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Revolutionary Ideology: The Case of the Marian Exiles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Michael Walzer
Michael Walzer*
Affiliation:
Princeton University
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Extract

In the history of political thought, revolution is a relatively new idea. Rebellion, insurrection, tyrannicide, civil war, resistance: all these have been discussed and debated since the very beginnings of speculation about politics. But the idea that a select group of men might wilfully and systematically employ political violence to effect the moral and social transformation of an established order was literally not conceived until early modern times and did not become a matter of self-conscious speculation until quite recently. The purpose of this essay is to analyze and, in part, to explain one of the earliest appearances of revolutionary thought—among a group of exiled English and Scottish writers in the sixteenth century. It is a case study in the origins (rather than a description of the origin) of a new intellectual style and a new mode of perceiving and responding to the political world. But a new style and a new set of perceptions and responses suggests a new man: the religious exile of the sixteenth century was such a man, an intellectual suddenly set loose from conventional and corporate ties and radicalized, so to speak, by his experience. Hence the nature of the exile and the social character of the exiles must be studied before the new ideas can be fully understood.

The writings of the Marian exiles have rarely been accorded such importance as will be attributed to them in this essay. Their work has more often been treated as a minor part of monarchomach literature; more especially, as an anticipation of, or a footnote to, the more important work of the French Huguenots.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 57 , Issue 3 , September 1963 , pp. 643 - 654
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1963

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References

1 von Gierke, Otto, The Development of Political Theory (New York, 1939), p. 24Google Scholar, note 3; Figgis, J. N., Political Thought from Gerson to Grotius (New York, 1960), pp. 165–166Google Scholar; Allen, J. W., A History of Political Thought in the Sixteenth Century (London, 1960), pp. 106–120Google Scholar; Morris, Christopher, Political Thought in England: Tyndale to Hooker (London, 1953), pp. 152–156Google Scholar; Sabine, George H., A History of Political Theory (New York, 1950), pp. 368–370Google Scholar.

2 Patry, R., Philippe de Plessis-Morney: Un huguenot homme d'Etat: 1549–1623 (Paris, 1933)Google Scholar; Briggs, W. D., “Sidney's Political Ideas,” Studies in Philology, Vol. 29, No. 4 (10, 1932), pp. 534–542Google Scholar.

3 Works, ed. Patterson, F. A., et al. (New York, 1932), V, 52Google Scholar. Milton also cites Calvin's Commentaries on Daniel, but mentions none of the major Huguenot authors.

4 Cf. Allen, op. cit., p. 112.

5 Knox was persona non grata in Elizabeth's England as a result of his book against women—A First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (1558)—and his pamphlets were never republished. But his papers and letters were collected and at least one sermon and one book of biblical commentary printed by John Field, the leader of the Puritan conference movement. See The Second Part of a Register, ed. Peel, A., 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1915) I, 15, 91Google Scholar; Collinson, Patrick, “John Field and Elizabethan Puritanism,” Elizabethan Government and Society (London, 1961), p. 144Google Scholar.

6 Cf. Mathieson, William Law, Politics and Religion: A Study in Scottish History from the Reformation to the Revolution (Glascow, 1902), p. 68Google Scholar: “There is little trace of that enthusiasm and tenacity of purpose which we are wont to associate with the idea of a religious war. In all their later manifestoes [the Lords] appealed to their countrymen as patriots rather than as religious zealots.”

7 Bancroft, , Dangerous Positions (London, 1593)Google Scholar, which makes no distinctions between the work of the Marian exiles and that of the Huguenots; and Hooker, , Ecclesiastical Polity: Book VIII, ed. Houk, R. A. (New York, 1931)Google Scholar; see also the discussion in Salmon, J. H. N., The French Religious Wars in English Political Thought (Oxford, 1959), pp. 31–32Google Scholar.

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9 Garrett, op. cit., pp. 32 ff. See the author's comments, however, on the Gospel-propagating pirates, p. 37.

10 See The Diary of Lady Margaret Hoby 1599–1605, ed. with an intro. by Meads, D. M. (London, 1930), introductionGoogle Scholar; also D. N. B. s. v. Hoby.

11 See the statistical breakdown of the exiles in Garrett, op. cit., p. 41.

12 Ibid., p. 42; also Norwood, Frederick A., The Reformation Refugees as an Economic Force (Chicago, 1942)Google Scholar.

