The Elizabethan Roots of Henry Jacob's Churchmanship: Refocusing the Historiographical Lens

As founder of ‘the first continuing Congregational church on English soil’ in the London suburb of Southwark in 1616, Henry Jacob has figured prominently in denominational hagiography. His place in the wider circle of puritan scholarship has also been secured by virtue of this radically new ecclesio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journal of ecclesiastical history
Main Author: Brachlow, Stephen (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Cambridge Univ. Press 1985
In: The journal of ecclesiastical history
Year: 1985, Volume: 36, Issue: 2, Pages: 228-254
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Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
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Summary:As founder of ‘the first continuing Congregational church on English soil’ in the London suburb of Southwark in 1616, Henry Jacob has figured prominently in denominational hagiography. His place in the wider circle of puritan scholarship has also been secured by virtue of this radically new ecclesiological experiment in puritan Congregationalism which, by most historical accounts, signalled a drastic departure from the prevailing presbyterianism of the Cartwright generation of left-wing puritanism. While his shift into a more progressive, democratic ecclesiological mode has appeared self-evident to many historians, those scholars intrigued by Jacob's churchmanship have often puzzled over the source of his new polity. Among an earlier generation of historians, the obvious solution seemed to be that Jacob had at some point borrowed from the Separatists, adopting their ecclesiology while declining their practice of separatism. This conclusion arose primarily from the assumption (which persists today) that before Jacob's Southwark church formed, Congregationalism was alone the preserve of late Tudor and early Stuart separatism. Daniel Neal became one of the first to suggest this, explaining that Jacob probably derived his Congregationalism from the Separatists by way of John Robinson at Leyden, where the two had met in 1610.
ISSN:1469-7637
Contains:Enthalten in: The journal of ecclesiastical history
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/S0022046900038732