Paul's Cross and the Culture of Persuasion in England, 1520-1640

The open-air pulpit within the precincts of St. Paul’s Cathedral known as ‘Paul’s Cross’ can be reckoned among the most influential of all public venues in early-modern England. Between 1520 and the early 1640s, this pulpit and its auditory constituted a microcosm of the realm and functioned at the epicentre of events which radically transformed England’s political and religious identities. Through cultivation of a sophisticated culture of persuasion, sermons at Paul’s Cross contributed substantially to the emergence of an early-modern public sphere. This collection of 24 essays seeks to situate the institution of this most public of pulpits and to reconstruct a detailed history of some of the more influential sermons preached at Paul’s Cross during this formative period.Contributors include: Thomas Dabbs, Ellie Gebarowski-Shafer, Cecilia Hatt, Roze Hentschell, Anne James, Gerard Kilroy,John N. King, Torrance Kirby, Bradford Littlejohn, Steven May, Natalie Mears, Mary Morrissey, David Neelands, Kathleen O'Leary, Mark Rankin, Angela Ranson, Richard Rex, John Schofield, Jeanne Shami, P.G. Stanwood, Susan Wabuda, John Wall, Ralph Werrell, and Jason Zuidema.

“the articles in this collection represent the best of recent scholarship on early modern sermons. They speak with many voices, but eloquently remind us of the sermon’s power to persuade.” Seth Anderson, Claremont Graduate University. In: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 66, No. 2 (April 2015), p. 429.

Torrance Kirby, DPhil (1988) in Modern History, Christ Church, University of Oxford, is Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Director of the Centre for Research on Religion at McGill University. He has published extensively on the thought of Richard Hooker and recently edited A Companion to Richard Hooker (Brill, 2008).P.G. Stanwood, PhD (1961) in English Literature, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, is Professor of English Emeritus at the University of British Columbia. He has published extensively on Renaissance and 17th century English Literature; Bibliography; Richard Hooker; English Reformation; Jeremy Taylor; John Donne; John Milton.