Esther Counsell

I am a PhD candiate specialising in Elizabethan and early Stuart politics & religion. My thesis is entitled 'Protestant jurisdictionalism and the nature of puritanism, c. 1559–1642'. English church debate throughout this period was increasingly captivated by intense disagreement over jurisdictional issues, and differing views over the proper role of lay magistracy - including the Crown, Parliament, and judiciary - in church affairs. I argue that puritan arguments throughout the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods were highly supportive of the rights of lay magistrates over religion, and opposed to exclusively clerical theories of church power. This puritan notion of 'godly rule' came to triumph in England in the mid-seventeenth century, and has since become known as the 'Erastian' position on church government.

I graduated with distinction from the Cambridge MPhil in early modern history in 2016, and before that, completed an arts degree (with history honours) at the University of Sydney, Australia.