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14 Garrett, op. cit., p. 18.

15 The two disciplines are printed in A Brief Discourse, pp. 143–49 and 150–205. On the struggle within the congregation, see Garrett, op. cit., pp. 22ff and Knappen, op. cit., ch. 4.

16 A Brief Discourse, p. 54.

17 On the ideological tone and influence of the Geneva Bible, see Craig, Hardin Jr., “The Geneva Bible as a Political Document” Pacific Historical Review, Vol. VII, No. 1 (03, 1938). pp. 40–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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19 Fuller's comment is quoted in a note by the editor, Knox, John, Works, ed. Laing, D., 6 vols. (Edinburgh, 1846–1848), IV, 546Google Scholar.

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23 Knox, , The Appellation from the Sentence Pronounced by the Bishops and Clergy (1558) in Works, IV, 474Google Scholar.

24 Knox, , The Copy of an Epistle (1559) in Works, V, 486Google Scholar. See also Muir, Edwin, John Knox: Portrait of a Calvinist (London, 1939)Google Scholar. This is the most interesting of the modern biographies of Knox; it attempts, not always successfully, a psychological examination of the tension between man and “instrument.”

25 Gilby, op. cit., in Knox, , Works, IV, 554Google Scholar.

26 Goodman, Christopher, How Superior Powers Ought to be Obeyed (1558) repr. Facsimile Text Society (New York, 1931), p. 31Google Scholar.

27 Knox, , Works, III, 338Google Scholar.

28 Knox, , Godly Letter, Works, III, 108Google Scholar.

29 Edward Dering, A Sermon Preached before the Queen's Majesty (n.pl., n.d.).

30 Knox, , Godly Letter, Works, III, 184Google Scholar. [“Knox's] view of the Christian propagandist knew no limits either of morality or law. …” Figgis, op. cit., p. 166.

31 Knox, , Godly Letter, pp. 166–67Google Scholar.

32 See especially the two excellent pamphlets of 1554, the Godly Letter and the Faithful Admonition … unto the Professors of God's Truth in England, in Works, III.

33 Knox, , Faithful Admonition, Works, III, 285Google Scholar. For Knox's theological difficulties with the problem of the effective power of Satan, see his tract on predestination, An Answer to a Great Number of Blasphemous Cavillations, Works, V, 35–36Google Scholar.

34 Knox, , Godly Letter, Works, III, 204Google Scholar; An Answer, Works, V, 28Google Scholar.

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37 Knox, , Godly Letter, Works, III, 180Google Scholar.

38 See Whittingham's Introduction to Goodman, op. cit., Sig. A2.

39 Knox, , Works, IV, 49Google Scholar.

40 Goodman, op. cit., p. 51.

41 Ponet, John, A Short Treatise of Political Power (1556)Google Scholar facsimile repr. in Hudson, Winthrop S., John Ponet, Advocate of Limited Monarchy (Chicago, 1942), p. 95Google Scholar. On Ponet, see Hudson's, introduction and Morris, Christopher, Political Thought in England: Tyndale to Hooker (Oxford, 1953), pp. 152–55Google Scholar. Ponet's background was humanist and he apparently never adopted Calvin's theological doctrines. It is of little value, then, to suggest as Morris does (and Allen also, op. cit., p. 120) that Knox was less “profound” than Ponet; in fact the basic assumptions of the two men were quite different—though perhaps equally profound.

42 Ponet, op. cit., pp. 21ff.

43 See Goodman's discussion, op. cit., pp. 110, 133ff. “And in disobeying and resisting [tyrants and idolators] we do not resist God's ordinance, but Satan's.” This should be contrasted with the older Protestant view of Tyndale: “Let us receive all things of God whether it be good or bad … and submit ourselves unto his nurture and chastising …,” Works of the English Reformers: Tyndale and Firth, ed. Russel, Thomas, 2 vols. (London, 1851), I, 230–31Google Scholar.

44 Knox, , The Appellation, Works, IV, 496Google Scholar.

45 Knox, , Godly Letter, Works, III, 193Google Scholar. These lines appear in the mss. but not in the published version of the Letter. See also p. 198: “We are persuaded that all which our adversaries do is diabolical.”

