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The talk by Mr Brod centred on the various groups and individuals who became involved in the turbulent times during and after the English Civil War during the middle of the Seventeenth Century. This was a period of crisis both in the physical sense, with sickness, property damage, disease and death, and in the spiritual with a need to understand God's purposes, was Christ about to return?
He identified the rectory at Bradfield as centre where groups gathered to discuss and philosophise over all manner of questions. The rector for part of the time, John Pordage, was later accused of Ranterism. He was said to be a member of the Family of Love sect, a Familist, which had a group at the rectory.
The study of the occult was undertaken, magic was a strong part of the culture of the time. Such activities could cause the clergy to become unsettled because of the threat that alternative views generated could challenge the Bible.
Many people visited Bradfield, a large number of whom were women, the wives of leading personages. The purposes of the various meetings were to study many things. They researched the boundaries of different worlds; our own, the spirit world etc.
A leading figure of the political and religious debate who settled for a time at Abingdon, was Elizabeth Poole who made prophecies regarding the future. When her prophesies were ignored she wrote pamphlets attacking those who rejected her visions. Politically she was partly identified with the Levellers and knew John Lilburne. Another individual found at meetings in the area was Abiezer Coppe, Coppe was a radical whose book "A Fiery Flying Roll" was banned and he, along with others maintained that God is within us and that alchemy would provide anything a person wanted. He attacked the tradition religious views as hollow according to Mr Brod.
Mr Brod suggested that Bradfield Rectory was like a think tank looking for social answers at a time when the world was in turmoil.
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