10.

Research proposal
Writing religion in early modern London: Ephraim Pagitt and the
Title of proposal
typography of faith
Description of proposal
Please ensure that you refer to the guidance notes for advice on completing this section.

This thesis will explore meeting points between religious belief, literature, culture and politics during
the seventeenth century to provide a new assessment of the relationship between the clergy and their
audiences. I want to know how the clergy interacted with print, both as a process and a cultural
phenomenon; how they manipulated the form of their writing to influence meaning; how rhetoric was
linked to marginalia and paratext; and how these religious writers interacted with one another and their
audiences. To address these questions I will study the writing of Ephraim Pagitt, parson of St Edmund
the King and Martyr on Lombard Street, London. Pagitts writing provides an exciting case study due
to his geographical stability from 1601 to 1647 and his striking engagement with print culture. This
understudied parsons writing addresses these issues and provides the opportunity to engage in a
biographical study that is grounded in bibliography. Studying previously unknown primary sources,
discovered during my preliminary research, will allow me to provide a new and more nuanced reading
of the period by exploring the significance of the role of religion in the formation of community in
early modern London. I will also develop a new methodology for future biographical research into the
cultures of reading and writing in the early modern period.
The key sources will be Pagitts print and manuscript writings, studied within the
context of the writing of other London clergymen. These texts will be supported by archival evidence
such as wills, court records, and parliamentary records relating to Pagitt and his family to provide
historical context. This approach will combine the disciplines of history and literary studies, treating
sources as both historical artefacts and literary accomplishments simultaneously. This methodology is
similar to Ann Hughes in her study of Thomas Edwards Gangraena. Hughes writes that [a]
comprehensive study of the Gangraena phenomenon thus has much to tell us about the religious and
political events of the mid-1640s, but it illuminates also broad issues about the influence of printed
texts, and the complex interactions between print, manuscript, and talk (pp.v-vi). Whilst her method is
inspiring, there is more work to be done; she fails to note Edwards indebtedness to Pagitt, and ignores
the fact that Gangraena was in conversation with ideas and methods presented in Pagitts Heresiography.
Beyond one chapter in Kei Nasus thesis (York, 2000) and Simon Dytons strictly historical thesis
(Cambridge, 2001), I have found scant evidence of writing about Pagitt. As a result Pagitts impact on
society is hardly known to us. I will use theories of: cultural and historical geography; material culture
studies; print popularity and popular piety; and intellectual and religious networks within London to
analyse the formal and linguistic developments in Pagitts writing during the turbulent years preceding
his death. I will also look at posthumous editions of Pagitts writing to engage with theories of
authorship and authority in such cases.
My choice of BA modules prepared me with a strong grounding in early modern
literature, with further specialism in devotional and life writing of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. I have always pursued interdisciplinary research at Kent; I have found it to be the most
effective and interesting approach to the rich textual and material sources available for study. This
ethos has been further emphasised by my MA studies in which, in addition to Latin and palaeography,
we are introduced to methodologies and interests of staff affiliated with the Centre. My optional
modules on word-image relationships in Tudor England, and material culture in the early modern
household, have challenged me to adopt new and experimental approaches to my sources. As a result I
am developing my own interdisciplinary methodology, thinking carefully about the value of non-
literary sources and finding creative ways of combining sources in different media, which is effective