46 Knox, , Letter to Mrs.Loch, Anna (1559), Works, IV, 11Google Scholar; see also Copy of an Epistle, Works, V, 478Google Scholar.

47 Compare Huguenot descriptions of warfare, couched in purely defensive terms—for example: “when the godly have been assailed by open war … then they take arms and wait their enemies' assaults.” Vindiciae contra Tyrannos, English ed. of 1689 repr. with intro. by Laski, H. J. (New York, n.d.), p. 106Google Scholar.

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49 Knox, , Godly Letter, Works, III, 166 and 194Google Scholar.

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51 Ibid., p. 481.

52 Knox, , Letter to the Scottish Nobles (1557), Works, I, 274Google Scholar.

53 Goodman, op. cit., p. 146. The traditional view is stated by Shakespeare, in Henry V, IV, 1Google Scholar: “… for we know enough if we know we are the king's soldiers. If his cause be wrong, our obedience to the King wipes the crime of it out of us.”

54 Knox, , A Letter Addressed to the Commonality of Scotland (1558), Works, IV, 535Google Scholar.

55 Goodman, op. cit., p. 167.

56 Ibid., p. 169.

57 Ibid., p. 226f.

58 Hooker, Richard, Ecclesiastical Polity, Book VIII, p. 249Google Scholar.

59 Goodman, op. cit., p. 139. He advocated the execution (but not the assassination) of Mary Tudor, p. 99.

60 Ibid., pp. 179–80.

61 Knox, , Letter to the Commonality, Works, IV, 534Google Scholar.

62 Goodman, op. cit., p. 185. Comparable passages in Huguenot literature always argue that without their magistrates the people can undertake no political action. They are not to “run in mutinous disorder.” As private persons, “they have no power, they have no public command, nor any calling to unsheathe the sword of authority.” Vindiciae, pp. 90, 97.

63 Knox, , The Appellation, Works, IV, 507Google Scholar.

64 Knox, , Copy of an Epistle, Works, V, 515–16Google Scholar.

65 Knox, , Godly Letter, Works, III, 199Google Scholar.

66 Knox, , Faithful Admonition, Works, III, 311–12Google Scholar. Exodus 32 was cited frequently during the English Revolution by preachers calling for a “purge” like the one which Moses carried out at the very foot of Sinai. It does not seem ever to have been cited by the leading Huguenot writers, though Calvin refers to it; see Sermores on the Fifth Book of Moses (London, 1583), p. 1203Google Scholar.

67 See Knox, , History of the Reformation of Religion in Scotland, ed. Lennox, Cuthbert (Edinburgh, 1905), p. 323Google Scholar.

68 And the revolutionary had only disdain for he adventurer; see Goodman's comments on the exiles who visited Paris, Padua, Venice and Rome, op. cit., p. 225.

69 On Puritan use of warfare imagery, see Haller, William, The Rise of Puritanism (New York, 1957), pp. 142, 150Google Scholar and passim. For the origins of the image in Calvin, , see Commentaries upon the Prophet Daniel (London, 1570) Sig. B2Google Scholar; Sermons on the Epistles of St. Paul to Timothy and Titus (London, 1579), Sermon 9 on Timothy, p. 100Google Scholar.

70 See Ullman, Walter, The Political Theories of the Medieval Canonists (London, 1949), pp. 81–83Google Scholar.

71 Cf. Aquinas, St. Thomas, Summa Theologica, 1a 2ae, Q. 42Google Scholar. The view was reasserted in early modern times by Suarez who treated resistance under the general heading of war and called it “just” whenever the king was a tyrant and therefore an “aggressor.” A Work on the Three Theological Virtues: Faith, Hope and Charily, in Three Works of Francisco Suarez, vol. IIGoogle Scholar. An English Version of the Texts, trans. Williams, G. L., et. al. (Oxford, 1944), pp. 854–855Google Scholar. The same doctrine underlies much of Huguenot thought, though the idea of “aggression” is there given a partially religious meaning.

72 Goodman, op. cit., pp. 135–136.

73 See Walzer, Michael, The Revolution of the Saints (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1961), ch. 3Google Scholar, for an elaboration of the above summary of Huguenot thought.

74 The Second Treatise of Civil Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration, ed. Gough, J. W. (Oxford, 1948), p. 155Google Scholar.

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