Thomas Fuller: Discovering England’s Religious Past. By W. B. Patterson
Thomas Fuller (1608-61) is, of course, the author of The Church-History of Britain (1655), the first comprehensive ecclesiastical history of Britain from antiquity down to the Civil War. Though widely and often anonymously used by later historians as a source, Fuller has not, by and large, had a goo...
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| Format: | Electronic Review |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
2020
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| In: |
The journal of theological studies
Year: 2020, Volume: 71, Issue: 2, Pages: 949-951 |
| Further subjects: | B
Book review
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Thomas Fuller (1608-61) is, of course, the author of The Church-History of Britain (1655), the first comprehensive ecclesiastical history of Britain from antiquity down to the Civil War. Though widely and often anonymously used by later historians as a source, Fuller has not, by and large, had a good press. The egregious Peter Heylyn accused him of writing little better than tittle-tattle, rechristening the Church History as ‘A Hundred Merry Tales’. Gilbert Burnett similarly mistook Fuller’s relaxed and conversational style for triviality. It was not till the changing literary tastes of the nineteenth century, and the magisterial edition of J. S. Brewer in 1845, that the work was retrieved for serious scholarly reading. Even so, apart from John Eglinton Bailey’s 1874 treatment, Fuller’s life has been largely neglected by scholars. Discovering England’s Religious Past is, therefore, to be welcomed—all the more so because it is a felicitous match between author and subject, as Patterson applies his extensive knowledge of early modern English religious history and ideas to exploring Fuller’s life and works and placing him and his writings in their contemporary context. It also, one might incidentally note, represents one of the longest ever transitions from thesis to book (move over, Nicholas Tyacke), having begun its life as a 1966 Harvard PhD dissertation. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4607 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The journal of theological studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jts/flaa135 |