Exploring a key moment in English church history
This volume presents Whitgift’s Second Portion, a series of tractates that defend the church’s stance on ceremonies and church governance against Puritan challenges. It sheds light on how responses to the Admonition were framed and argued in the late sixteenth century.
In these pages, the author debates whether vestments, holy days, and other practices should be kept, altered, or rejected. The material includes detailed argumentation about the authority of the church to determine ceremonies and the role of bishops, presbyters, and ministers in upholding order and doctrine. The discussion centers on how to balance tradition with scriptural guidance, and how to respond to critics who called for reform.
Readers will encounter reasoned defenses, counterpoints, and historical notes meant to support a particular ecclesial perspective. The text also engages with other voices of the period, offering a window into the methods of theological and constitutional argument used in the era.
- An in-depth look at arguments over ministerial apparel and the meaning of “things indifferent.”
- Discussion of the church’s authority to set and change ceremonies and days of worship.
- Analysis of Timothy and Titus in early church governance as cited by Whitgift.
- Context for the broader Reformation-era debates between conformity and reformers.
Ideal for readers of English religious history, Reformation-era polemics, and studies of church governance and liturgical practice.