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Concepts of Political Obedience in Late Tudor England: Conflicting Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2023

Richard L. Greaves
Richard L. Greaves*
Affiliation:
The Florida State University
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Primarily because of the Reformation, political obedience became an increasingly significant issue in Tudor England. The success of Henry VIII's break with Rome resulted partly because the state could use the established church to inculcate in the populace the notion of loyalty to the civil government as a Christian duty. Despite the vacillations of Henrician ecclesiastical policy and the more radical reforming spirit of the Edwardian years, Protestant views on political obedience remained fundamentally stable. The accession of Mary, however, created a critical dilemma for men who had been stressing the duty of obedience to one's ruler. Exile was only a partial solution, though among the exiles a handful of leaders worked out a theory of tyrannicide. Of those who took this course, John Knox in particular confused the issue by simultaneously raising the thorny problem of gynecocracy. Written while Mary Tudor was queen, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women appeared after Elizabeth's accession, when it was an embarrassment to Protestants. It was left, then, to the Elizabethans to rethink the entire question of political obedience.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , Fall 1982 , pp. 23 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © The North American Conference on British Studies, 1982

References

1 For a synposis of their views, see Quentin Skinner, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, (Cambridge, 1978), 1:61-65; 2:126-29; Richard L. Greaves, Theology and Revolution in the Scottish Reformation: Studies in the Thought of John Knox (Grand Rapids, 1980), pp. 14548; Ewart Lewis, Medieval Political Ideas (London, 1954), 1:194, 248-49, 270; Charles C. Bayley, “Pivotal Concepts in the Political Philosophy of William of Ockham,” Journal of the History of Ideas, 10 (1949): 199-218; Alan Gewirth, Marsilius of Padua: The Defender of Peace (New York, 1951), pp. 236-48; Zofia Rueger, “Gerson, the Conciliar Movement and the Right of Resistance,” Journal of the History of Ideas, 25 (1964): 472-73, 477-78, 486.

2 Tyndale New Testament (1534), note to Rom. 13; also see the prologues to Romans and Titus, and the notes to Acts 4 and Titus 3; Tyndale Pentateuch (1534), note to Gen. 15.

3 Matthew Bible (1537, 1549), notes to Rom. 13.

4 Coverdale Bible (1535), synopsis of I Pet. 2; Matthew Bible (1537), notes to Exod. 21 and Titus 3; “A Table of the Pryncypall Matters.” The notes to Exod. 21 and Titus 3 are also printed in the Taverner Bible (1539).

5 Great Bible (1539), synopsis of I Pet. 2.

6 Tyndale-Coverdale New Testament (1538), notes to Luke 22; John 10 (quoted).

7 Cf. also the Tyndale-Rogers New Testament (1538), note to Rom. 13; Tyndale- Erasmus New Testament (1549), note to Acts 4.

8 Matthew Bible (1549, 1551), note to Rom. 13.

9 Thomas Becon, A Comfortable Epistle (Strassburg, 1554), sig. A3v; Thomas Cranmer, A Confutation of Vnwritten Verities (n.d.), sig. A3v.

10 John Scory, An Epistle Wrytten vnto All the Faythfull (1555), sig. A4v; John Philpot, The Trew Report of the Dysputacyon (n.d.), sigs. A3r, A4r.

11 A Letter Sent from a Banished Minister of Jesus Christ (Rouen, 1554), sig. A5r-v. This author likewise stresses the benefits of suffering (sig. A5v).

12 William Turner, A New Booke of Spirituall Physik ([Emden], 1555), fols. 16r-17v, 21v-22r. Cf. John Foxe, Adinclytos acpraepotentes Angliae… svpplicatio (Basle, 1557).

13 The best analysis of Ponet's views is that of Winthrop S. Hudson, John Ponet (1516?-1556): Advocate of Limited Monarchy (Chicago, 1942), which includes a reprint of Ponet's tract. See also Michael Walzer, The Revolution of the Saints: A Study in the Origins of Radical Politics (New York, 1971), pp. 92-113, for an overview of the political views of the Marian exiles.

