Writing Authority in the Interregnum: The Pastoral Letters of Richard Baxter

Abstract

This essay explores the construction of pastoral authority during the Interregnum through four brief case-studies of Richard Baxter’s correspondents. The vacuum created by the collapse of traditional religious and political structures, as well as the spirit of experimentation that the Interregnum fostered, shapes the epistolary discourse of each of these individuals. The disintegration of established hierarchies of power enabled the development of Baxter’s unique pastoral authority; this was achieved, in part, through the medium of the letter. Baxter’s correspondence reveals the significance of social status and gender as they inflect pastoral epistolary discourse; the importance of diverse communities (centred around the local parish, print publication or even political imprisonment) to the formation and maintenance of letter-writing networks, and the tension between written presence and physical absence that often recurs in discussions about letter-writing as performance