Puritanism and liberty revisited: The case for toleration in the English revolution

Historical Journal

Volumn 41, Issue 4, 1998, Pages 961-985

  Coffey, John ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 33749322628     PISSN: 0018246X     EISSN: 14695103     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0018246X98008103     Document Type: Article

References (128)

1. B. Worden, 'Toleration and the Cromwellian Protectorate', in W. J. Sheils, ed., Persecution and toleration (Oxford, 1984), pp. 199-233.
2. W. Lamont, 'Pamphleteering, the Protestant consensus and the English revolution', in R. C. Richardson and G. M. Ridden, eds., Freedom and the English revolution (Manchester, 1986), pp. 72-92.
3. J. C. Davis, 'Religion and the struggle for freedom in the English revolution', Historical Journal, 35 (1992), pp. 507-30.
4. This article, therefore, both confirms and extends the argument of D. Wootton, 'Leveller democracy and the puritan revolution', in J. H. Burns and M. Goldie, eds., The Cambridge history of political thought, 1450-1700 (Cambridge, 1991), ch. 14;
5. and N. Carlin, 'Toleration for Catholics in the puritan revolution', in O. P. Grell and R. Scribner, eds., Tolerance and intolerance in the European Reformation (Cambridge, 1996), ch. 13.
6. C. Durston and J. Eales, eds., The culture of English puritanism (London, 1996), p. 31, and passim.
7. See also Peter Lake, Anglicans and puritans? Presbyterianism and English conformist thought from Whitfgift to Hooker (London, 1988), pp. 4-7;
8. idem, 'Puritan identities', Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 35 (1984), pp. 112-23;
9. idem, 'Defining puritanism: again?', in F. Bremer, ed., Puritanism: transatlantic perspectives on a seventeenth-century Anglo-American faith (Boston, 1993), pp. 3-29.
10. On Sibbes and puritan thought before 1640 see W. K. Jordan, The development of religious toleration in England (4 vols., London, 1932-40), 1, pp. 239-99, and ii, PP-99-314.
11. See for example, G. Gillespie, Wholesome severity reconciled with Christian liberty (1645);
12. T. Edwards, Gangraena (1646); S. Rutherford, A free disputation against pretended liberty of conscience (1649). For an analysis of Rutherford's views see J. Coffey, Politics, religion and the British revolutions: the mind of Samuel Rutherford (Cambridge, 1997).
13. See especially, A. Zakai, 'Religious toleration and its enemies: the Independent divines and the issue of toleration during the English Civil War', Albion, 21 (1989), pp. 1-33.
14. On Owen and Cromwell, see Worden, 'Toleration and the Cromwellian Protectorate'.
15. See also J. C. Davis's comments in response to Worden in J. Morrill, ed., Oliver Cromwell and the English revolution (Harlow, 1990), pp. 191-9, which reminds us not to underestimate the extent of Cromwell's tolerance.
16. See S. Brachlow, The communion of the saints: radical puritan and separatist ecclesiology, 1570-1625 (Oxford, 1988);
17. T. Lyon, The theory of religious liberty in England, 1603-39 (Cambridge, 1937), pp. 30-2, 77-108.
18. On Tombes see L. McBeth, English Baptist literature on religious liberty to 1689 (New York, 1980), pp. 113-18.
19. W. J. McGlothin, ed., Baptist confessions of faith (London, 1908), pp. 81-2.
20. The mistery of iniquity (1612), p. 69.
21. On these early General Baptist theorists see Lyon, The theory of religious liberty in England, pp. 109-43; Jordan, The development of religious toleration in England, 11, pp. 258-314; McBeth, English Baptist literature on religious liberty, ch. t; T. George, 'Between pacifism and coercion: the English Baptist doctrine of religious toleration', Mennonite Quaterly Review, 58 (1984), pp. 30-49.
22. Busher, Religions peace, or a plea for liberty of conscience, reprinted in E. B. Underhill, ed., Tracts on liberty of conscience, 1614-1661 (London, 1846), p. 33.
