English Interregnum Research Articles

“Oliver Was So Drunk with the Philtre of His Power; He Had Grown Corrupt:” Sir Henry Vane’s Political Theology

ABSTRACTThis study examines the theological writings of and contemporary responses to Sir. Henry Vane (1613–1662). An advocate for religious tolerance, Vane was a leading Parliamentarian during the English Civil Wars and worked closely alongside Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658), the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Vane once served on the Council of State that functioned as the government executive during the Interregnum but would clash with Cromwell over issues of governance. When Cromwell dissolved Parliament in 1653, Vane removed himself from power and retired to pen his theological utterances. By employing Vane’s, The retired mans meditations, or, The mysterie and power of godliness (1655), I contend that the statesman’s political theology positions Cromwell as the archetypal antichrist of the English Interregnum. Drawing on contemporary responses to Vane’s theological writing, I also create a cross-sectional religious and intellectual history that illuminates Vane’s theological position.

Book Review: Found Theology: History, Imagination and the Holy Spirit

Found Theology: History, Imagination and Holy Spirit. By Ben Quash. London: Bloomsbury TT it can bring new perspectives to given. This illumination can also show Triune God as present and active not only in given but in contingencies of history.Quash is clear here that both given and are work of God: this is not a matter of divine (the given) versus created (the found). Rather, that which is is also seen as a gift of God, as Holy Spirit unfolds all riches that are in Christ (p. xiv). It is significant that he terms it the found rather than the made (or a similar term). Rather, like inspiration of an artist or discovery of a new idea, is, in a sense, received, while yet also involving human searching, finding, creativity, and imagination in their fullness (p. 4). And so, in part, Quash provides an account of divine and human agency.Quash elaborates this thesis through three sections. Each section begins with an engagement with a specific historical and artistic episode: translation of Bible into English from Vulgate, two paintings by Vittore Carpaccio in context of Renaissance Venice, poetry of Henry Vaughan in midst of English interregnum. Each of these chapter-long case studies is then followed by a theoretical chapter. In light of difficulties of translation, Quash turns to Jewish scholar David Weiss Halivni's account of maculation (the imperfections, contradictions, and lacunae in text of scripture) to argue that gaps and tensions that are created in translation of Bible into other languages and contexts might be understood as an historical occurrence of gaps and tensions within untranslated canonical texts themselves. …

Rethinking church and state during the English Interregnum

This article offers a re-examination of the concept of Erastianism as an explanatory tool in discussions of church and state. It focuses in particular on three texts – by Pierre du Moulin, Thomas Cobbet and John Milton – that took up the question of the nature of civil power in the sphere of religion. Based on this, the article argues that the term ‘Erastianism’ obscures the complexity and nuance of arguments about religious politics in the civil war period. It concludes by suggesting that we should instead consider these debates as contributions to discourse on civil religion.

Utopian Impulses during the English Interregnum: John Eliot and Gerrard Winstanley

During the English Interregnum John Eliot and Gerrard Winstanley wrote their utopias in different hemispheres, depicting different patterns of utopias which offered alternative models of code laws for a divine platform of Government they urged the English to emulate. Within this extraordinary historical and political context, political action and utopian literature enjoyed an unparalleled symbiosis. Through a close analysis of the parallels and main differences of their works we can get deeper insight the thought and culture of that period. Their utopias, The Law of Freedom and The Christian Commonwealth, share the same political agenda towards reality and convey a similar plan of realization in their political aspirations, but each author displays a uniquely different emphasis and approach to utopia, differing from one another in epistemology, ideology and social and political emphasis. However by assessing the potential of these utopias we can trace some bridges linking their authors' perceptions to shape a better future for the same country. Their radicalism concerning the royalist power, their concern to eradicate the old civil and ecclesiastical system, the search of a political order and stability, the improvement of social conditions and religious tolerance, were depicted within their utopian texts. A close analysis of these texts which have never been grouped and brought together by scholars, illustrates the range of the political imagination of their authors and provides an opportunity to examine different ways to deal with political and social concerns and different perspectives for ideal solutions by such writers who were so committed to connecting utopia to reality.

