The Social Life of the Early Modern Protestant Clergy provides unexpected new insights on the lives of the early modern English and Swedish clergy through case studies and broader surveys. Rosamund Oates demonstrates how the first generations of clergy wives in England used hospitality to support their husbands in the process of reform. Jacqueline Eales examines the shift from the sixteenth-century debate about the legality of clerical marriage to a positive portrayal of women from English clerical families in the years 1620-1720. William Gibson challenges the view that the eighteenth-century English episcopate were rapacious, arguing that they were often careful custodians of episcopal estates. Jonas Lindström analyses the account books of late eighteenth-century pastor Gustaf Berg to illustrate his economic ties with his parishioners, which ran alongside their religious and social relationships. Drawing on Swedish evidence, Beverly Tjerngren charts the decline of hospitality evident in the home of widowed pastor Adolph Adde in the late eighteenth century. Finally, Jon Stobart examines the aspirations to gentility of the late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Northamptonshire clergy through their domestic material culture.

The ContributorsEditorialMartha or Mary? Clerical Wives and Hospitality in the English Reformation - Rosamund OatesFrom Debate to Emulation: Wives and Daughters in Seventeenth-century Clerical Households - Jacqueline EalesFinances of the Anglican Episcopate in the Eighteenth Century - William GibsonThe Economic Network of an Eighteenth-century Clergyman - Jonas LindströmA Rector in Want of a Wife - Beverly TjerngrenGenteel or Respectable? The Material Culture of Rural Clergy in Late Georgian England - Jon StobartIndex