Antinomians, Ceremonialists, and Judaizers: on the Margins of Puritanism?

Abstract

Following in the footsteps of Peter Lake and David Como, this paper aims to show that the first decades of the seventeenth century, deemed to be a period during which the godly “turned inwards” and worked from within the Church, also saw the emergence of underground alternative movements such as antinomianism which grew out of the puritan mainstream. The case-study of the judaizing Traskites, who exhibited unorthodox soteriological beliefs and an internalising of the moral law as well as upholding the observance of Jewish ceremonial laws, raises the question of the continuities between mainstream and radical puritanism and shows the complexities characterising the identity-formation of puritanism.

Keywords

• puritans
• antinomians
• judaizers
• John Traske
• Angleterre jacobéenne