23. Reprinted in Underhill, ed., Tracts, pp. 212, 214.
24. The literature on Williams is now considerable. The best modern study of his ideas is W. C. Gilpin, The millenarian piety of Roger Williams (Chicago, 1979), but E. Gaustad, Liberty of conscience: Roger Williams in America (Grand Rapids, 1991), serves as a useful introduction. An insightful recent treatment which compares Williams's defence of religious liberty with those of Jefferson and Madison is W. Miller, The first liberty: religion and the American republic (New York, 1985), pp. 151-224. For a full survey of work on Williams see R. D. Irwin, 'A man for all eras: the changing historical image of Roger Williams, 1630-1993', Fides et Historia, 26 (1994), pp. 6-23.
25. Roger Williams, The bloudy lenenl of persecution [1644], ed. E. B. Underhill (London, 1848), p. 2.
26. Edwards, Gangreana (1646), 1, pp. 20, 122.
27. American commentators on Williams have often written as if he was a lonely American genius. Two studies which try to fit him back into an English puritan context are H. Spurgin, Roger Williams and puritan radicalism in the English separatist tradition (Lewiston, NY, 1989), and more successfully Gilpin, The millenarian piety of Roger Williams.
28. H. Denne, The Quaker no Papist (London, 1659), p. 17.
29. S. Fisher, Christianismus redivivus, Christendom both unchrist ned and new chris' ned (1655), PP-533-51. quotations at pp. 534, 537.
30. Reprinted in McGlothin, ed., Baptist confessions of faith, p. 119.
31. As Murray Tolmie demonstrates in The triumph of the saints: the separate churches of London, 1616-1649 (Cambridge, 1977), the Particular Baptists' withdrawal of support from the Leveller movement in 1649 was crucial to the failure of that movement, and reflected the relative conservatism of the Baptist churches. Tolmie has less to say, however, about the General Baptists, and it is likely that men like Barber were more loyal to the Leveller cause than figures like Kiffin.
32. C. Blackwood, The storming of Antichrist (1644), pp. 25, 29.
33. C. Blackwood, Apostolicall baplisme (1645), postscript.
34. S. Richardson, The necessity of toleration in matters of religion (1647), title page.
35. J. Vernon, The swords abuse asserted (1648), p. 13.
36. H. Danvers, Certain quaeries concerning liberty of conscience (1649), pp. 1-5.
37. R. Laurence, The antichristian presbyter (1646), p. 17.
38. J. Clark, Ill newes from New England (1652), preface.
39. T. Collier, A generall epistle to the universall church of the first born (1648), p. 78.
40. Liberty of conscience asserted (1649), p. 5.
41. Goodwin's position is clearly explained in his contribution to the Whitehall debates (see Woodhouse, Puritanism and liberty, pp. 125-78); and in his The triers [or tormentors] tried and cast (1657).
42. Robinson, Liberty of conscience (1643), pp. A4r-, 14, 61.
43. Saltmarsh, Groanes for liberty (1646), pp. 17-21; An end of one controversie (1646), p. 9.
44. See W. Dell, Select works (London, 1773), pp. 105-43, 243-8.
45. Vane, A healing question propounded (1656), pp. 6-7.
46. Zeal examined, dedication, pp. 1-27. The pamphlet is actually anonymous but for a defence of Vane's authorship see C. Polizotto, 'The campaign against "The Humble Proposals" of 1652', Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 38 (1987), p. 578.
47. See B. Worden, 'John Milton and Oliver Cromwell', in I. Gentles, J. Morrill and B. W'orden, eds., Soldiers, writers and statesmen of the English revolution (Cambridge, 1998), pp. 251-2.
48. See Areopagitica (1644) and A treatise of civil power in ecclesiastical causes (1659), in M. W. Wallace, ed., Milton's prose (London, 1925), pp. 320, 426; and Of true religion, haeresie, schism, toleration (1673), pp. 9-10.
49. See Tolmie, The triumph of the saints, pp. 147, 151. William Walwyn also had close contacts with the London congregations, but there is no evidence that he ever joined one.
50. Lilburne, A copie of a letter to Mr William Prinne (1645), pp. 3-4.
51. Overton, The arraignement of Mr Persecution, p. 22.
52. See L. Mulligan, 'The religious roots of William Walwyn's radicalism', Journal of Religious History, 12 (1982), pp. 162-79, which suggests that Walwyn was 'closer to the Puritan saint' then many historians have allowed (p. 179).
