David Scott: ‘Peterhouse Chapel and the Laudian Style, 1628–40′

Institute of Historical Research Seminar on the Religious History of Britain 1500-1800

Peterhouse chapel was conceived and built as a showcase for ‘Laudian’ piety. A style-icon for church ceremonialists during the 1630s, it was, by the same reckoning, an abomination to the self-styled ‘godly’. Because the chapel was widely acknowledged as a centrepiece for the ‘new ceremonies’ of the Caroline period, it offers a unique insight into what Peter Lake has labelled the ‘Laudian style’.

If Laudianism was in some sense a movement of avant-garde ceremonialists then the Peterhouse Laudians represented the avant-garde of the avant-garde, and were still, even in the late 1630s, pushing into devotional, and perhaps also ecclesiological, territory in which Laud himself felt uncomfortable. Enough evidence concerning the chapel has survived to enable a detailed reconstruction and analysis of its interior and its devotional practices (music, liturgy etc.) and of the ideas that informed them.

The aim of this exercise is to attempt answers to the kind of questions that are generally directed at Laudian written works. For example, what sources and authorities informed the chapel’s layout and decorative features? Were the chapel’s designers striving merely to restate traditional ecclesiastical arrangements or to introduce a continental, Baroque aesthetic? And to what extent did the Laudian version of the beauty of holiness overlap with and differ from the pre-existing urge towards beautifying churches – in other words, was there a distinctive Laudian style in terms of church design?

David Scott is editor of the House of Lords 1640-1660 section of the History of Parliament, having served as a research fellow on the House of Commons 1640-1660 section until its conclusion in 2022. He has researched and written extensively on the political and religious history of early Stuart Britain. His books include a study of the British Civil Wars of the seventeenth century, Politics and War in the Three Stuart Kingdoms, 1637-49 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), and a history of Britain in the early modern period (1485-1783), Leviathan: The Rise of Britain as a World Power (HarperCollins, 2013)

All are welcome, but those wishing to attend should book a free ticket via Eventbrite or email archives@churchofengland.org no later than Monday 23 March.

Please note that tickets must be booked individually for security purposes.