Necessary virtue

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Alan James

"In 1598, France emerged exhausted from nearly forty years of damaging civil and religious warfare. By 1661 this same country was the leading power in Europe and set to embark on one of the most celebrated periods of its history. The system of government founded during this period became known to historians as royal 'absolutism'. It was closely associated with both Cardinal Richelieu and his successor Cardinal Mazarin who, in turn, were seen as instrumental in brokering the changes that took place within both government and society at this time." "Alan James argues that there was no conscious plan to modernise France or to create a new, more centralised and bureaucratic form of government. Instead the ministries of Richelieu and Mazarin were based on the traditional values of religion, war, and privilege. Organised thematically, the book examines the key priorities of government in turn to come to an assessment of the success of French absolutism, defined in its own terms." --Book Jacket.

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Clare Clark

It is 1718 and, in a small parish near Newcastle, Eliza Tally, a headstrong girl of 15, embarks on a reckless love affair that will prove her undoing. When her lover casts her off, denying their union, she is forced to travel to London, a city that attracts and alarms her in equal measure. There she takes up a position in the house of an apothecary, Grayson Black, whom she trusts to salvage what remains of her reputation.From the highly-acclaimed author of The Great Stink comes a gloriously-written tale of consuming passions and obsessions. Set against the clamour and roar of eighteenth-century London, The Nature of Monsters brings vividly to life a world where the line separating science and madness is dangerously blurred, and where a single life counts for little in the relentless pursuit of progress.

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André J. Bélanger

"Using France as the most representative case of a Catholic context, Andre J. Belanger argues that as French society became more secularized intellectuals replaced the clergy as arbitrators of justice and enlightenment. Catholic morality was consolidated by the scholastic tradition and confirmed by the Counter-Reformation, providing the foundation that allowed the establishment of a lay elite. Belanger describes the progressive takeover of positions of influence by the new elite in Catholic society and examines arguments used by thinkers from the seventeenth to the twentieth century to legitimize their positions. In contrast, the Anglo-Saxon Protestant tradition, due to its emphasis on the priesthood of all believers, led to recognition of the individual's conscience as the sole judge of her or his deeds and failed to provide intellectuals with the basis for any claim to serve as moral leaders in political affairs."--BOOK JACKET. "Encompassing a variety of disciplines, this study will be of interest to students of political science, sociology, philosophy, and history."--BOOK JACKET.

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M.T. Pearse

This is a doctoral dissertation, examining the assortment of religious dissenters who fall between very late Lollardy ('known men') and early English Separatism ('visible saints'). Many, but not all, of these had roots in late Lollardy but, for all that Wycliffe is often accounted 'the morning star of the Reformation', did not find official Protestantism any more to their taste than Catholicism had been. In most cases, this was because many Lollard groups, having lived an underground, sectarian existence, had moved away from Wycliffe's ideas to focus more narrowly upon biblicism and the 'pure' group. Though almost none became Anabaptists, they were often denounced as such — and indeed, there frequently were affinities. The book explores the radicals' principal theological concerns and shows that these were, at their heart, ecclesiological.