James Hart of Northampton and the Calvinist critique of priest-physicians: an unpublished polemic of the early 1620s.

The practice of medicine by clergymen aroused considerable anger in early seventeenth-century England. This has frequently been noted by historians but the nature of the critique has been obscured by inattention to the religious character of the attack. Clerical practitioners are often depicted as being so widespread in early modem England that they constituted a "dominant group in the medical profession." They are presented as coming equally from all parts of the Church of England, with no significant ideological bias.1 Moreover, it is sometimes suggested that only physicians complained about priestphysicians, in a campaign that was quite ineffectual. The medical and religious arguments are dismissed as an insincere cover for economic self-interest.2 The presentation of the criticism of priest-physicians as fundamentally professional in nature exemplifies the impatience of many historians with nice theological distinctions and their frequent preference for explanations based on material rather than ideological interests.3