Product Description

This book offers an accessible overview of the achievements of Laudian culture, so much of which was destroyed in the Civil Wars. Some eighty years after the Reformation, the brief span of the Anglican Counter-Reformation in the 1620s and 1630s saw a revival of the arts in the Church. With the rise of a `High Church' movement, initiated by Lancelot Andrewes and propelled by William Laud, John Cosin and Matthew Wren, the arts of religion flourished once again. New churches were built, and cathedrals and parish churches began to install new furnishings that were appropriate to the ceremonial forms of worship now being introduced. Painted glass, religious painting and sculpture, and ornate screens, font-covers and tombs all re-appeared. Sacred music enjoyed a revival too, as cathedral and chapel choirs required an enlarged repertoire for the more complex services that the Laudian movement favoured. The heightened mood of piety also found expression in a remarkable flowering of devotional poetry and prose. All these are discussed in this remarkable book. GRAHAM PARRY is Professor of English, University of York.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #81353 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 247 pages

Review
(A) carefully-researched and well-written book. (...) Parry's enthusiasm for his subject shines through every page; this book has self-evidently been for its author a labour of love. Parry's book will be warmly welcomed by scholars working on this period. LITERATURE AND HISTORYThis is an important book (that) draws attention to one of the most neglected areas of English art history. THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINELays the groundwork for more integrative studies of the English "Counter-Reformation". RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY(A) marvellous and enthralling book. Learned, even-handed, entertaining, Professor Parry positively transforms our picture of the Laudian moment and its legacy. TRUE PRINCIPLES (THE PUGIN SOCIETY)This is an elegant book in many ways: beautifully printed on high quality paper, with many informative and excellently reproduced illustrations, it is a fine example of modern bookmaking; and Graham Parry's narrative is learned, cogent, and, as we have come to expect of him, characteristically eloquent. SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY NEWS A careful and thoughtful study. ANGLICAN AND EPISCOPAL HISTORY

RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY, May 2007
Lays the groundwork for more integrative studies of the English "Counter-Reformation".

TRUE PRINCIPLES (THE PUGIN SOCIETY), January 2008
[A] marvellous and enthralling book.