ABSTRACT
In the years leading up to the civil wars, in fact, lay writing on Scripture, along with the devotional practices surrounding it, raised clerical hackles. That voluntary lay devotion proved a fresh source of clerical anxiety indicates how significantly lay Scripture reading and the writing that resulted had redrawn the early Stuart religious landscape. Indeed, clerical disapproval was strong enough to sting Sir Richard Baker to publish a vigorous Apologie for Lay-mens writing in Divinitie in 1641. One measure of how well-established lay scripture writing had become by mid-century is the number of works by lay writers that saw print by 1640. The title pages of lay religious writing read like a roll call of the better sort judges and utter-barristers, holders of property and public office, men who also wrote on history, politics, and the law. The space of lay religious activity, then, included not only the godly household but "godly conference" beyond the household.
