The Rev. Dr. Judith Maltby will address two issues in the worship of the early modern Church of England: the use of the Bible in worship and the debate over the use of worship books versus the practice of extemporaneous prayer. Her first lecture, Of Necessity There Must Be Some Rules: the bible and public worship in England 1559-1660, will be on Jan. 31 and the second, Extravagencies and Impertinencies: the debate over extempore prayer and set forms in Revolutionary England, 1640-1660, on Feb. 1, both at 7 p.m.

Maltby has been Chaplain and Fellow of Corpus Christi College at the University of  Oxford since 1993. Born and raised in the United States, she attended the University of Illinois, graduating with a double major in English and history. She went on to do doctoral studies in early modern British history at the University of Cambridge. Maltby taught church history for a number of years in an Anglican theological college in Salisbury, preparing men and women for ordination in the Church of England. She was among one of the first cohorts of women ordained priest in the Church of England in 1994. She has held visiting fellowships at Trinity College, Melbourne, the Folger Shakespeare Library and the Huntington Library in California. Made Reader in Church History by the University in 2004, Maltby is also Canon Theologian (honorary) of Leicester and Winchester Cathedrals as well as an honorary canon of Christ Church, Oxford. She is the University of Oxford's representative on the General Synod of the Church of England and is an elected synod member on the church's Ministry Council.

In addition to her academic publications, Maltby is an occasional contributor on contemporary religious issues for BBC Radio 4 and for The Guardian.


Maltby's primary research interests are in the English church in the century following the Reformation. Most of her work has been on the interplay between formal religious change and its reception at the grassroots. She published Prayer Book and People in 1998 which explores popular support for the lawful liturgy in the provinces up to outbreak of the Civil War. More recently her work has moved into the 1640-1650s, exploring the impact of the suppression of the Church of England by Parliament on religious conservatives, both laity and clergy.

These lectures are open to the public and made possible by the Jones Fund.