Joseph Milner and his Editors: Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Evangelicals and the Christian Past by PAUL GUTACKER Baylor University E-mail: Paul_Gutacker@baylor.edu Joseph Milner’s ‘History of the Church of Christ’ (–) was the most popular English-language church history for half a century, yet it remains misunderstood by many historians. This paper argues that Milner’s Evangelical interpretation of church history subverted Protestant historiographical norms. By prioritising conversion over doctrinal preci- sion, and celebrating the piety of select medieval Catholics, Milner undermined the historical narratives that undergirded Protestant exceptionalism. As national religious identities became increasingly contested in the s and s, this subversive edge was blunted by publishers who edited the ‘History’ to be less favourable toward pre-Reformation Christianity. J oseph Milner (–), grammar school headmaster and lecturer at Holy Trinity Church, Hull, determined in the s to write a new account of the Church’s history.  More than  subscribers lent their support to Milner’s stated aim to produce ‘An Ecclesiastical History on a new Plan’. The plan was to rescue the Church’s past from what Milner saw as an increasingly cynical Protestant historiography, with its low view of medieval Christianity and eager ‘displays of Ecclesiastical I would like to thank Bruce Hindmarsh and Don Lewis for their supervision of this project, as well as Sarah C. Williams, Craig Gay and Hans Boersma for their insight and instruction. Darren Schmidt generously shared his dissertation at a key stage in my research. Early versions of this article were presented at the American Society of Church History and the Baylor History colloquium, and both audiences offered helpful comments. I am especially grateful to Joe Stubenrauch, Elise Leal, Tim Grundmeier, Elizabeth Travers and David Bebbington for the careful and invaluable feedback that they offered on drafts of this article, to Beth Allison Barr and Thomas Kidd for their advice, and to Ryan Butler, Lynneth Miller and Paige Gutacker for their encouragement.  For Milner’s life see Arthur Pollard, ‘Milner, Joseph’, in Donald Lewis (ed.), The Blackwell dictionary of Evangelical biography, –, Oxford , . Jnl of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. , No. , January . © Cambridge University Press   doi:./S