The Reformed tradition, from the beginning, systematically refashioned medieval Catholicism according to what it believed to be the pattern laid out in the Bible and the early church. Reformed Christians saw Scripture as a comprehensive manual for Christian faith with relevance for political and social issues as well as strictly theological ones. Compared to other Christian traditions, they gave the Old Testament more direct relevance to life in Christian community and spoke of the entire sweep of salvation history as the story of one people of God – heirs of the same promises, subject to the same judgments. This habit powerfully influenced not only the theology of American Protestantism, but Americans’ sense of their identity as a nation. The polarity between the desire for “more light” and confessional Reformed orthodoxy defines the space in which all versions of Reformed Protestantism exist.

This chapter draws attention to the making of claims about popular preferences to justify a change in church government in the Revolution of 1688-90. The analysis shows how ‘the inclinations of the generality of the people’ came to be included in Scotland’s 1689 Claim of Right to demand the reinstatement of presbyterian church government. This formulation drew on the language of grievance to present what was described as the laity’s instinctive and historical desire for a church without prelacy, while assertive crowds and volunteer forces demonstrated the potential for popular violence if these wishes were not acknowledged. The ensuing Revolution settlement gave constitutional authority to the preferences of the people in church government, stimulating an ongoing debate between presbyterians and episcopalians on the people’s true desires. Pamphleteers provided geographical and social assessments and proposals for direct polling while petitioners sought to demonstrate counter-opinions, reinforcing the prominence of opinion at large in Scottish politics.

Chapter 1 describes the considerable confusion that existed in relation to marriage law in Ireland. In Ireland there were not only differing views between the state and individual churches but also within religious denominations. For instance, until 1827, the Catholic church was divided into areas where the marriage definition of the Council of Trent of a valid marriage was implemented and others where it was not. Within Presbyterianism, there were groups who placed more emphasis on the scriptural definition of marriage as essentially the private vows between a man and a woman than the church leadership approved. Prior to the second half of the nineteenth century, the laity can be documented frequently defying clerical censure to marry in a manner that conformed more to social rather than religious requirements.Throughout the eighteenth century all of the main churches struggled to implement their regulations in relation to marriage. Men and women planning to marry in Ireland in the period from 1660 through to 1844 could choose from a complex array of formal and informal services.By the last decades of the eighteenth century, there are indications that all the church authorities were beginning to supervise the implementation of their respective regulations concerning marriage more stringently.