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This article considers the impact of the Laudian Reformation upon the spatial organisation of early modern English parish churches, drawing upon the Somerset churchwardens’ accounts and court depositions of the 1620s and 1630s. An explosion of scholarly literature on early modern church seating plans and pew disputes has increased our understanding of how early moderns used the parish floor space to represent and reinforce social hierarchies and relationships. This paper investigates the significance of pewing practices to understanding parochial receptions of Laudianism, which required an overhaul of church interiors and which impacted seating arrangements in turn. It proposes that Laudian attempts to enforce a radical restructuring of churches, and to co-opt the churchwardens in pursuit of their policies, ran against established and hotly defended practices for the organisation of the parochial space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper explores ways in which the identity of the secular priesthood in England and Wales has been shaped by its particular historical experience. Five themes are proposed: the creation of the concept of mission in the post‐Reformation world; the combination of isolation and independence that became characteristic of recusant priests; the emergence of new ways of relating to church structures that priests were forced to find; the distinctive fraternal identity that was nurtured in a variety of ways throughout the penal times and the period of the Catholic Revival; the revolutions in relationships with the laity. These themes are pursued through the nineteenth‐ and twentieth‐centuries when the meaning and experience of them changed as the emphasis shifted to buildings and organisations. The twentieth century experience of priesthood in a parish context created possibilities for expansion, which masked issues and problems already rising to the surface. Both the challenges and the opportunities of the recusant way of life became stifled. A fixed model of the church made change difficult to contemplate. The loss of an historically shaped sense of priestly identity is explored as part of the explanation for the contemporary loss of confidence and direction within a shrinking presbyterate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The causes and course of the Irish rebellion,which broke out on the 22 October 1641, have been the subject of extensive research by historians. The thousands of Protestant ‘refugees’ who fled to England and Scotland, in response to the rebellion, however, have received very little attention from scholars. This article will explore the identities of the refugees, the volume and direction of refugee movement and the organisation and dispensation of local relief through a case study of the parish of Upton, Nottinghamshire. Upon their arrival in England refugees were expected to return to their parish of birth or last residence, leaving the responsibility of refugee relief firmly in the hands of parish churchwardens, overseers of the poor and constables. By focusing on the charitable response of these parish officials to the Irish refugees this paper will outline the motivations for the provision of aid at a local level. Moreover, this article will show how local officials were able to negotiate relief with respect to the economic and social position of the parish, particularly during the turbulent years of the British and Irish Civil Wars [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]