Languages of moderation: Religion, education, and print in England, 1649--1714

This dissertation examines the issues of language reform and religious difference in late-Stuart England. It identifies central aspects of linguistic reform through educational print and a local study of the politics of education in late Stuart Leicestershire. Throughout this dissertation I argue that a particular ideal of proper language-as-consensus---taught through formal and informal education in print and schools---became a new model for social order and unity. This new linguistic ideal was intended to replace the paradigm of religious unity, and to some extent, political unity as well. It would offer a settlement based on education, a "middle class sensibility," as a new foundation for order based on access to the printed word. This significance of education, particularly educational print, was meant to rebuild a stable commonwealth through a consensus of language, to replace bitter religious differences with an populace unified through polite education and speech. Specifically, the emphasis on writing, spelling, and speech uniformity was intended to build a new foundation for social order and to reestablish social stability through effecting a tangible link between language and thought and behavior. The first part of this dissertation investigates a sample of manuals for reading instruction at both the beginner and more advanced levels, and argues that these "self instructional" manuals signify a shift towards educational reform, rather than religious division, as the central battleground of cultural debate in late Stuart England. Part two of the dissertation shifts the discussion towards the role of the schoolmaster, religious dispute, and language reform in one community, the parish of Ashby de la Zouch in northwestern Leicestershire. It examines the educational situation in early modern England, focusing on school access, endowments, the availability and training of school-teachers, and the general state of grammar school education through a narrative of the disputes over the endowed free school at Ashby de la Zouch in the 1670s and 80s. It details the connection between religion and education in the late seventeenth century. The role of the school, and the school's master, in fragmented community illustrates the nuances of attitudes toward education and religious difference in late Stuart England.