God's Instruments: Political Conduct in the England of Oliver Cromwell

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Blair Worden (Visiting Professor of History, and Emeritus Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford Unversity)

God's Instruments

Political Conduct in the England of Oliver Cromwell

Blair Worden (Visiting Professor of History, and Emeritus Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford Unversity)

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English

Oxford University Press
01 October 2013

British & Irish history; Early modern history: c 1450 to c 1700; Revolutions, uprisings, rebellions; English Civil War; History of religion

The Puritan Revolution escaped the control of its creators. The parliamentarians who went to war with Charles I in 1642 did not want or expect the fundamental changes that would follow seven years later: the trial and execution of the king, the abolition of the House of Lords, and the creation of the only republic in English history. There were startling and unexpected developments, too, in religion and ideas: the spread of unorthodox doctrines; the attainment of a wide measure of liberty of conscience; and new thinking about the moral and intellectual bases of politics and society. God's Instruments centres on the principal instrument of radical change, Oliver Cromwell, and on the unfamiliar landscape of the decade he dominated, from the abolition of the monarchy in 1649 to the return of the Stuart dynasty in 1660.

Its theme is the relationship between the beliefs or convictions of politicians and their decisions and actions. Blair Worden explores the biblical dimension of Puritan politics; the ways that a belief in the workings of divine providence affected political conduct; Cromwell's commitment to liberty of conscience and his search for godly reformation through educational reform; the constitutional premises of his rule and those of his opponents in the struggle for supremacy between parliamentary and military rule; and the relationship between conceptions of civil and religious liberty. The conflicts Worden reconstructs are placed in the perspective of long-term developments, of which many historians have lost sight. The final chapters turn to the guiding convictions of two writers at the heart of politics, John Milton and the royalist Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon. Material from previously published essays, much of it expanded and extensively revised, comes together with newly written chapters to bring fresh evidence and argument to a period of lively debate and interest.

By: Blair Worden (Visiting Professor of History and Emeritus Fellow of St Edmund Hall Oxford Unversity)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 162mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 670g
ISBN: 9780199675418
ISBN 10: 0199675414
Pages: 434
Publication Date: 01 October 2013
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , A / AS level , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Blair Worden is Visiting Professor of History, and Emeritus Fellow of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford Unversity.

Reviews for God's Instruments: Political Conduct in the England of Oliver Cromwell

`The essays have been carefully revised, a new introduction glues them together, and a meticulously comprehensive index makes for easy cross referencing. Much scholarship is paraded here ... insights and pithy verdicts abound. [Worden] writes in a gently argumentative way, engaging with other historians without being brutal or belittling.' R. C Richardson, Times Higher Education `a coherence that sheds so much light on Cromwell's reign that it dazzles ... quite simply indispensable.' Adrian Tinniswood, Literary Review `The resulting volume will of course be indispensable for fellow specialists; but it also offers a fine introduction, for the general reader, to some of the best modern historical thinking on the political and mental worlds of the Cromwellian era.' Noel Malcolm, Standpoint `It is a collection which deserves to be and will be ... treasured, and revisited for its salutary and important wisdom.' Professor Martyn Bennett, Reviews in History