ABSTRACT
Richard Greenham proved to be one of the most important influences on the evolving practice of Reformed Protestant ministry in Elizabethan England. Greenham’s achievements in ‘spiritual physicke’ rested on his ability to use the fundamental principles of a shared world view to help distempered believers understand their anxiety and pain. Greenham found in the pain of affliction and spiritual anxiety the first elements of a cure. Although the remedies and ‘cures’ reflected a different vision of the Christian faith, the concept of the godly pastor as spiritual physician retained a powerful hold on the imagination of the godly in Elizabethan England. The first step in Greenham’s remedy for afflicted consciences emphasized God’s forgiveness and grace, and urged the troubled to view their trials as a form of divine guidance and testing. Another element of Greenham’s spiritual physic involved regular association with ‘the saincts of god and holy companyes’.
