The extent to which Laudians, in the reign of Charles i, departed from the Church of England norm continues to exercise historians. Matters, moreover, are further complicated depending on which previous period is chosen for comparison, whether Henrician, Edwardian, Elizabethan or Jacobean. In the event Calvin Lane opts for the Elizabethan Church as his benchmark, concluding that Laudianism does indeed mark a novel departure. At the same time he is much more concerned with the claims and counter-claims made about the past, by Laudians and their critics, than with Elizabethan realities. Also left rather open is the question of religious developments during the interim. Laudianism is defined by him in essentially ceremonialist (‘beauty of holiness’) terms, with little by way of doctrinal content – a somewhat questionable assumption. That said, this is an interesting, illuminating and well-written book. The analysis is structured along broadly chronological lines. After an introductory section, Lane devotes a chapter to what he calls ‘old style conformity’, as epitomised by the Durham prebendary Peter Smart. Yet despite this detailed treatment, there is no discussion or indeed mention of the label ‘Popish Arminian’ as used by Smart to describe his opponents on the cathedral chapter. Subsequent chapters compare the writings of the lesser Laudian clergy and their superiors, Lane contesting the view of Anthony Milton that the former were running ahead of the leadership. The fact remains, however, that by contrast with writers such as Peter Heylyn and John Pocklington in the 1630s, or Richard Montagu in the 1620s, pronouncements by Laud especially remained cautious. The two concluding chapters are concerned with the Laudian ‘uses of history’ more generally in the 1650s and 1660s – Heylyn being singled out for special treatment. A more nuanced picture tends to emerge here than the overall thrust of Lane's argument might lead the reader to expect, with Laudians explicitly distancing themselves from what they regarded as the excesses of sixteenth-century reformers. Furthermore the invocation of the memory of Queen Elizabeth, and in particular the model of the Chapel Royal, should alert us to the contested nature from the outset of her ‘settlement of religion’. Arguably, the famous 1559 injunction concerning the location of communion tables represented a compromise which nobody wanted and in practice proved unworkable. Thus both sides in the later disputes were able to appeal to the past. Clearly a great deal of work has gone into the making of this book, the author exhibiting an impressive command of the literature both primary and secondary. This reviewer is happy to exonerate Lane from the charge of ‘Anglican’ bias, a subject on which he evidently feels sensitive; nevertheless it remains an intriguing, albeit unanswered, question how he came to be christened Calvin.