The Quakers as Parrhesiasts: Frank Speech and Plain Speaking as the Fruits of Silence

The Quakers as ParrhesiastsFrank Speech and Plain Speaking as the Fruits of Silence Martin L. Warren (bio) At that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my supplicants, my scattered ones, shall bring my offering. On that day you shall not be put to shame because of all the deeds by which you have rebelled against me; for then I will remove from your midst your proudly exultant ones, and you shall no longer be haughty in my holy mountain. For I will leave in the midst of you a people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord—the remnant of Israel; they shall do no wrong and utter no lies, nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths. Then they will pasture and lie down, and no one shall make then afraid. —Zephaniah 3.9-13 The parrhesiastes [truth-teller] does not reveal to his interlocutor what is, the parrhesiastes unmasks who he is. —Michel Foucault, Le Courage de la vérité Of immense significance in early Quakerism was the element of "plain" speech. Through their use of plain or pure language Quakers could identify themselves as the remnant of Israel foretold by the prophet Zephaniah in the epigraph that opens this essay. Refined in God's fire, the remnant of Israel was to be a sign of contradiction to the rest of the world; God's people in exile in the midst of the world as it were. Richard Farnsworth, one of the earliest members of the Society of Friends, wrote in 1653 of this experience of being the remnant: "The people in this generation profess themselves to be the people of God, and the scriptures to be their rule … but are as the heathen, all their language is corrupt, and if any speak to them in plainness of speech, they are so scornful, that they cannot bear it… those that speak in plainness of speech, them they hate."1 As exiles, or "resident aliens" in the world, the early Quakers viewed the use of language as something to be considered very carefully. For them, language was meant to offer something distinctive in comparison with the speaking of others which could so easily deceive. The Quakers' concern with language was especially potent in light of when Quakerism was born in turbulent mid-seventeenth-century England. Between 1642 and 1651, there took place between King and Parliament, various conflicts generally termed the English Civil War, but sometimes called the English Revolution or the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. After the execution of King Charles I in 1649 there came the period called the English Interregnum [End Page 1] which lasted until 1660 when the monarchy was reestablished with the return of Charles II to the throne. The period from 1642 to 1660 was astonishing in terms of radical religion. Searching for the true model of church government and worship, as laid out in the New Testament, groups such as the Seekers and Quakers emerged, questioning the nationally adopted church polity and practice which had emerged from the English Reformation begun by Henry VIII in 1534. For such groups as the Quakers, the search for the true model of church government was a means to separate from the impure and the ignorant, becoming the remnant of Israel. Their search was viewed by the political and religious establishment as a rejection of the divinely ordered social order, and thus the Quakers were regarded as radical sectaries, heretics, the vanguard of Satan's armies. On the part of the Quakers, the search for the true model of Church and Church government meant playing extraordinarily close attention to language and its use since they were very much aware of how easily humans misuse and manipulate language. The Quakers' intense consideration of language can be seen in such works as that of Francis Howgill (1618–1668), who like Richard Farnsworth, is considered a member of the Valiant Sixty. The Valiant Sixty was a group of...

Scotus as the Father of Modernity. The Natural Philosophy of the English Franciscan Christopher Davenport in 1652

AbstractThis article examines the philosophical teaching of a colorful Oxford alumnus and Roman Catholic convert, Christopher Davenport, also known as Franciscus à Sancta Clara or Francis Coventry. At the peak of Puritan power during the English Interregnum and after five of his Franciscan confrères had perished for their missionary work, our author tried boldly to claim modern cosmology and atomism as the unrecognized fruits of medieval Scotism. His hope was to revive English pride in the golden age of medieval Oxford and to defend English Franciscans as more legitimately patriotic and scientifically progressive than Puritan millenarians.

