PEACE, TOLERATION AND DECAY
By Martin Sutherland
Paternoster. 215 pages. £19.99
ISBN 1 84227 152 0
Historians have struggled to explain the apparent weakness of nonconformity after the passing of the Toleration Act in 1689. Disunity has often been suggested as a major cause.
Martin Sutherland has tackled this question by studying the career, teaching and legacy of John Howe (1630 - 1705). Presbyterians led by Richard Baxter hoped that they could be comprehended within a national church. That was never a real possibility after the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660. Although Baxter clung to that ideal, it was a fading dream throughout the remaining years of his long life.
