Overview

Church Courts and the People in Seventeenth-Century England offers a detailed survey of court records across three dioceses to examine the relationship between Church and the people during a time of significant societal change.

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9781800083141

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Reviews

'The book is an excellent study and while it could be described as 'local history' by its being rooted in its case studies, it pans out and makes one of the most valuable studies of ecclesiastical justice in the seventeenth century that there is.' Ecclesiastical Law Journal

'The book is a major contribution to understanding the scope of these courts, their claims over people's lives and their decline. It also serves as a reliable guide to understanding the processes and structures of the courts in question. Thomson deserves congratulation for mastering what Geoffrey Elton once described as these 'strikingly repulsive' church court records.' Midland History '..the story that he tells of the decline of these courts over the course of the seventeenth century would no doubt have given William Laud and even his more purely Calvinist colleagues indigestion had they lived long enough to read it.' Journal of British Studies 'serves as an invaluable guide to the institutions for non-experts' The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 'Andrew Thomson's impressive study of church courts in three dioceses in the seventeenth century is one of decline and a missed opportunity at the Restoration in 1660 to reform them.' Church History 'The book is an excellent study and while it could be described as 'local history' by its being rooted in its case studies, it pans out and makes one of the most valuable studies of ecclesiastical justice in the seventeenth century that there is.' Ecclesiastical Law Journal

'..the story that he tells of the decline of these courts over the course of the seventeenth century would no doubt have given William Laud and even his more purely Calvinist colleagues indigestion had they lived long enough to read it.' Journal of British Studies 'serves as an invaluable guide to the institutions for non-experts' The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 'Andrew Thomson's impressive study of church courts in three dioceses in the seventeenth century is one of decline and a missed opportunity at the Restoration in 1660 to reform them.' Church History 'The book is an excellent study and while it could be described as 'local history' by its being rooted in its case studies, it pans out and makes one of the most valuable studies of ecclesiastical justice in the seventeenth century that there is.' Ecclesiastical Law Journal

Author Information

Andrew Thomson read History at King’s College London in the 1950s and taught the subject, mainly as head of department at sixth form college level, from which, after 35 years, he took early retirement to devote himself to research and writing. He gained a doctorate from the University of London in 2004 on the clergy of the Diocese of Winchester before and after the Civil Wars, and has continued to write books and articles on seventeenth-century bishops, clergy, and the church courts of Winchester and other dioceses.

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