'"Or Rather in an Heavenly Paradise": Peter Sterry, Philip Sidney (Viscount Lisle), and the Philosophy of a Restoration Community'

After a career at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and as chaplain to the Parliamentarian Lord Brooke during the Civil Wars, Peter Sterry (1613-72) survived the Restoration crisis under the patronage of Philip Sidney, Viscount Lisle (1619-98). In the idyllic surroundings of Lisle's household at West Sheen, Surrey, Sterry assembled an informal Nonconformist community dedicated to religious worship, the education of the young, and the copying and dissemination of his writings.One major strand of the dissertation explores the concepts of magical sympathy and musical harmony through which Sterry expressed his central aim, that of reasserting the divine unity inherent in the diversity of human knowledge. I argue for a nuanced reading of the early Restoration period, suggesting that Sterry's spiritually therapeutic philosophy was a direct response to the new circumstances in which he and his fellow Nonconformists found themselves. I also adopt a longitudinal context establishing the relevance of the intellectual tradition inherited by Sterry's patron, Lord Lisle, a descendent of the iconic Elizabethan soldier, courtier and writer, Sir Philip Sidney. I show how this tradition, adapted by Lisle and Sterry, played a decisive role in the shaping of the West Sheen community.