53. The writings of William W'alwyn, ed. J. R. McMichael and B. Taft (Athens, GA, 1989), pp. 57-9, 164.
54. Reprinted in Woodhouse, ed., Puritanism and liberty, pp. 125-78. For a useful assessment which recognizes the centrality of the biblical arguments, see C. Polizzotto, 'Liberty of conscience and the Whitehall debates of 1648-9', Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 26 (1975), pp. 69-82.
55. 4S R. Baillie, Letters and journals (3 vols., Edinburgh, 1841-2), 11, pp. 211-12, 396-7, 180-1.
56. Gangraena, 1, p. 121. Using the statements of Baillie and Edwards as evidence is, of course, dangerous, since they had an interest in exaggerating their opponents' errors. However, in the light of our survey of radical puritan literature their statements simply confirm what we already know.
57. Gangraena, 1, p. 124; Baillie, Letters and journals, 11, pp. 211-12.
58. This is especially true of Hugh Trevor-Roper who has promoted a simplistic dichotomy between a progressive Arminianism and a reactionary Calvinism. See for example 'The religious origins of the Enlightenment', in his Religion, the Reformation and social change (London, 1967), ch. 4.
59. See also Worden, 'Toleration and the Cromwellian Protectorate', pp. 227-33; and Lamont, 'Pamphleteering', an argument corrected in his Puritanism and historical controversy (London, 1996), ch. 6.
60. See J. W. Allen, Political thought in the sixteenth century (London, 1960 edn), pp. 87-8.
61. C. Hill, The English Bible (London, 1993), ch. 14.
62. Rutherford, Due right of presbyteries (1644), p. 357.
63. Edwards, Gangraena, 1, p. 222.
64. Robinson, Cerlaine briefe observations (1644), p. 7.
65. Williams, Bloudy tenent, p. 278.
66. On this see P. Avis, 'Moses and the magistrate: a study in the rise of Protestant legalism', Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 26 (1975), pp. 149-72.
67. See Collier, The exaltation of Christ (1646), pp. 109, 93-6. The irony, of course, is that Collier's anti-Judaizing rhetoric was used to ground a commitment to toleration for Jews. Collier himself, like many radical tolerationists, was strongly philo-Semitic and an advocate of the Jews' readmission to England. See his A brief answer to some of the objections and demurs made against the coming of the Jews in this common-wealth (1655).
68. See also D. Katz, Philo-Semitism and the readmission of the Jews to England, 1603-1655 (Oxford, 1982), chs. 1 and 6.
69. See in particular, T. D. Bozeman, To live ancient lives: the primitivist dimension in puritanism (Chapel Hill, 1988).
70. Bloudy tenent, pp. 317, 154.
71. These texts occur repeatedly in the writings of radical tolerationists.
72. Helwys, Objections answered (1615), preface. Ironically, Helwys was echoing a famous statement by James I, whose government was responsible for incarcerating the Baptist leader for his religious activities.
73. Religions peace, p. 45.
74. Dell, Right reformation, p. 137.
75. Liberty of conscience, pp. 16-17.
76. Queries of the highest consideration [1G44], in The complete writings of Roger Williams (7 vols., New York, 1963), 11, p. 26. Elsewhere, Williams wrote that 'it pleased the God of heaven to go out with our Armies', but he makes it clear that God did so because of their commitment to 'soul-freedom'. The civil war was a holy war because - paradoxically - it was fought for a secular purpose, comprehensive religious toleration. See his The examiner defended [1652], in Complete writings, v11, pp. 205-6.
77. An answer to the Essex watchmens watchword, pp. 2-5.
78. Right reformation, p. 131.
79. Williams, Bloudy tenent, p. 279.
80. Williams, Bloudy tenent, p. 46.
81. A point made particularly strongly by Williams, Bloudy tenent, pp. 145, 155, and Richardson, Necessity of toleration, pp. 253-4.
82. Fisher, Christianismus redivivus, p. 537.
83. Bloudy tenent, p. 131.
84. Bloudy tenent, p. 112.
85. See G. Gillespie, The English popish ceremonies [1637], in Works (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1846), 1, pp. 184-8.
