Between Scholarship and Church Politics

Book excerpt: Between Scholarship and Church Politics describes the life and career of John Prideaux, rector of Exeter College, Oxford, 1612-1642, regius professor of divinity, 1615-1642, and bishop of Worcester, 1641-1646. Prideaux was the leading representative of the 'old guard' in the Church of England - Calvinist believers in the doctrines of grace and predestination, who set themselves against the growing power of the Arminian modernisers within the Church, largely the followers of Archbishop Laud. But Prideaux was also an outstandingly successful head of his Oxford college and made it a home for foreign scholars and students. Devoted to teaching, the writers of numerous books for undergraduates and theology students, and thoroughly involved in his College's everyday affairs, he was a model rector. In this study, John Maddicott addresses at length both with Prideaux's political and ecclesiastical career and his role in the College, while also paying particular attention to his personality, his family life (he was twice married and had nine children), and to his wide circle of relatives, colleagues, and allies. Born the son of a Devonshire yeoman and brought up on a farm on the edge of Dartmoor, he rose to occupy some of the highest offices in the university of Oxford and in the church: a result of his intellectual power, his ambition, his learning and scholarship, and his capacity for hard work. Between Scholarship and Church Politics is as much a study of character as a contribution to the political and church history of early Stuart England.