Prolific, scholarly, witty, and engaging, Thomas Fuller was a highly acclaimed writer in his own day and enjoyed a remarkable revival in the nineteenth century. A reexamination of Fuller's work in the late twentieth century is likely to start from the ideological construction involved in all his writing--not only his sermons and the essays but also the histories and biographies for which he has been chiefly renowned.

Born in June 1608 in the village of Aldwincle, Northamptonshire, Fuller was the first child of Thomas Fuller, the rector of St. Peter's parish, and Judith Davenant Fuller; he was the cousin of William Davenant, the poet laureate. In 1621 Fuller entered Queen's College, Cambridge, where his uncle John Davenant, the Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, was president. Receiving his B.A. in 1625 and M.A. in 1628 but failing to receive a fellowship, he entered Sidney Sussex College as a fellow-commoner in 1629.

Fuller's...