86. M. Sommerville, 'Independent thought, 1603-49' (Ph. D. thesis, Cambridge, 1981), ch. 5.
87. The arraignment of Mr Persecution, pp. 32-3. For similar statements see Williams, Bloudy tenent, p. 79, and Fisher, Christianismus redivivus, p. 537.
88. See The examiner defended, p. 243.
89. Sommerville, 'Independent thought', pp. 188-92.
90. Woodhouse, ed., Puritanism and liberty, pp. 161, 164-5. By 1659, however, Collier was arguing that the law of nature taught the heathen to preserve the honour of their gods, and that the magistrate therefore had a duty to punish blasphemy, understood as 'wicked speaking, or cursing either of God or man'. He still insisted on the separation of church and state, and argued passionately against persecuting people for their religious beliefs. See his The decision and clearance (1659), p. 15.
91. The 'principle of segregation' was first highlighted by Woodhouse, Puritanism and liberty, pp. 57-9. Although criticized by J. C. Davis, 'The Levellers and Christianity', in B. Manning, ed., Politics, religion and the English civil war (London, 1973), pp. 225-50, Woodhouse's claim that the secular approach of the Levellers grew out of the sectarian segregation of the spheres of nature and grace has been ably defended by Wootton, 'Levellers democracy', and I. Russell-Jones, 'The relationship between theology and politics in the writings of John Lilburne, Richard Overton and William Walwyn' (D. Phil, thesis, Oxford, 1987). Russell-Jones provides easily the most thorough discussion of the subject.
92. See Tolmie, The triumph of the saints, ch. 8.
93. See [John Price, et al.], Walwins wiles [1649], in W. Haller and G. Davies, eds., The Leveller tracts, 1647-1653 (New York, 1944), pp. 284-317. Russell-Jones, 'The relationship between theology and polities', pp. 249-55, argues that the sectarian leaders may well have been correct in their suspicions.
94. Samuel Richardson, who supported Cromwell consistently, clearly regarded him with great affection as a heaven-sent deliverer. See his Answer to the London ministers letter (1648), sig. A2-A2V.
95. See The vanilie of the present churches (1649), The charity of churchmen (1649), Walwyns just defence (1649), all to be found in Haller and Davies, eds., Leveller tracts.
96. Collier, A vindication of the army remonstrance (1648), sig. A3V.
97. See L. Solt, Saints in arms: puritanism and democracy in Cromwell's army (Stanford, 1959).
98. B. Capp, The fifth monarchy men (London, 1972), pp. 183-5, deals only briefly with their views on toleration. He notes that some Fifth Monarchists (Vernon, Danvers, Simpson, Cary) wrote in favour of very wide degrees of toleration, but concludes that it is 'doubtful whether Fifth Monarchist toleration would have extended further than to the sects'.
99. Collier, A vindication, pp. 15-18, 27-8.
100. T. Collier, The personal appearing and reign of Christs kingdom upon the earth (1657), pp. 8-12; The decision and clearing, p. 2.
101. Lamont, 'Pamphleteering', pp. 81-2.
102. Goodwin, The pagans debt and dowry (1651); Richardson, A discourse of the torments of hell (1660); Collier, A general epistle, p. 62. The report of the doctrine commission of the Church of England is The mystery of salvation: the story of God's gift (London, 1996).
103. J. Altholz, 'The warfare of conscience with theology', in The mind and art of Victorian England (Minneapolis, 1976), argues that the humanitarian sentiments of Victorian evangelicals led to a softening of their doctrines of divine punishment.
104. See The social contract, trans. M. Cranston (Harmondsworth, 1968), pp. 186-7.
105. As John Rawls acknowledges in A theory of justice (Oxford, 1973), p. 215.
106. 'Oh! how likely is the jealous Jehovah, the consuming fire, to end these present slaughters of the holy witnesses in a greater slaughter!' wrote Williams in The bloudy tenent, p. 8. Overton's Mr Persecution was also heading for everlasting torment in the lake of fire. See The arraignement, p. 46.
107. Davis, 'Religion and the struggle for freedom in the English revolution', pp. 512-13, 525.
108. See Rawls, A theory of justice, p. 212.
109. Lamont, 'Pamphleteering', p. 81.
110. J. C. Davis, 'Religion and the struggle for freedom in the English revolution'; and Conal Condren, 'Liberty of office and its defence in seventeenth-century political argument', History of Political Thought, 18 (1997), pp. 460-82.
