Parliament’s “Firebrands of Rebellion”: Parliamentary Ministers and the English Civil War

Mark Cozad

Advisor: Mack P. Holt, PhD, Department of History and Art History

Committee Members: Samuel Collins, Christopher Hamner, and David Trimm

Horizon Hall, #3223
June 27, 2025, 11:00 AM to 01:00 PM

Abstract:

This dissertation explores the roles that Parliament’s civilian ministers and army chaplains performed during the English Civil War, how their contemporaries viewed their work, and the value of their contributions to the Parliamentary cause. Several tracts written immediately after the war labeled these clergy as the “Firebrands of Rebellion” responsible for instigating the rebellion against the Charles I.  This dissertation examines these ministers’ work as captured in their sermons, pamphlets, and letters justifying Parliament’s actions.  It also relies on their contemporaries’ diaries, memoirs, and letters to understand how Parliamentary and Royalist leaders, army commanders, and the public perceived their contributions. This dissertation argues that in a war in which victory depended on mobilizing the population, Parliament’s ministers and chaplains were a crucial element of its war effort.