Oliver Cromwell--The Grinch That Stole Christmas

Keeping track of legislative history—even within one’s own jurisdiction—is not always easy. Some sources—even primary sources—are obscure. One such instance is the legislation of the English Interregnum. The English Common Law conveniently smoothes over this disruption to legal continuity by means of a legal fiction. The restored monarchy takes effect as if the discontinuity had never taken place. Although not king de facto until 29 May 1660, Charles II is king de jure from the execution of Charles I on 30 January 1649. The regnal years flow unabated for parliaments without a king, no less than they did for the 11 years that Charles I ruled personally without a parliament. Historians focus on the facts, while lawyers prescribe a greater forcefulness to law. The Interregnum is a fact that for its own time took precedence over law. Nevertheless, what is one to do with the 10 years of intervening and often anomalously enacted legislation? The proponents of the Cromwellian Protectorate say recognise it, while the Restoration Monarchists say ignore it. There has already been a long drawn-out Civil War, so the compromise is to leave the records hard to find and let the legislation languish, thus providing one of the earliest examples of political correctness. Under various rules of recognition, the intervening legislation of the Long and Little Parliaments, together with the Ordinances of the Protectorate, have legislative status. As seen to satisfy the legislative protocols of their own time, such Acts and Ordinances are arguably either statute law, or else, through subsequent parliamentary confirmation, are given the force of statute law. The fact remains that much of this extraordinary legislation remains hard to find. Rumours abound—especially in such areas of highly disputatious, politically controversial, radically reformative, and otherwise outrightly pathological legislation. Until authenticated, one of the most obvious examples of apparently apocryphal, but obviously pathological legislation is that which outlawed the celebration of Christmas in England. This article tracks this legislation down to an Appendix to the Directory for Public Worship. According to its title, this was ‘an Ordinance for taking away the Book of Common Prayer and for establishing and putting in execution of the Directory for the Publique Worship of God’. Although without royal assent, this was passed by the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament on 4 January 1644/1645. This article is as much concerned with the process of legislative research and legal authentication as it is with the substantive and jurisprudential issues.

“The Merry Life and Mad Exploits of Capt. James Hind,” or, How the Popular Press Created its First Outlaw-Hero in the Wake of the English Revolution

Between 1651 and 1652, no less than sixteen pamphlets hit the streets of London that chronicled the fantastic feats of James Hind, “notorious highwayman,” making him one of the first outlaw-heroes whose legacy was shaped neither by folk legend nor by “high” literature, but by England’s burgeoning popular press. Read before the backdrop of Civil War, regicide, and Republican rule, then, the pamphleteer’s representations of Hind as a champion of the common people highlight the popular press’s mounting sway over the political debates of the 1650s. More specifically, in extolling Hind’s unlawful deeds so as to foreground persistent societal ills, while transforming Hind into a mouthpiece for a novel brand of populist royalism, the popular press managed to mount a strong challenge to the young republican government, which was already burdened by a general crisis of legitimization.

Johann Heinrich Alsted and English Millennialism

At the twelfth International Congress of the Historical Sciences there were a number of papers read on the subject of religious tolerance and heresies in modern times. Among these there were two which are of particular relevance to anyone interested in the religious thought of the Reformation Era. Professors Martin Schmidt and Gerhard Schilfert, the authors, were especially concerned with English Puritanism and its relations with continental radical ferment. Schmidt analyzed the work of Hermann Weingarten, who believed that England's century of Reformation was the seventeenth rather than the sixteenth and that it was during the struggle against the Stuarts that the history of the English church became a record of new intellectual and religious movements. Hence, the chiliastic Independents of the English Interregnum were analagous to the Anabaptists of continental fame in the early sixteenth century. In fact, during the unrest of the English Puritan Revolution, German influences presumably transmitted from the Netherlands were willingly accepted. Among the writers involved in this process were Jakob Böhme and Ludwig Friedrich Gifftheil. From these sources came the belief in the second coming of Christ which formed the unifying bond for all shades of English revolutionary Christian thought. Cromwell, himself, was deeply affected by chiliastic thought, but when he assumed political responsibility, he had to act in a more rational way. Finally the enthusiasm of the Fifth Monarchists and the Levellers subsided into the quiet mysticism of the Quakers and the natural rights position of the Age of Reason.