Edward Reynolds (1599–1676), once vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford (1648–50) and later Bishop of Norwich (1661–76), has been largely neglected by scholarship and, consequently, is often misunderstood. Due to Reynolds’ conformity, some have labelled him a Laudian, a description he would have found absurd. Others, as early as the ultra-royalist historian Anthony Wood, have portrayed Reynolds as an opportunistic, inconsistent presbyterian and his return to episcopacy in 1660 as a self-seeking pursuit of power.* The reality is, Reynolds’ career defies the old puritan/Laudian, or puritan/royalist, dichotomy and instead demonstrates how being puritan did not necessarily mean being nonconformist, anti-episcopalian, or even anti-royalist. To illustrate this, this chapter explores Reynolds’ career leading up to his acceptance of the bishopric of Norwich. It starts with his puritan leadership in Northamptonshire before 1642, focusing on how his puritan concerns and criticisms of the Laudian reform are frequently misread by historians today. The chapter then demonstrates how Reynolds’ support of iure divino presbyterianism in the 1640s, his accommodations of independent concerns, and even his political alliance with conservative Cromwellians in the late 1650s all foreshadowed his return to episcopacy in 1661. His tactics and changes of alliance revealed a consistent and distinctively presbyterian commitment to a national, unified government that maintained Protestant orthodoxy, which eventually enabled the minister to once again embrace the Stuart monarchy and episcopacy.

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* Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, ed. Philip Bliss (London, 1817), iii, 1084.