A Social Interpretation of English Puritanism

Author(s): Charles H. George

Source: The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Dec., 1953), pp. 327-342
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
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 THE JOURNAL OF

MODERN HISTORY
Volume XXV DECEMBER 1953 Number 4

A SOCIAL INTERPRETATION OF ENGLISH PURITANISM

CIARLES H. GEORGE

the answers tend to be critical stereo-

W RITING in a recent issue of the types which require re-examination. To
begin with, it is necessary to approach
Journal of modern history,
Franklin Baumer surveyed the facts of failure with a correct appre-
ciation for what Elizabeth and her
some of the most difficult problems fac-
bishops and councilors had accomplished
ing students of intellectual history. Per-
haps the most cogent of his observations
by the close of her reign. We must realize
in the perspective of the sixteenth-cen-
in that article was the one advising us
that "the whole question of the causal tury Reformation what a triumph of
nexus between ideas and political and statesmanship and inspiration was Eng-
land's national church. We must not
social events obviously needs reopen-
ing."' It will be the purpose of this paper make the common mistake of under-
estimating the settlement as a genuine
to reopen that perennially fascinating
religious reform: of pointing to the
cultural problem, English puritanism,
with a view to suggesting a more ade-
Puritans as the first true agents of the
English Reformation.
quate causal relationship between the
ideology of puritanism and its social en- Further, it must be admitted in the
vironment. face of considerable evidence that, de-
The first and in some ways most puz- spite the unfortunate temper of King
zling problem confronting the student of James at Hampton Court, the substan-
seventeenth-century English religious tial achievements of Elizabeth's reign
affairs is simply this: Why did the Eliza- were creatively built upon by the church-
bethan church settlement fail so dis- men who served the first Stuart. The
ideological basis which Richard Hooker
astrously and so soon? Why was the via
media of Richard Hooker's ideal and had provided for a united Protestant
Robert Cecil's polity sustained for only a worship was strengthened by the Jaco-
scant generation? All the textbooks have bean divines who followed him. From the
Archbishop of Canterbury through the
answers to this question, of course, but
ranks of the leading preachers, they con-
1F. L. BAUMER, "Intellectual history and its
tinued resolutely Calvinist in theology
problems," Journal of modern kistry, XXII (1949),
201. and temporizing in the matter of Puritan
327

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 328 CCRLES H. GEORGE

opposition to ceremonial. The result of many of England's most brilliant and

their churchmanship was that nearly eloquent men. John Donne, Thomas
all English Protestant clergymen were Adams, and George Herbert are only th
joined to the body of Anglican orthodoxy most illustrious of a group with few peers
in subscribing to supremacy, the Thirty- in the entire history of Christian preach-
nine Articles, and the Prayer Book. ing.
Some clergymen wanted certain of the And yet we know, of course, that there
articles changed, or portions of the was in fact to be no via media in English
Prayer Book modified, but for their religious life. This great national church
time the degree of understanding and was to be violently torn apart in the
toleration was remarkable. vigor and high hope of its youth. But
Moreover, the church under the en- why? Why did William Laud become a
lightened direction of Archbishop George tyrant and Alexander Leighton a mar-
Bancroft and bis successor George Abbot tyr? What was the dynamic in the his-
experienced a great spiritual revival and torical complex of Jacobean England
progressive reform. The administration which finally made a mockery of the re-
of the church was reorganized into essen- ligious genius of half-a-dozen preachers
tially the pattern that survived into the and which by the end of the third decade
nineteenth century. Something was done of the century had so resolutely joined
to help relieve the financial distress of the issue in the political struggle with the
lower clergy and to make it financially monarchy as to make the concept of a
possible for clergymen to reside with united church worship in England seem
their congregations.2 The learning of a remote Jacobean conceit?
preachers increased markedly, and the Older histories invariably blamed the
A.B. degree became almost requisite for failure of the via media on either the in-
induction into the ministry. A great ef- eptitude of the king or the fanaticism of
fort was made to place in every parish William Laud, or both. But the answer
copies of the Bible, the Prayer Book, and which is most commonly given by mod-
the Canons, and to see that the royal ern scholars to the foregoing questions,
printer provided cheap copies for sale. and others arising from them, can be
Jacobean England likewise witnessed a summarized with one word: puritanism.
revival in religious aesthetics. This was Unfortunately, however, as a result of its
the golden age of English church music, extraordinary popularity and the am-
with a score of first-rate musicians turn- biguous usage of modern writers, this
ing their inspirations to the liturgical word has created more problems than it
forms of Anglican worship.3 It was also has solved. It is used in an almost entire-
the age of Inigo Jones and a considerable ly normative sense by some scholars,4
outburst of architectural creativity. Fi- while others use it to describe the most
various religious phenomena in England,
nally, this united church movement pro-
duced the world's finest vernacular Bible on the continent, and in the New World
and drew into its pulpits the talents of colonies.5 The disconcerting fact is that
even the closest students of Enzlish
2 For the best account of these reforms see
R. G. USHER, The reconstruction of the English church 4E.g., J. S. FLYNN, The influence of puritanism
(New York, 1910), Vol. It. (New York, 1920), passim.
3 See E. H. FELLoWs, English cathedral music 6 E.g., J. H. RANDALL, JR., The making of the
from Edward VI to Edward VII (London, 1941). modern mind (Boston, 1940), pp. 157-63.

