Abstract: This book is the first comprehensive description of some of the many kinds of Protestantism that competed for the souls of Cromwellian Ireland. Its principal purpose is to document the period's most important theological debates, arguing that they were both a cause and consequence of protestant experiences in that turbulent period and that they illustrate surprising contests between and within several English, Scottish, and Irish varieties of protestant identity. Cromwellian protestants were sometimes less puritan, and often much less united by religious convictions, than has often been supposed. Even their resolute opposition to Roman Catholicism has, at times, been exaggerated. The military campaign and its aftermath have been associated with eschatological stringency and anti-Catholic rhetoric, but this rhetoric is largely absent from the treatises that survived the 1650s. In fact, where Antichrist does appear, it is almost always within the community of the godly. His presence marks the constantly shifting boundaries of projected systems of truth. These shifting boundaries reflect a sustained introspection that allows historians to trace the evolution of religious identities throughout this period. That introspection provides a key to our understanding of the period's events, for the Cromwellian regime had an evidently religious base, and its exponents worked self-consciously for a second reformation. Nevertheless, the state failed to endorse an ecclesiastical ideal, and that failure made sectarian disagreements inevitable. This book documents the tenor and impact of these debates.

Keywords: Ireland,, Cromwell,, identity,, theological,, debate,, puritan,, protestant,, Catholic,, reformation,, sectarian