and their piety but no comparable study exists on their English counterparts. 201
Watkins comes closest in his brief treatment of five levels of how a person’s inner
experience may be associated with environment. 202
Clearly every person is a product of his or her environment and Ambrose was
no exception. He was born in the Lancashire town of Ormskirk, where his father,
Richard was vicar. As a young man he went to Oxford. While Cambridge was the
predominant center for educating ministers who were sympathetic to Puritan theology
a strong connection existed between Lancashire and Brasenose College where
Ambrose studied.^203 Lancashire had a strong affinity for Roman Catholicism,
especially in the northwest, and in particular Garstang where Ambrose spent a large
part of his ministry.^204 In addition to entrenched recusancy other challenges that
confronted a nonconformist minister included “folk-lore and superstitions [that] were
so deeply ingrained that their overthrow was almost impossible; witchcraft was a
feature of everyday life.”^205 Furthermore, this region had strong Royalist ties and
George Fox and the Quakers had their beginning in Lancashire. Further, the Sabbath
habits of Lancashire prompted the infamous Book of Sports, written by Bishop
Thomas Morton, who ordained Ambrose.^206 All of these divergent factors coalesced
201
Piety in Contexts.” Belden Lane, Landscapes of the Sacred , 131-52. cf. Mark Peterson, “Practice of
(^202) Watkins, Puritan Experience, 63-7.
(^203) Richardson, Puritanism in North-West England, 61-3.
(^204) Richardson, Puritanism in North-West England, 153, 161-2.
(^205) Richardson, Puritanism in North-West England, 164; Thomas, Religion and
Decline of Magic, 181n2, 182n2, 187-188, 188n1, 206, 214, 233, 266, 305, 451; and
Paxman, “Lancashire Spiritual Culture and Magic,” 223 206 - 243.
Sports for Lancashire,” 561 Richardson, “Puritanism and Ecclesiastical Authorities,” 15; Tait, “Declaration of -8; and Love, Fast and Thanksgiving Days, 18-21.