‘The Child's blood should lye at his Door’: Local Divisions over Baptismal Rites during the English Civil War and the Interregnum

By the 1640s, Prayer Book ritual had marked rites of passage in England for over eighty years. It formed a reassuring continuum with older Catholic and gave communality to parish religion. However, puritans disliked its ceremonial elements, which were banned by Parliament 1640s. Anecdotal evidence suggests that parishioners continued demand old-style passage, some clergy offer them. This has led historians suggest traditionalist practice was condoned regime. article uses loyalist memories antagonisms between puritan non-puritan baptism, as well from legal prosecutions other sources, complicate such presumptions, showing how, opinion sharply divided on their practice, clashes confrontations within parishes remained focus local antagonism.