14 Christopher Goodman, How Superior Powers Oght to be Obeyd (1558), pp. 133 ff. See also Skinner, Foundations, 2: 221-24.

15 For a fuller exposition of the development of Knox's views, see Greaves, Theology and Revolution, pp. 126-56, and the sources cited there.

16 Acts of the Privy Council of England, ed. John Roche Dasent, New Series, 11 (1895): 132-33; cf. 158-59.

17 British Library, Additional MS 48,043.

18 Henry Howard, “A Dutifull Defence of the Lawfull Regiment of Weomen,” British Library, Lansdowne MS 813, fol. 3r.

19 Richard Bancroft, A Svrvay of the Pretended Holy Discipline (1593), pp. 15, 48, 51-52; Matthew Sutcliffe, An Answere to a Certaine Libel Svpplicatorie, or Rather Diffamatory (1592), p. 95.

20 John Jewel, The Works of John Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury, ed. John Ayre (Cambridge, 1845-50), 3:173. See also Leonard Wright, A Display of Dutie (1589), p. 12. The term “Anglican” is, of course, an anachronism, but is less objectionable than “Conformist”, which to some has negative connotations. The terms “Anglican” and “Puritan” must be used with caution and in the context of a broad continuum of views that characterized the Elizabethan Church of England. For a fuller explication of my usage of these terms see my Society and Religion in Elizabethan England (Minneapolis, 1981), pp. 3-10.

21 John Whitgift, The Works of John Whitgift, ed. John Ayre (Cambridge, 1851-53), 2:50. See also Thomas Cooper, An Admonition to the People of England (1589), p. 215; Cooper, A Briefe Exposition of Such Chapters [1573], sigs. DDD8v- EEElr; Christopher Sutton, Disce Viuere [1604], p. 330; Richard Hooker, The Works of… Richard Hooker, ed. John Keble (3rd ed; Oxford, 1845), 3:456-60.

22 James Pilkington, The Works of James Pilkington, ed. James Scholefield (Cambridge, 1842), pp. 23-24; Thomas Jackson, Davids Pastorall Poeme (1603), pp. 205, 208-9.

23 John Carpenter, A Preparatiue to Contentation (1597), p. 157.

24 Cooper, An Admonition, p. 215.

25 Carpenter, A Preparatiue,, pp. 160-61; Pilkington, Works, p. 364; Leonard Wright, The Hunting of Antichrist (1589), sig. D4r.

26 Bancroft, A Svrvay, p. 14.

27 Bishops’ Bible (1568), notes to Exod. 1:17; 22:27; Deut. 1:15; I Sam. 11:2; I Kings 3:9; 21:11; II Chron. 34:7; Ecc. 8:3; Song of Solomon 7:5; Dan. 6:15, 22; 11:36; Rom. 13:5.

28 Matthew Sutcliffe, An Answere to a Certaine Libel Svpplicatorie (1592), pp. 82-83.

29 Edward Dering, A Briefe and Necessarie Catechisme, in M. Derings Workes (1597), sigs. D4r-v, G2v. See also Philip Stubbes, A Motive to Good Workes (1593), pp. 156-59; John Stockwood, A Verie Godlie and Profitable Sermon (1584), sig. D2v; George Gifford, A Briefe Discourse of Certaine Pointes of the Religion (1581), fols. 22v-23r; John Gardiner, A Briefe and Cleare Confession of the Christian Fayth (1579), fol. 37r-v; William Perkins, A Golden Chaine (1591), sig. K2r.

30 Henry Smith, The Magistrates Scripture (1591), p. 21; William Perkins, The Whole Treatise of the Cases of Conscience (Cambridge, 1606), pp. 854-55.

