Caroline Divines

The title used, often loosely, to refer to a group of Anglicans who flourished in the reigns of Charles I and II. Their theology is referred to, in some ways misleadingly, as “Arminian,” and they also had distinctive views on spirituality and ceremonial. The father of the movement was Lancelot Andrewes,* and the effective leader William Laud.* The outstanding theologians, however, were younger men. It is important to correct a modern distortion which sees this school as representing “true Anglicanism” in contrast with the contemporary Calvinists and Latitudinarians.*