Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T19:46:34.722Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Protestantism and Capitalism in Pre-Revolutionary England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Charles  and
Katherine George
Katherine George
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

It has become a truism of historical thought that some degree or kind of positive relationship exists between the ideology of Protestantism and the psychology of early capitalists. Statements of the nature of this relationship have varied, however, and have been often based upon inadequate sampling of the relevant literature or inexact analysis of Protestant social theory.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 27 , Issue 4 , December 1958 , pp. 351 - 371
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1958

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. For an introduction to the problems in volved see especially Troeltsch, Ernst, The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches (2 vols., N. Y., 1931)Google Scholar; Weber, Max, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (London, 1930)Google Scholar; Brentano, Lujo, Die Anfänge des modernen Kapitalismus (München, 1916)Google Scholar; Tawney, R. H., Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (N. Y., 1926)Google Scholar; the of Talcott Parsons, for which the bibliography in Essays in Sociological Theory (rev. ed., Glencoe, , Illinois, , 1954)Google Scholar; Hudson, W. S., “Puritanism and the Spirit of Capitalism,” Church History (March, 1949)Google Scholar; Wood, Herbert G., “Puritanism and Capitalism,” The Congregational Quarterly (April, 1951)Google Scholar; and the bibliographical essay by Tawney, in The Times Literary Supplement, January 6, 1956.Google Scholar

2. See Thrupp, Sylvia L., The Merchant Class of Medieval London (Chicago, 1948)Google Scholar, passim, for an insight into the extraordinarily independent spheres of religious and secular life in medieval London, which left the parish clergy almost completely isolated from the merchant and artisan classes. In the view of the 15th century London merchant, the clergy existed to operate the traditional mechanisms of the religious establishment; they were not expected to preach against unethical practices or to supervise right conduct in the business community (even though the merchants were probably aware that in the Thomistic scheme of things their total way of life was to some degree spiritually suspect). This is an important aspect of the “double standard” of Roman Catholic morality. The function of the clergy vis a vis the business community in 15th century London more nearly resembles that of 19th century London than it does that of Reformation London. For in Reformation London perhaps the most remarkable feature of merchant and artisan life was its penetration by the ideals of the Protestant pulpit. It is this hold on the city (and country) elite which is the great — if temporary — triumph of Protestant ideology.

3. See Katherine and George, Charles H., “Roman Catholic Sainthood and Social Status,” The Journal of Religion (April, 1955).Google Scholar

4. Perkins, William, The Workes (3 vols., London, 1612–1613), III, 102–3.Google Scholar

5. Dod, John, A Plaine and Familiar Exposition … of the Proverbs of Salomon (London, 1609), 20.Google Scholar

6. Andrewes, Lancelot, Works (11 vols., Oxford, 1841–1854), VIII, 314–15.Google Scholar

7. Sibbes, Richard, The Saints Cordials (London, 1637), 187–8.Google Scholar

8. Ibid., 188–9.

9. Ibid., 100–101.

10. Sibbes, , Beames of Divine Light (London, 1639), 15.Google Scholar

11. Adams, Thomas, The Works (London, 1629), 872–3.Google Scholar

12. Hall, Joseph, The Works (Oxford, 1863), I, 716.Google Scholar

13. Andrewes, , XCVI Sermons (London, 1629), 315.Google Scholar

14. Downame, John, The Christian Warfare (London, 1633), 369.Google Scholar

15. Bolton, Robert, The Workes (4 vols., London, 1631–1641), IV, 56.Google Scholar

16. Downame, op. cit., 557–8.

17. Adams, , The Works, 1147.Google Scholar

18. See George, Charles H., “English Calvinist Opinion on Usury, 1600–1640,” Journal of the History of Ideas (October, 1957).Google Scholar

19. See Donna, John, LXXX Sermons, in The Works (6 vols., London, 1839), III, 217Google Scholar; Hall, , Works, I, 717Google Scholar; IV, 786–90; Dent, Arthur, The Plaine Mans Path-way to Heaven… (London, 1601), 200–205Google Scholar; and Hill, Christopher, Economic Problems of the Church (Oxford, 1956)Google Scholar, for a definitive discussion of the complicated economic abuses relating to the church.

20. Gataker, Thomas, Certaine Sermons… (London, 1637), 144.Google Scholar

21. Ibid., 141–47.

22. Bolton, , Workes, IV, 283–4.Google Scholar

23. Cf. Hill, Christopher, “Puritans and the Poor,” Past and Present (November, 1952)Google Scholar and Kiernan, V. on the same subject, Past and Present (February, 1953).Google Scholar

24. Robinson, John, Works (3 vols., London, 1851), I, 125.Google Scholar

25. Downame, op. cit., 375–6.

26. Dent, op. cit., 116.

27. Gouge, William, A Guide to Goe to God … (London, 1626), 30.Google Scholar

28. Hall, , Works, IV, 17.Google Scholar

29. Robinson, op. cit., I, 122.

30. Sanderson, Robert, XXXVI Sermons (London, 1689), 205.Google Scholar

31. Perkins, op. cit., vol I.

32. Perkins, op. cit., Dedicatory Preface.

33. Sanderson, op. cit., 215.

34. Sibbes, , Bowels Opened … (London, 1639), 17–18.Google Scholar

35. Perkins, , Works, I, 750.Google Scholar

36. Ibid., 757.

37. Ibid., 773.

38. Bolton, op. cit., 48.

39. Perkins, , Workes, I, 194.Google Scholar

40. Sibbes, , Beames of Divine Light, 184.Google Scholar

41. Hall, , Works, II, 836.Google Scholar

42. Dod, , A Plaine and Familiar Exposition of the 11th and 12th Chapters of the Proverbes of Salomon, 122.Google Scholar

43. Preston, John, The New Covenant … (London, 1630), 178.Google Scholar

44. Perkins, , Workes, I, 774.Google Scholar

45. Adams, , Works, 1130.Google Scholar

46. St. Thomas Aquinas has served throughout this study as the particular point of reference for our summations of the social theory of medieval Roman Catholicism. In the rich literature of controversy and commentary surrounding the Angelic Doctor viewpoints undoubtedly exist which differ from his and which in some instances may approach more nearly to the viewpoints of the Protestant writers we are analyzing. But in the light of Roman Catholicism's own long and often avowed acknowledgment of the preeminence in the Church of St. Thomas and the structure of doctrine he erected, one is surely justified in employing him as the spokesman par excellence of the Roman Catholic position for the period with which we are concerned. It is in his works, moreover, that one finds most fully developed that tension between Christian philosophy and an idealized feudal society which constitutes the basis, and, in one sense, the whole essence of the difference between Roman Catholic and Protestant social theory.

47. Robinson, , Works, I, 116.Google Scholar

48. Sanderson, op. cit., 56.

49. Adams, , Works, 419.Google Scholar

50. Perkins, , Workes, I, 777.Google Scholar

51. Perkins, op. cit., I, 758.

52. Ibid., 391.

53. Hall, Joseph, Holy Observations (London, 1607), 137.Google Scholar

54. See Archibald (George), Katherine, “The Concept of Social Hierarchy in the Writings of St. Thomas Aquinas,” Historian, XII (1949), 50.Google Scholar