In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Altars Restored: The Changing Face of English Religious Worship, 1547–c. 1700 by Kenneth Fincham, Nicholas Tyacke
  • Tom Webster
Altars Restored: The Changing Face of English Religious Worship, 1547–c. 1700. By Kenneth Fincham and Nicholas Tyacke. (New York: Oxford University Press. 2007. Pp. xviii, 396. $180.00. ISBN 978-0-19-820700-9.)

This study brings a very useful chronological range to an area that has primarily been confined to the historiography of the Caroline reign. The title is slightly misleading in that it is not a “one-trick pony” on altars so much as their being the center of attention in a broader treatment of religious material culture, space and devotional priorities, and their relations with such issues. It is extraordinarily rich in terms of sources and geographically, bringing a sensitivity to reading the material (and manuscript sources relating to the material) that has often been lacking in the historiography. In addition to the fruits of new evidence, this work brings together fields of study too often kept apart. The reader is drawn into an engagement with illuminating instances and maintaining a tension between the particular and the general with neither getting lost in the other. This is especially the case with the attention paid to the appearance of building and refurbishment under James VI and I, separating the too-often-assumed connection between structural maintenance and an appetite for ceremonial worship.

The heart and soul of the book lies in the period between 1625 and 1640, which is no surprise given the authors and the historiographical earth from which it grows. However, this should not be taken to suggest that the first three chapters be regarded merely as a preface to what follows. Indeed, this section provides interesting new assessments of the comparative failure of Elizabeth I. The space on avant-garde ceremonialism adds profitable flesh to earlier bones. It is very strong on muddying the waters and helping readers to make distinctions between “tables” and “altars,” becoming appreciative of different styles, the variety of options for spatial arrangement, mobility of the furniture as well as raising a sensitivity to railing, on how rails appear, different forms of enclosure, the relationship between rails and table, different manners and intensities of enforcement. This is not, it should be stressed, achieved at the expense of an understanding of the stronger impositions of Laudianism or the varieties therein.

The later section is the weaker, perhaps partly because although it is a profitable effort to cross the historiographical rubicon of 1660, it loses the finely tuned temporal shifts of the rest. It is excellent on the maintenance of Laudianism in exile and on a new generation of Laudianesque divines contributing to the Restoration settlement, not in a recycling of Bosher’s thesis and rather more convincing as a result. It could perhaps have been aided by bringing out more on the competing histories [End Page 347] of the Anglican Church in the late 1650s, not least as this helps to shape the denominational histories recurring through the following centuries. This is a somewhat surprising absence, considering the sensitivity shown by the authors to this elsewhere. It would be wrong to conclude on a negative note as this would be to diminish the laudatory aspects of this study. It is to be acclaimed for the strengths of the well-grounded conclusions and particularly for the newly opened questions that are addressed without succumbing to the temptation of unjustifiably firm conclusions. This reviewer certainly agrees with the suggestion that more work could and should be done on parish practices and further efforts made to identify lay enthusiasm for “beautiful” churches and to locate such enthusiasms within the spectrum of pieties. This is a work that should generate further study to fine-tune such suggestions and will prove formative in the historiography across the period covered.

Tom Webster
University of Edinburgh
...

pdf

Share