Puritans and heretics: The emergence of an antinomian underground in early Stuart England

This study reconstructs an antinomian protest movement that developed at the margins of the English puritan community in the first three decades of the seventeenth century. First, it sketches the nature, origins and historical development of this protest movement, describing its relationship to mainstream puritan religiosity. Secondly, it explores the personal and intellectual ties that held together an emerging underground community of antinomians throughout England. Then, it provides an account of the heated conflicts that arose in London between antinomians and their enemies between 1628 and 1631—“England's antinomian controversy.” Lastly, it offers a detailed examination of the ideological contours of antinomian religiosity—analyzing the thought of major antinomian theorists such as John Eaton, John Traske and John Everarde—before turning to survey the mainstream puritan response to the challenge of antinomianism.; The resulting account serves to transform our understanding of early Stuart puritanism. It likewise provides the crucial, but largely overlooked, backdrop to the more famous Antinomian Controversy that convulsed New England between 1636 and 1638. Finally, it offers a preliminary attempt to illuminate the ties between pre-war antinomianism and the religious radicalism of the English Revolution, concluding that the early Stuart antinomian community provided an important and fertile matrix for the crystallization of later forms of sectarian puritanism.