Dr Rebecca Warren: Seekers, Separatists and Soule-sleepers: Understanding Radical Religion in the British Civil Wars, 1640-1660

Sunday 30 April, 12 - 1pm, OS.0.19, Mabb Lovell court lecture room, Old Sessions House

With the outbreak of civil war in 1642, the king and his bishops lost control over the church in Britain. As press censorship collapsed, it became possible for people to debate religious orthodoxy and to try out alternative forms of worship. New religious sects appeared, drawing people away from their parish churches and into what were sneeringly derided as ‘conventicles’. But who were these ‘sects’? Why did people leave the familiarity of parish worship to join such radical groups? Were the rumours that they practiced sexual license and indulged in blasphemy and heresy really true? This lecture discusses the emergence of radical sects and explores how and why people took up the offer of alternative religious practices in the brief window of opportunity between 1640 and 1660, before the Restoration of the monarchy removed these new-found freedoms.

Rebecca Warren is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Kent, specialising in the religious history of the British Civil Wars and the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. She is currently writing a monograph on ‘The Interregnum Church in England, c.1649-1662’. She is an historical consultant to the Cromwell Museum in Huntingdon and has taught a range of early modern undergraduate and adult education courses at the University of Kent.

Tickets

Tickets are £10 per event. If you are booking 10 or more tickets of any given type (e.g. 10 tickets to one lecture, or 1 ticket to 10 lectures) within a single transaction, then a discount of £2 per ticket will be applied at the checkout, and you will only pay £8 per ticket.

Student discounts

There are a limited number of £2 student tickets available for each talk; these are not available for the tours. To access this discount, please use discount code TUDORSTUD23 when prompted. Please note that student ID must be presented with student tickets on the door of the events.