con⋅ven⋅ti⋅cle (kənˈvɛntɪkəl), n.

1. a secret or unauthorized meeting, esp. for religious worship, as those held by Protestant dissenters in England in the 16th and 17th centuries
2. a place of meeting or assembly, esp. a Nonconformist meeting house
3. (obsolete) a meeting or assembly

Back in 2005, the original Conventicle was formed as a multi-user blog by a group of post-graduate students researching various aspects of puritanism at the University of Edinburgh’s College of Divinity, in Scotland.

For about two years now, we’ve been talking about expanding our site to make room for a more accessible and more comprehensive repository of information on puritanism. That aspiration has finally become a reality.

In addition to a standard web-blog, The Conventicle now also features a database or wiki — what we call the PurWiki — which will hold an ever-expanding store of information on puritanism: biographical data on puritan and non-puritan figures, historical time-lines, book reviews, links to other puritan sites, descriptions of important places and events, and much more.

To go to the PurWiki Start Page, click here.

To see who contributes to The Conventicle (both the blog and the PurWiki), click here. If you’re interested in becoming a contributor yourself, read this page.

There is also a Conventicle Facebook Group here, which is open to anyone with an interest in puritanism.

Header image credits

(Many thanks to these folks who have allowed us to use their beautiful photos)

• And When Did You Last See Your Father?, painting by William Frederick Yeames; Wikimedia Commons
• Foggy Morning © Dennis Smith
• Hampton Court © T_Stewart
• National Monument to the Forefathers © Ancestors of Cornelius Dunham
• Parson Capen House © Jeffrey E. Klee
• Plymouth Rock © {** Kristin **}
• Statue of Richard Hooker © Bill Jarvis