111. The Declaration is reprinted in D. G. Mullan, ed., Religious pluralism in the West: an anthology (Oxford, 1998), pp. 329-40.
112. On the profoundly religious and communitarian liberalism of the Victorian period see J. P. Parry, Democracy and religion: Gladstone and the Liberal partyt 1867-1875 (Cambridge, 1986), and E. F. Biagini, Liberty, retrenchment and reform: popular Liberalism in the age of Gladstone (Cambridge, I992)
113. Most clearly in the liberal-communitarian debate, ably summarized in S. Mulhall and A. Swift, Liberals and communitarians (Oxford, 1992).
114. This approach is taken in A. Ryan, 'Liberalism', in R. E. Goodin and P. Pettit, eds., A companion to contemporary political philosophy (Oxford, 1993), ch. 11.
115. See A. Patterson, Early modern liberalism (Cambridge, 1997); and D. Wootton, ed., John Locke: political writings (London, 1993), pp. 7-16.
116. Though see Danvers, Certain quaeries, p. 2, which argues that magistrates have no 'Gospelrule of warrant' for punishing 'adultery, idolatry, blasphemy, Sabbath-breaking'.
117. Isaac Newton is the classic example of an early modern scientist whose intellectual passions included disciplines now viewed as thoroughly unscientific. See the essays about him in J. E. Force and R. H. Popkin, eds., The books of nature and scripture: recent essays on natural philosophy, theology and biblical criticism in the Netherlands of Spinoza's time and the British Isles of Newton's time (Dordrecht, 1994).
118. [Wolseley], Liberty of conscience: the magistrates interest (1668), p. 14.
119. A. Cromartie, Sir Matthew Hale, 1609-1676: law, religion and natural philosophy (Cambridge, 1995). ch. 11.
120. R. Ashcraft, 'Latitudinarianism and toleration: historical myth versus political history', in R. Kroll, R. Ashcraft, and P. Zagorin, eds., Philosophy, science and religion in England 1640-1700 (Cambridge, 1992), ch. 7.
121. Ironically, it is more likely that Locke was influenced by John Owen, whose tolerationism was so much more limited than that of Williams. See J. W. Baker, 'Church, state and toleration: John Locke and Calvin's heirs in England, 1644-89', in W. F. Graham, ed., Later Calvinism: international perspectives (Louisville, 1994), pp. 525-43.
122. See I. Watts, 'A new essay on civil power in things sacred' (1738-9), in Works, vi (London, 1753), pp. 131-76. On the rise of political liberalism see H. Laski, The rise of European liberalism (London, 1936), and A. Arblaster, The rise and decline of Western liberalism (Oxford, 1984). Laski does give honourable mention to Lilburne, Overton, and Williams, but the emphasis is on Locke and other Enlightenment thinkers.
123. This point is made very effectively by Miller, The first liberty, and by the articles by Edwin Gaustad, Rhys Isaac, John T. Noonan Jr, and David Little in M. D. Peterson and R. C. Vaughan, eds., The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (Cambridge, 1988). Indeed, most studies on the rise of toleration acknowledge that both rationalist elites and sectarian enthusiasts contributed to the development of tolerationist theory. See, for example, Gardiner, History of the great civil war, I, ch. 14; H. F. R. Smith, The theory of religious liberty in the reigns of Charles II and James II (Cambridge, 1911); Lyon, The theory of religious liberty in England; Jordan, The development of religious toleration in England; lecler, Toleration and the Reformation; Henry Kamcn, The rise of toleration (London, 1967).
124. See H. Hopfl, ed., Luther and Calvin on secular authority (Cambridge, 1991), p. 62.
125. Queries of highest consideration, p. 35.
126. See for example R. H. Tawney, Religion and the rise of capitalism (Harmondsworth, 1964), pp. 197-9; C. Hill, A turbulent, seditious and factious people: John Bunyan and his church (Oxford, 1988), p. 345; Lamont, Puritanism and historical controversy, pp. 6-7.
127. See W. McLoughlin, Rhode Island: a bicentennial history (New York, 1978), pp. 1-46.
128. See Rowe, Sir Henry Vane theyounger, pp. 195-201.