Abstract
Alec Ryrie’s most recent book offers a rich and masterly account of Protestant devotional practice, in both England and Scotland, from the origins of the Reformation up to 1640. This volume provides illuminating insights into the elusive realities of prayer and piety. Its 16 chapters contribute towards an overall exploration of ‘what it meant to be a Protestant in early modern Britain’ (p. 1). In his introduction, Ryrie writes unapologetically of his determination to stick to ‘the material reality of the past,’ favouring empirical investigations of beliefs and practices over what he contentiously labels, ‘theoretical cloud castles’ (pp. 9–10). He certainly possesses a comprehensive knowledge of a vast range of both prescriptive devotional sources and personal records of lay piety. These documents are explored through an evocative and engaging prose style which truly enables the reader to ‘feel something of the harrowing, searing, intoxicating, and ravishing intensity of being Protestant’ (p. 475).
The volume is clearly weighted towards the more plentiful English source material but Ryrie’s knowledge of the Scottish Reformation adds a valuable dimension to the narrative. Whilst his chief emphasis is on consensus and commonalty, some of the equally significant idiosyncrasies of Scottish devotion are also uncovered. A key argument of Ryrie’s book is that early modern Protestantism was a ‘broad-based religious culture’; when viewed through the lens of lived religious experience, the boundaries between conformists and puritans, to a significant extent, break down. This point is an important one and Ryrie’s work will, I am sure, inspire other historians to adopt a similar comparative approach as a counterpoint to the prevailing tendency to compartmentalize rigidly the beliefs of early modern people. Some, however, may still regard Ryrie’s conscious decision to exclude separatist and Laudian source material as problematic for his overall claim of broad Confessional unity.
The first part of the volume offers a convincing challenge to the still lingering misconception that Reformed Protestantism was hostile to emotional expression. Ryrie’s effort to balance his discussion of the frequently emphasized themes of despair, and anxiety over salvation, with a corresponding accent on the reality of assurance for many believers is particularly valuable. The subsequent, and largest, section of the book concerns Protestant prayer and includes many of Ryrie’s most fascinating insights. Discussion ranges from the significance of meditation to the physical space of prayer and the early modern Protestant’s constant, and frequently frustrated, quest for solitude. Ryrie explores the fascinating paradoxes of lived devotional experience, as exemplified in Thomas Becon’s prayer that God would include him in ‘that number, whom thou from euerlasting haste predestinate to be saued’ (p. 119). Ryrie presents his subjects as fully embodied persons recognizable by their noisy groans and sighs, their elevated hands in prayer, and their bible-carrying. A particularly interesting and original section addresses the regular use of covenants and oaths. The third section of the book tackles Protestant reading and writing, pious practices which have been extensively addressed in the historical literature. Yet Ryrie’s emphasis on the thoroughly ‘cerebral’ nature of Reformed Protestantism, which valorized the intellect and ‘aspired to turn Christendom into a giant university,’ provides a fresh spin on this more familiar territory (pp. 262, 266).
The fourth part of the volume addresses the communal dimension of early modern Protestantism, including parish worship, the sermon, and household prayer. Particularly engaging is Ryrie’s analysis of the Lord’s Supper as the emotive climax of collective worship, which might so quickly give way to a ‘spiritual slump’ as believers inevitably failed to sustain the pious heights of sacramental preparation. Another interesting discussion concerns what Ryrie refers to as ‘conjugal prayer,’ the devotional activity in which couples might engage from the privacy of the marriage bed (p. 371). The final section of the book tackles the Protestant life, spanning the experiences of childhood, conversion and the deathbed. It is here that Ryrie particularly sets out his conception of both the ‘intensity’ and ‘dynamism’ of British Protestantism, within the framework of the believer’s relentless quest for spiritual progress (p. 469).
Ryrie convincingly argues for the continuities of Protestantism from its earliest origins up to the civil war. Yet this also went hand in hand with an enthusiasm for resurrecting certain pious practices, such as fasting, which had been previously dismissed as overtly popish. These occasional references to change over time can leave the reader wondering whether more precise explanations for transformations in devotional habits might be possible. Nonetheless, the emphasis which Ryrie places on the fluid boundary between Catholicism and a ‘devotionally omnivorous’ Protestantism, which made frequent, often unabashed, yet always selective, use of a rich Catholic devotional heritage is an especially valuable aspect of the book (p. 287). Through fascinating discussions of passion-piety and religious weeping he uncovers a confessional fluidity which historians’ emphasis on the politics of religion has frequently obscured. Ryrie should also be commended for his attempts to uncover the elusive piety of early modern children, whom he particularly discusses with reference to the use of table-graces. The same is true of his sensitivity to the devotional voices of women, although the limits of the available source material occasionally lead him into difficulties. Ryrie repeatedly refers to the religious beliefs and practices of Lettice Carey, Viscountess Falkland, without mentioning that these are accessible to the historian only through the creative representations of her chaplain, John Duncon. Nor does he cite sufficient evidence to convince the reader that conversion had a strongly gendered dimension, with dramatic moral re-orientations being characteristically male experiences.
Nonetheless, Ryrie’s book is a particularly comprehensive and valuable addition to a growing body of historical literature on early modern piety, which expertly confronts the lingering misconception that Protestant devotional culture was cold and impoverished in comparison with contemporary Catholicism. With its accessible style and well-chosen illustrations, this book will certainly be attractive to scholars, students, and the general reader alike.