The Assurance of Process in Henry Vaughan’s Poetry

Chapter 4 moves forward to the religious and political conflicts of the 1640s and 50s, focusing on the Royalist, Church of England poet Henry Vaughan. For Vaughan, the method and structure of evidentiary procedures at law present a crucial resource for negotiating the challenges of mid-century tumult. Having established Vaughan’s legal interests in his career and earlier writing, the chapter explains why questions of legal process became especially charged in the civil wars and Interregnum and why they presented Vaughan with a framework for discussing faith in Silex Scintillans (1650, 1655). The chapter surveys a range of attitudes adopted by Vaughan’s verse towards legal methods of proof: while they can cause activities of biblical interpretation to go awry, they can also, as exegetical processes, help to underpin an enduring faith in God’s mercy and salvation. In the end, it is the regularity of due evidentiary process that itself helps to articulate the justice and order of God’s providence.