ABSTRACT
When devout Protestants and, especially, Puritans, fell ill in early modern England, they found themselves torn between opposing needs: on the one hand, they tried to belittle the importance of their “bodyly Helth,” and focus rather on the importance of a “helthfull Soul,” but, on the other, they could not suppress their anguish when in pain and in fear of death. The personal writings and, particularly, the diaries we have from this period illustrate this conflict—and in a material form too: when the authors are sick, their daily routine is disrupted, their devotional duties are neglected, their entries become less frequent, and their accounts are fraught with their distress about their ailing body, along with their intense concern for their “pretious soule.”
