http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/41763689

Revolutionary Anglicanism : the colonial Church of England clergy during the American Revolution

During the American Revolution decisions of loyalism or patriotism were rarely easy, but the colonial Anglican clergy faced a particularly difficult situation. All had taken oaths to the king and his church, but revolutionary governments demanded that they repudiate that oath, end prayers for the king, and alter the liturgy. This book tracks down every Anglican minister in the thirteen colonies (over 300 individuals) to assess their responses, which ranged from militant loyalism to overt support of the Revolution, although most clergy avoided these extremes and tried to survive by distancing themselves from politics. While the Revolution transformed and politicized the civilian population, Rhoden finds that the Anglican clergy experienced an opposite process of depoliticization. In the 1780s the American Episcopal Church embraced a number of revolutionary philosophies. This collective story of the church's ministers offers a thoroughly researched exploration into the broad connections between the American Revolution and religious change.

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