George Gifford and the Reformation of the Common Sort: Puritan Priorities in Elizabethan Religious Life

This careful study explores puritan attitudes through the life and works of Elizabethan minister George Gifford. He was on the frontlines of religious controversies in a time when the English church was being shaped by Protestant evangelicals who felt compelled to carry their understanding of ‘true religion’ to all corners of England. Known among themselves as ‘the godly’ or ‘gospellers’ and to their enemies as ‘puritans’ or ‘precisionists’, these ministers believed the Church of England was only partially reformed. Gifford tried to convert the many parishioners who he believed to be Protestant in name only, or ‘men indifferent’ due to their acceptance of whatever religion was thrust upon them.