During the Renaissance, there was new interest in nature and what was natural. Self-representation was more individual, honest, and clarified. The inventions of the telescope and microscope encouraged more attention to details and particulars. The philosophy of Descartes rested on the assumption that pursuit of truth was an individual matter. (Smith 1987:24) Rosseau’s philosophy later promoted individual freedom and return to nature.

Social mobility and unrest encouraged an interest in recording family histories. There was a regard for classical literature and ancient biographies. Writing was no longer a sole function of clerics. Latin no longer had a monopoly on the recorded word. The vernacular of the day was written. During the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries in England and in Europe, individuals began to believe that their life stories were worth chronicling. Based on new individual freedom and self-identity, new self-expressions and self-representations emerged. This period of history basically encouraged an autobiographical orientation to life.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a sense of progress and individualism inspired self-representation. A general Christian world-view encouraged the value of every individual. A concept of equality developed from a general belief in equal access to God. The attaining of personal knowledge of God was possible for every Christian. Scrutiny of the inner life encouraged self-examination, self-representation, and personal responsibility. There were opportunities for individual testimonies in Protestant congregations and for personal confessions in Catholic communities.

There was even a place for dramatic preaching and teaching in the published autobiographies of Christian leaders in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Religious autobiographies developed. George Fox, founder of the Quaker Society of Friends, wrote like a prophet. He passionately penned his autobiography in the social context of revolution, civil war, regicide, persecution, and the proliferation of religious sects, which both denounced other groups and pled for toleration for their own. Autobiographies of this period were filled with stories of suffering and imprisonment. (Shea 1968:5)

During the seventeenth century, Christians wrote autobiographies in two dominant forms. One form was more objective and religious in nature; the other was more subjective and spiritual in essence. Religious autobiographies written by Catholics and by Anglicans church leaders typically focused on more objective, external, and historical information. Jesuit priests began to write them early in the seventeenth century. (Catholic laymen usually did not write them.) Anglican Church leaders followed the Jesuits in writing autobiographies. Such works by Anglican prelates were scarce and mild. Like Jesuit autobiographies, they were emotionless, objective, dignified, and reticent. The autobiographies of both groups were objective histories of religious events. (Presbyterians and Protestants from other sects wrote more subjective, personal, spiritual histories of individuals.)

Jesuits wrote of the holy war of the Counter-Reformation, rather than of individual experiences with God’s spirit. Forming a spiritual aristocracy, they produced autobiographies, which were sober, emotionless, action narratives of persecutions, narrow escapes, and conversions of souls. Jesuits projected themselves as obedient, discreet, and self-effacing. They wrote autobiographies in Latin at the request of their superiors for the instruction and edification of novices in their order. Jesuit autobiographies included stories intended to inspire bravery, endurance, and cunning in the face of persecution. A Jesuit, Gerard, wrote of interrogation and torture in London at the hands of an anti-Catholic inquisitor:

"…He spoke from the cesspool of his heart. But his effect
on me was the opposite of what he wanted: he raised my
hopes…I answered…You can do nothing unless God allows it. He
never abandons those who trust in Him…I was hung up again.
The pain was intense now, but I felt great consolation of
soul…my heart filled with great gladness as I abandoned
myself to His will." (Gerard: 1609,in Delany 1969:41-42)

Although Gerard’s account revealed his humility, it did not reveal his personal introspection. In his story he projected personal vigor, initiative, and decisiveness that enabled him to endure imprisonment and ultimately to escape. He displayed no fear of martyrdom. In his account he demonstrated extreme devotion to his order, eagerness to convert souls at any cost, and confidence in a heavenly martyr’s reward. (Delany 1969:41-42)

Before 1642 most anti-Anglican religious leaders were Presbyterians. After 1642 many parliamentary supporters split off into other Protestant religious groups. More personal, introspective, spiritual autobiographies were typically written by Presbyterians and by members of other Protestant groups. (Delany 1969:4&55) The practice of daily self-examination often included writing personal experiences in a notebook. This journal was used for spiritual reflection, meditation, prayer, confession, and self-information. Insights worth remembering were recorded. These could reflect the writers’ understandings about their spiritual state, worship, prayer, or thoughts for meditation and study. During the English Civil War, Interregnum, and Restoration periods, published spiritual autobiographies were especially important for members of non-sanctioned, religious sects, who were prohibited from congregating. Spiritual autobiographies were motivational, instructional, and edifying to members of non-conformist groups.

By 1650 the voice of real experience was valued for being inspirational. Published autobiographies were popular among English gentry and merchants. Preserving the best instances of personal, spiritual experience was deemed important as testimony or witness. Authenticity was significant as the body of Christian sayings was recorded for the edification of the godly community and for posterity. (Mascuch 1996:63-70) Personal autobiographies by members of persecuted and non-sanctioned groups, which traced the whereabouts and associations of the writers, were written for justification or protection. (Mascuch 1996: 112) Robert Blair, the deposed minister of St. Andrews in England, wrote

"I think myself obliged to leave some notes concerning the
chief passages that have occurred to me in my pilgrimage,
that my wife and children, at least, might have these to
be a memorial of the way that I kept in the world, and
that they may be the better furnished to answer the calumnies
and reproaches that have been, and possibly may be cast upon me."
(Blair 1636, in Mascuch 1996:90-91)

The habit of documenting matters of fact (apparently a legal phrase related to the recording of actions and movements in order to protect one from false accusation) was expanded to encourage those less vulnerable to attack to keep national records as well as personal ones. John Beadle, an Essex minister, wrote a practical manual for spiritual journals or diaries. Published in 1656, it was entitled The Journal or Diary of a Thankful Christian. Beadle urged the recording of public and historical events for national examination, as well as the recording of personal information for self-examination. He wrote that private journals should record national and personal history:

"Nationall, and more publick…a Stone of witnesse…the
Nationall Epidemicall sin of the time…the various and
changeable condition of the Times in the Countrey where we
live…the severall and most remarkable judgments that God
hath in our time inflicted upon notorious offenders, whether
persons in high places, or such as moved in lower orb."
(Beadle 1656, in Mascuch 1996:113-114)