Radical Parliamentarians and the English Civil War

Description

Radical Parliamentarians and the English Civil War charts the way the English civil war of the 1640s mutated into a revolution, in turn paving the way for the later execution of King Charles I and the abolition of the monarchy. Focusing on parliament's most militant supporters, David Como reconstructs the origins and nature of the most radical forms of political and religious agitation that erupted during the war, tracing the process by which these forms gradually spread and gained broader acceptance. Drawing on a wide range of manuscript and print sources, the study situates these developments within a revised narrative of the period, revealing the emergence of new practices and structures for the conduct of politics. In the process, the book illuminates the eruption of many of the period's strikingly novel intellectual currents, including assumptions and practices we today associate with western representative democracy; notions of retained natural rights, religious toleration, freedom of the press, and freedom from arbitrary imprisonment. The study also chronicles the way that civil war shattered English protestantism--leaving behind myriad competing groupings, including congregationalists, baptists, antinomians, and others--while examining the relationship between this religious fragmentation and political change. It traces the gradual appearance of openly anti-monarchical, republican sentiment among parliament's supporters. Radical Parliamentarians and the English Civil War provides a new history of the English civil war, enhancing our understanding of the dramatic events of the 1640s, and shedding light on the long-term political and religious consequences of the conflict. Cover Radical Parliamentarians and the English Civil War Copyright Acknowledgments Contents List of Figures List of Abbreviations Note on Sources, Citations, and Dates Introduction RADICAL PARLIAMENTARIANS PRINT, MOBILIZATION, AND POLITICS: IDEA AND CONTEXT ARCHITECTURE, DYNAMICS, AND STAKES OF REVOLUTIONARY CHANGE PART I: FROM PERSONAL RULE TO POLITICAL CRISIS, 1635–1642 1: Freeborn Subjects: Puritanism, Politics, and Print in the Personal Rule PRINT, ANTI-EPISCOPAL ECCLESIOLOGY, AND THE DYNAMIC OF RADICALIZATION NEW ENGLAND AND THE ORIGINS OF PURITAN ECCLESIOLOGICAL CONTROVERSY MICRO-COMMUNITY I : LONDON, SECTARIANISM, AND THE ARTS OF PRINT PUBLICITY MICRO-COMMUNITY I I : BRISTOL, THE WESTERN AXIS, AND THE RADICALIZATION OF THE PROVINCES MICRO-COMMUNITY I I I: HERTFORD, PURITAN ECCLESIOLOGICAL CONFLICT, AND RESISTANCETO SHIP MONEY 2: Secret Printing and the Crisis of 1640: The Margery Mar-Prelate Press and Print in the Time of Parliament THE SHORT PARLIAMENT AND THE MARGERY MAR-PRELATE PRESS THE NAG’S HEAD TAVERN AND THE COBBLER’S SERMON HENRY BURTON, THE CANONS OF 1640, AND THE SCOTTISH INVASION ENGLANDS COMPLAINT TO JESUS CHRIST PRINTING IN THE TIME OF PARLIAMENT: THE ORIGINS OF IDEAS OF PRESS FREEDOM TOTAL SEPARATION, “INDEPENDENT CHURCHES,” AND THE LIMITS OF MAGISTERIAL COERCION JOHN ARCHER AND THE MILLENNIUM THE END OF THE MARGERY MAR-PRELATE PRESS THE AFTERLIFE OF THE PRESS: RICHARD OVERTON, PETER COLE, BENJAMIN ALLEN CIRCULATION, READERSHIP, AND RECEPTION THE IMPACT OF THE MARGERY MAR-PRELATE PRESS 3: The Rubble of Episcopacy: Parliament, Religious Mobilization, and the “Generall Liberty” of the Press, 1641 EPISCOPACY, ROOT AND BRANCH, AND THE SECTARIAN CHALLENGE THE PROTESTATION PROTESTED, “INDEPENDENCY,” AND THE “GENERALL LIBERTY” OF THE PRESS INDEPENDENT “PETITIONS” AND THE EMERGENCE OF ENGLISH PRESBYTERIANISM THE “ALDERMANBURY ACCORD” THE RUBBLE OF EPISCOPACY AND THE RISE OF ANABAPTISM 4: “Extremities, Not Fit to be Named” Crowds, Print, and Constitutional Improvisation THE STRUGGLE FOR WESTMINSTER “TO YOUR TENTS”: CROWDS, PAMPHLETS, AND THE FLIGHT OF THE KING THE LORDS, THE PETITION OF MANY THOUSAND POORE PEOPLE, AND CONSTITUTIONAL UPHEAVAL THE LORDS AND IDEOLOGICAL IMPROVISATION CODA: A QUESTION ANSWERED PART II: CIVIL WAR, 1642–1643 5: “Lawless Tyranny” and “Destructive Accommodation”: War and the Transformation of Politics, 1642–1643 LAWLESS TYRANNY: KING JAMES HIS JUDGEMENT ACCOMMODATION, THE “FLYING ARMY,” AND THE FRAGMENTATION OF THE PARLIAMENTARY CAUSE THE LONDON WAR PARTY AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE PARLIAMENTARIAN STATE THE PETITION OF DECEMBER 1 PRINT AND IDEOLOGICAL ESCALATION: THE SUPREMACY OF THE TWO HOUSES, THE NEGATIVE VOICE, AND THE DEATH OF THE KING-IN-PARLIAMENT ACCOMMODATION, THE FAILURE OF PARLIAMENTS, AND POPULAR POWER 6: Defining the Cause: The London Remonstrance, the General Rising, and Military Crisis THE EARL OF ESSEX, THE OXFORD TREATY, AND POLITICAL CONFLICT THE LONDON REMONSTRANCE OF MARCH 30 THE CRISIS OF 1643: MILITARY POLITICS, RUMOR, AND ROUNDWAY DOWN THE GENERAL RISING SALTMARSH, MARTEN, AND THE PERILS OF EXTREMISM CONCLUSION 7: “So Full of Novelties”: The Sectarian Slurry, Redistributionism, and the Licensing Ordinance PAINE AND SIMMONS: ANTINOMIANISM, APOCALYPTIC ILLUMINISM, AND ANABAPTISM JOHN SWEETING, ANTINOMIAN PUBLICATIONS, AND “EGALITARIAN REDISTRIBUTIONISM” THE LICENSING ORDINANCE CALVINISM AT STAKE: GREGORY DEXTER, LAWRENCE SANDERS, AND THE FULNESSE OF GODS LOVE MANIFESTED MANS MORTALLITIE: RICHARD OVERTON, PETER COLE, AND THE MORTALITY OF THE SOUL THE SECTARIAN SLURRY: HYBRIDITY, PUBLISHERS, AND RADICALIZATION PART III: WAR AND RELIGION, 1643–1644 8: The Rise of Religious Conflict in the Parliamentarian Coalition THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY, THE POLITICIZED CLERISY, AND ANTINOMIANISM THE PETITION AGAINST THE COVENANT ANTINOMIANS, THE COVENANT, AND THE “INDEPENDENT COALITION” LONDON, THE ASSEMBLY, AND THE MICRO-POLITICS OF RELIGIOUS DISPUTE AN APOLOGETICALL NARRATION ROYALIST PLOTTING AND RELIGIOUS “PARTY” POLITICS 9: Print House, Petitions, and Provinces: Religious Politics, Toleration, and the Making of an Independent” Coalition SEEKING TOLERATION: ROGER WILLIAMS, GREGORY DEXTER, AND RADICAL ANTI-FORMALISM THE TOLERATION PETITION: THE CONSOLIDATION OF “INDEPENDENCY” AS A POLITICAL FORCE THE MILITARIZATION OF RELIGIOUS CONFLICT: THE EASTERN ASSOCIATION ARMY THE PROVINCIALIZATION OF RELIGIOUS CONFLICT: HERTFORDSHIRE THE CORE OF THE INDEPENDENT COALITION: TWO EXAMPLES 10: The House of Stuart, the House of Lords, and the Politics of “Independency” Ideological Escalation in 1644 A KING DETHRONED: CHARLES I AND THE SUBJECTS’ BLOOD THE COMPASSIONATE SAMARITANE: IMAGINING THE INDEPENDENT STATE POLITICAL CONFLICT, THE HOUSE OF LORDS, AND THE SHAPE OF THE “INDEPENDENT” COALITION PART IV: FRAGMENTATION AND VICTORY, 1644–1645 11: Rumor Wars: Underground Print and the Coming of the New Model Army THE RISE OF ORGANIZED PRESBYTERIANISM TWO RESPONSES: AREOPAGITICA AND THE SECRET PRESS OF OVERTON AND TEW RUMOR WARS: RELIGION, CONFLICT, AND THE CROOKED PATH TO MILITARY REFORM HOW ART THOU BETRAI’D? STREET LIBEL, THE SECRET PRESS, AND THE ASSAULT ON THE LORDS THE SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE, THE POLITICS OF RUMOR, AND THE LONDON “REMONSTRANCE” AGAINST THE KING AND LORDS PRYNNE, THE PRESBYTERIAN ALLIANCE, AND POLITICAL RETRENCHMENT DEMOCRATICAL CONFUSION? ANTI-PRESBYTERIANISM, PRINT, AND IDEOLOGICAL ESCALATION THE ATTACK ON THE OVERTON-TEW PRESS A HELPE TO THE RIGHT UNDERSTANDING OF A DISCOURSE CONCERNING INDEPENDENCY: RETAINED RIGHTS AND CONSTITUTIONAL CORRUPTION THE CONSOLIDATION OF LONDON INDEPENDENCY 12: Supremacy in the Commons: Partisan Politics, Political Innovation, and the Rise of Lilburne MAR-PRIEST: NATIVE LIBERTIES, THE PUBLIC GOOD, AND ANTI-PRESBYTERIAN POLEMIC THE BATTLE FOR LONDON, THE BATTLE FOR LEICESTER, AND THE STRUCTURES OF CIVIL-WAR PARTISAN POLITICS THE AGONY OF VICTORY: NASEBY, TOLERATION, AND THE FACTIONAL POLITICS OF CONSPIRACY THE SUPREMACY OF THE COMMONS OR THE BETRAYAL OF THE COMMONS? LILBURNE, SELF-INCRIMINATION, AND THE POWERS OF PARLIAMENT 13: White King, Black Cassock: Monarchy, Presbytery, and the Radical Propaganda Collective THE CULT OF LILBURNE CROMWELL, THE STORM OF BRISTOL, AND THE BATTLE OVER PRESBYTERIANISM BIRTH-RIGHT, CONQUEST, AND THE “FREE-BORNE PEOPLE OF THIS NATION” THE RADICAL PROPAGANDA COLLECTIVE AND “LEVELLER” ORIGINS THE WHITE KING AND THE BLACK CASSOCK CONCLUSION PART V: PATHS TO REVOLUTION 14: Internal Revolutions: Private Meditations and Radical Parliamentarianism, 1642–1646 NEHEMIAH WALLINGTON: THE LONDON “WAR PARTY” AND THE AMBIGUITIES OF PRESBYTERIANISM THOMAS JUXON: THE END OF TYRANNY AND THE “NEW MONARCHY” SIR CHENEY CULPEPER: THE FALL OF “CIVILL AND ECLESIASTICAL BABYLON” CONCLUSION: POPULAR POLITICAL THEORISTS AND IDEOLOGICAL IMPROVISATION 15: The Seeking Way: “Forms of Religion” and the Coming of the English Revolution ANTI-FORMALISM I : “DEVISED FORMES AND GESTURES” ANTI-FORMALISM I I : “NO NAMES OF DIFFERENCE” ANTI-FORMALISM I I I: “SEEKERS” AND THE REPUDIATION OF ORDINANCES THE EMERGENCE OF CIVIL-WAR RADICAL ANTI-FORMALISM: FIVE CASE STUDIES “MANY WHO OWN THEMSELVES . . . SEEKERS”: MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE FOR THE ATTACK ON ORDINANCES POST-SEEKERS: CHRIST’S ANOINTED, THE MINISTRY OF ELIJAH, AND THE RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS CONCLUSION 16: The Last Warning THE END OF THE WAR, THE BATTLE FOR SETTLEMENT, AND THE KING’S CONDITION OPENED THE LAST WARNING TO ALL THE INHABITANTS OF LONDON THE HUNT FOR THE PRESS FROM ADMONITION TO REVOLUTION Conclusion APPENDIX 1: The printing of John Lilburne, A Coppy of a Letter Written by John Lilburne, Close Prisoner In The Wards of the Fleet (1640) by the Margery Mar-Prelate Press APPENDIX 2: The printing of A Question Answered: How Laws are to be understood, and obedience yeelded? by the print house of Gregory Dexter and Richard Oulton APPENDIX 3: The printing of Mans Mortallitie or a Treatise Wherein ’tis proved, both Theologically and Phylosophically, that whole Man (as a rationall Creature) is a Compound wholy mortall (1644), using type associated with the print house of Peter Cole APPENDIX 4: The printing of Alas pore Parliament, how art thou betrai’d? by the secret press of Richard Overton and Nicholas Tew APPENDIX 5: The printing of To the Right Honourable, the LORD MAJOR, and the Right Worshipfull, the ALDERMEN, and Common Councell of the City of LONDON. The humble Petition of divers Citizens of this Honourable Citie (1645), likely executed by the secret press of Richard Overton APPENDIX 6: The printing of Englands Lamentable Slaverie (1645) by the print house of Thomas Paine APPENDIX 7: Ornaments of Stam, Margery Mar-Prelate Press, Peter Cole, and Richard Overton Index