Proceedings against the 'scandalous ministers' of Essex, 1644-1645

During the 1640s Parliament carried out a purge of the parish clergy, ejecting over 2000 ministers from their livings. The proceedings of the purge in Essex in 1644-45 are recorded in two manuscripts: British Library, Additional MS 5829 (well known to scholars but not previously published), and University of Leicester Library, MS 31. The latter manuscript has only recently been recognised as a contemporary record of the purge of the clergy of Essex which was thought to have been lost in the eigh