Looking as a scholar, thinking like a rattle head: On William Laud, little gidding, the law, and the Gospel

This article considers the conflicted position of the so-called Rattle-Head' in pre-Civil War England. Puritans accused the Rattle-Head of indecisiveness and hypocrisy, for claiming allegiance to the English church while really behaving as a papist idolater. The very personification of the Rattle-Head was the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, who during the 1630s undertook a campaign to beautify English churches while placing a new emphasis on the importance of sacramental ritual in the service. Another group that can properly be described as rattle-headed is the protestant religious community at Little Gidding, which during the 1630s developed a habit of illustrating hand-made bible concordances with Catholic prints. In 1640, the Little Gidding community presented Laud with one of these concordances, a lavishly illustrated harmony of the Pentateuch. Here I attempt to think along with the Archbishop's book, which in its rattle-headed approach to the printed image opens up a space for reflection in between sensuous proximity and scholarly distance.