31 [Thomas Becon], A New Postil, 2 vols. (1566), 2: ff. 179v-180r; Stubbes, A Motive, pp. 158-59; William Vaughan, The Golden-groue (2nd ed., 1608), sig. S8v; George Gifford, A Dialogue Betweene a Papist and a Protestant (1582), fol. 104v.

32 Vaughan, The Golden-groue, sig. T2r.

33 John Udall, A Commentarie upon the Lamentations (1595), p. 55; William Fulke, The Text of the New Testament (1589), fols. 258v-259; Richard Parker, in The Presbyterian Movement in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, ed. Roland G. Usher (1905), p. 97. By 1589, of course, Fulke had retreated from his more radical views of the 1570s.

34 Bea-Tomson Bible (1577), note to Matt. 22:17.

35 Henry Barrow, The Writings of Henry Barrow, 1587-1590, ed. Leland H. Carlson (1962), pp. 27 (quoted), 124, 180, 200, 643.

36 See Hardin Craig, Jr., “The Geneva Bible as a Political Document,” Pacific Historical Review, 7 (1938): 40-49; Richard L. Greaves, “The Nature and Intellectual Milieu of the Political Principles in the Geneva Bible Marginalia,” Journal of Church and State, 22 (Spring 1980): 233-49.

37 The Geneva Bible: A Facsimile of the 1560 Edition (Madison, 1969), notes to Exod. 20:12; 2 Chron. 2:12; 5:26; 36:17; Jer. 42:11; Dan. 11:27; Luke 20:25; Acts 5:29; Titus 3:1; I Pet. 2:18.

38 Geneva Bible, notes to Matt. 26:52; Acts 5:29; Rom. 13:5.

39 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Ford Lewis Battles and ed. John T. McNeill, Library of Christian Classics, 2 vols.(Philadelphia, I960), bk. 4, chap. 20, p. 30. For Gilby, see Dan G. Danner, “Anthony Gilby: Puritan in Exile—A Biographical Approach,” Church History, 40 (December 1971): 412-22. For an analysis of the Calvinist position, see Skinner, Foundations, 2:191-94; Walzer, The Revolution of the Saints, pp. 57-65.

40 Geneva Bible, notes to I Sam. 26:9; II Kings 9:33, II Chron. 23:21; Job 4:10 (quoted).

41 Richard Bristow, A Briefe Treatise of Divers Plaine and Sure Wales to Finde out the Truth (Antwerp, 1599), fol. 154v.

42 Matthew Kellison, A Survey of the New Religion (Douai, 1603), pp. 483-84.

43 Kellison, A Svrvey, pp. 480-81; Bristow, A Briefe Treatise, fol. 153v; Robert Shelford, Lectvres or Readings upon … Prouerbs (1606), p. 46.

44 Thomas Cartwright, A Confvtation of the Rhemlsts Translation, Glosses and Annotations on the Neu; Testament (1618), p. 368.

45 Ibid., p. 671.

46 Rheims New Testament (Rheims 1582, 1600), notes to Luke 20:25; Rom. 13:2 (quoted); I Pet. 2:13, 18.

47 Quoted in Sir J. E. Neale, Queen Elizabeth I (New York, 1957), p. 258.

48 Rheims New Testament, notes to Matt. 22:21; Rom. 13:1 (quoted).

49 Cartwright, A Confutation, pp. 368-69; Stubbes, A Motive, pp. 101, 103-4; Gifford, A Dialogue, fols. 104v-105r; Francis Marbury, A Fruitful Sermon (1602), sig. D6r; J. Baxter, A Toile for Two-Legged Foxes (1600), p. 135 (quoted). See also John Gibson, The Sacred Shield of Al True Christian Sovldiers (1599), p. 65; John Field, A Caveat for Parson Howlet [1581], sigs. F5r-Glv; [Francis Trigge], A Tovchstone (1599), pp. 291, 300.