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for the biographical research I will do during the PhD and beyond.
I have given conference papers on aspects of Pagitts writing: at Bath I spoke on Pagitts
manipulation of form, font, and language in the letters of Harley MS 825; the talk at TCD was on the
rhetoric of disease and dehumanisation in Pagitts The Mysticall Wolfe. I received fantastic feedback and
guidance from these conferences this suggests that proposed thesis is a viable and valuable undertaking.
There are plans for the Dublin conference proceedings to be published by Liverpool University Press,
so I am currently working on a draft for the editor. Whilst in Dublin I was selected from the
conference speakers to be interviewed for RTE Radios History Show. This public engagement shows
an interest in my research from a broader audience, and allowed me to develop my presentational skills.
I will pursue another of my interests when I speak at the Society for Renaissance Studies 6 th Biennial
Conference in July on the influence of London audiences on our understanding of early modern
theatre.
Working within the Centre at Kent will allow me to develop my research methods under the
supervision of Kenneth Fincham and Catherine Richardson. Professor Finchams specialism in the
clergy of the Church of England and early modern religious culture will be of great benefit, and Dr
Richardsons expertise in the materiality of texts and life writing as narrative and experience fit well
with the aims of my thesis. Being a part of the CHASE consortium offers me fantastic opportunities to
start a wider discussion with academics from the other affiliated universities. I would be particularly
keen to build working relationships with Polly Ha from UEAs History department and Ariel Hessayon
from Goldsmiths to discuss their work on religion and politics. At Sussex Andrew Hadfields writing
on national identity would be pertinent to my study, as would Margaret Healys interest in bodily
metaphors in religious discourse. I would take part in the Open Universitys book history reading
group, as I currently do in the MEMS seminar series, as a way of making further contacts and
experiencing different methodologies within that discipline. I feel my research will contribute to, and be
in conversation with, the ongoing work within CHASE on urban culture, the history of religion, and
early modern literary studies. I also see the opportunity to gain professional experience on the
internships and work experience, particularly at the BL, as invaluable.
I will combine the study of sources from the National Archives and Lambeth Palace
Library with literary texts from libraries across the UK. A number of Pagitts works are housed at the
Huntington Library and the Union Theological Seminary, New York. Digital access to these sources is
available, but I would apply for a Huntington Library scholarship to study in America during my PhD.
My detailed preliminary research has revealed a copy of Pagitts The Mysticall VVolfe in the library at
Trinity in Dublin; Canterbury Cathedral Library holds three editions of Pagitts writing and I have
discovered uncatalogued works by him in Salisbury Cathedral library. The texts survive in multiple
editions; exploring the changes in these will inform my argument. Using these previously unknown
works will allow me to extend Dyton and Nasus studies of Pagitt. This proposal is concerned with
networks of readers and writers, so I cannot study Pagitts writing in isolation. I have found traces of
his work in marginal notes and discussions in other print works and I will use these to assess the impact
his writing had. I will develop ideas on the uses of marginalia in religious texts for my MA dissertation,
and I will look for a journal in which to publish that during the first year of my PhD. I will be
approaching the primary sources from recognisable analytical angles, but the combination of these
approaches is a new method in itself. Using evidence such as wills will allow me to compare the
personal and the political, the individual and the national. This approach goes significantly beyond
Dyton and Nasus work to show how study of non-elite individuals benefits our understanding of the
early modern period.
This project is important as it will widen our collective understanding of the
complexities of early modern society, particularly the rhetoric of religious difference. In this regard I
hope to have a wider impact due to the continuing relevance of these issues in modern society. I will
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start a blog that focuses on the visual impact of early modern print. Using images is an excellent way of
initiating public interest; through engaging with the public in this manner I hope to raise interest in
studying the humanities. Below is a Gantt chart proposing an outline for a schedule of the thesis work.
It lists some repositories holding Pagitts writing; broad areas of secondary research; and a structure for
the writing of the thesis.
Bibliography
Primary:
London, British Library, Harley MS 825.
LPL, MS 2733/7; MSS 272.
Pagitt, Ephraim, CHRISTIANOGRAPHIE, OR The Description of the multitude and sundry sorts of Christians
in the VVorld not subiect to the Pope, (London: T. P and W. J. for Matthew Costerden, 1635).
Pagitt, Ephraim, HERESIOGRAPHY: OR, A description of the Heretickes and Sectaries of these latter times,
(London: M[arie] Okes for Robert Trot, 1645).
Pagitt, Ephraim, The Mysticall VVolfe, (London: Marie Okes for Robert Trot, 1645).
TNA, PROB 11/200/555; C 2/JasI/P14/33.
Secondary:
Dyton, Simon, Fabricating radicalism: Ephraim Pagitt and seventeenth-century heresiology (doctoral
thesis, University of Cambridge, 2001).
Hughes, Ann, Gangraena and the Struggle for the English Revolution, (Oxford: OUP, 2004).
Nasu, Kei, Heresiography and the idea of heresy in mid-seventeenth-century English religious
culture (doctoral thesis, University of York, 2000).

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