parts ofthe country. Knight also effectively surveys the secondary literature and integrates its conclusions with her own. Knight begins with an examination oflay religion, paying particular attention to ambiguities of loyalty between Anglicanism and Methodism, discussing the role of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, and examining popular attitudes to salvation. She then turns to the role of the church in the community , tracing an increasing differentiation of spheres. Zealous clergy were liable to discountenance secular uses of the church building, to make unpopular changes in the routine of services, and to make increasingly exacting requirements for baptism, the churching of women, and confirmation. For the clergy BOOK REVIEWS485 themselves, the benefits of church reform were also uncertain. WhUe nonresidence and pluralism were gradually reduced, they could StUl face significant financial difficulties. Increasing residence by incumbents limited opportunities for curates. The general trend was for Anglicanism to become more of a denomination and less of a national church, better organized but more limited in its popular appeal.The change, however, was a relative one, and traditional loyalties only slackened slowly. The argument is a stimulating one especiaUy insofar as it serves to question the importance of church party identifications in grass-roots Anglicanism, and to Uluminate the tensions between lay and clerical religiosity. An authoritative coverage of the ground suggested by the title would, however, have required more extensive engagement with material relating to other parts of the country , and above all, to urban and industrial areas. Readers of this journal will also be struck by the lack of any discussion of the relationship of the Church of England to Catholicism. Nevertheless,within its limitations, this is an important and suggestive book. John Wolffe The Open University, United Kingdom Wunderbare Erscheinungen. Frauen und katholische Frömmigkeit im 19. und 20.Jahrhundert. Edited by Irmtraud Götz v. Olenhusen. (Munich: Ferdinand Schöningh. 1995. Pp. 252.) The seven essays in this book deal with various forms of female religiosity during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and with the reactions of church and state officials to the women involved. David Blackbourn's essay introduces German readers to "Marpingen," his weU-known 1993 study of Marian apparitions during the...