The economic of agricultural land tenure

This article sheds new light on the interesting but little-studied figure of Thomas Scott of Canterbury (1566–1635). In presenting Scott's ideas I will modify the interpretation laid out by Peter Clark whose groundbreaking study, ‘Thomas Scott and the Growth of Urban Opposition to the Early Stuart Regime’, is still the only secondary source that pays detailed attention to Scott and his thought, especially his religious opinions. The necessity to revisit Clark's interpretation of Scott's place within the political and doctrinal debates of early Stuart England stems from the conviction that his political work and his ideological stances deserve more subtle attention. Most importantly, they were part of the emerging reaction against the policies of the first two Stuart Kings which can be labelled ‘country patriotism’. Finally, the elucidation of Scott's writings will provide a novel insight into an early configuration of English national identity.     

George Weekes: Rogue Missionary to New England Indians, 1731–1755

During the mid‐1700s, an uneducated layman named George Weekes began preaching to Native Americans in the town of Harwich, Massachusetts. Weekes’ missionary activity triggered a passionate response from Nathaniel Stone, the local minister, and inaugurated a debate regarding ministerial qualifications within the community. Scholars who study English missionary activity in colonial New England tend to focus upon the careers of trained clergy, such as John Eliot or Josiah Cotton. Other individuals, who possessed questionable moral character and little education, also preached to New England Indians, however. In this instance, the career of George Weekes, a rogue missionary, reveals that contact with Native Americans could shape ecclesiastical life in colonial Massachusetts. It also suggests that Native Americans encountered popular, as well as elite, English religious culture when they interacted with English missionaries in early New England.     

清教在美国殖民地时期教育发展中的作用

美国教育源于独立之前的殖民地时期。清教在美国教育的兴起与发展过程中发挥了关键作用。普及宗教理念,服务宗教使命奠定了这一时期基础教育追求的目标,成为其原动力。造就教会高级人才,培养牧师队伍,催生了美国早期的高等学府。教派众多,繁荣了这一时期的高等教育,也迫使各个学院逐步放弃教派门户之见,实行宗教宽容与开放。随着时间的推移,在与社会互动的过程中,宗教办学宗旨日趋式微,满足社会需求,适应经济发展,培养各方面需要的人才,成为高等教育的主导理念和实践。在此过程中,殖民地时期的美国教育逐步完成了从宗教走向世俗,从出世走向入世的过渡,孕育出自由平等竞争、独立自主、多样化办学的特色,对后来美国教育的发展产生了导向性影响,成为当代美国教育本质特征形成的滥觞。     

Craven and the Elizabethan Settlement: Diverging Confessional Identities, 1580–1603*

During the second half of Elizabeth's reign the imposition of the Settlement and its compliance within the Craven region of the West Riding of Yorkshire gave rise to increasingly divergent religious identities. Initially, recusant numbers increased despite the introduction of more draconian measures to combat Catholicism after 1580. Catholicism became clandestine. Craven's location next to conservative Lancashire facilitated the movement of itinerant priests to serve the separate Catholic community of interrelated lower gentry and their households. Concurrently evangelical clerics, planted to encourage the acceptance of the Settlement, opposed the hierarchical Elizabethan Church, objecting to its retention of clerical dress and sacramental rituals. This Puritan dissent gave rise to nonconformity and a more radical interpretation of the Reformed Church of England. However, by 1603 the majority in Craven had conformed to the Settlement, but continuing Protestant dissent would culminate in sectarianism in the next century.