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 A SOCIAL INTERPRETATION OF ENGLISH PURITANISM 329
puritanism have contributed to this
popular tendency to oversimplification
of a religious movement which is exceed-
ingly complicated in historical develop-
ment and consequently in ideological
content.
Fine scholars like William Haller,6
A. S. P. Woodhouse,7 and M. M. Knap-
pen8 have set out to define English
puritanism as an entity, in itself a com-
mendable effort, but they have been led
astray by a preconception of this re-
ligious ideology as consisting in a fiat,
self-contained, and abstract "mind."
This Puritan mind which they have dis-
covered was a distinct spiritual attitude,
a new and complete Christian experience
in English religious life. What is most
important, it had an extraordinary his-
torical function to perform, the function
of destroying the finest work of church-
manship in Europe-the Elizabethan
settlement-and from there of leading
England into revolution, democracy,
civil liberty, and a new social order!
This amazing catalytic force, it is in-
sisted, was basically a set of purely re-
ligious ideas and sentiments. Not that
the Puritan mind was in the beginning
politically insurrectionary, or demo-
cratic, or liberty-loving, but these later
developments all grew out of a particular
and unique religious attitude. There is
the force and originality of the thesis. As
Woodhouse puts it, "the first feature of
the Puritan Mind . .. is the dominant
place held in it by dogmatic religion, and
the tendency to carry inferences from
dogma into secular life."9 Puritanism be-
gins as a mental state; from there we
may trace its influences on English so-
ciety as a whole.
6 The rise of puritanism (New York, 1938).
7 Puritanism and liberty (London, 1938).
8 Tudor puritanism (Chicago, 1939).
9P. [38].
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It is this thesis about the fabulous re-
ligious integrity of the Puritan mind that
is at the heart of our difficulty in forming
a clear conception of puritanism as a
social phenomenon and, indeed, of our
difficulty in understanding puritanism as
religious doctrine. For if we fail to recog-
nize the social conditions which influ-
enced the Puritan mind, we shall never
be able to penetrate the mysteries of its
religious precepts. And in the course of
any conscientious investigation of the
subject the fact confronts us that English
puritanism before the revolutionary con-
vulsions which marked the primacy of
Archbishop William Laud (1633-45) was
a very different thing from the puritan-
ism which emerged in the course of the
revolution. If we are to seek to distin-
guish and define a Puritan mind, there-
fore, we must initially acknowledge that
puritanism changed in important re-
spects under the impact of that great
social and political upheaval.
II
Before we proceed to investigate some
of the developments in puritanism which
resulted from the revolution, it will be
necessary to indicate the important ele-
ments of religious conformity in Puritan
thought before the revolution. Thus we
must begin negatively by rejecting that
picture of the Puritan ethos presented to
us by recent scholarship which assumes
the existence of a Puritan mind arising
logically from Calvinism and culminat-
ing in Milton-a splendid saga of the
human spirit leading men and nations
into new paths of righteousness. We
must examine the nature of those ideas
which purportedly distinguish the Puri-
tan mentality in prerevolutionary Eng-
land.
Fortunately, our neo-Puritan scholars
are fairly well agreed on the primal ele-
330 CHARLES H. GEORGE

ments in the Puritan ethos which served all our sins . . . for no sin can be
most notably to distinguish the Puritan greater than God's mercy.")12 He was
mind from the Anglican mind. First and rhapsodic about the "all-saving, sanc-
foremost, Professor Haller tells us that tifying graces . .. promised to all God's
"the history of Puritan thought in Eng- children."13 He also argued that "free-
land is primarily the setting forth of the dom is as essential to the will, as
basic doctrine of predestination in terms understanding is to the mind,"'4 and
calculated to appeal to the English affirmed: "Man's will, if he stand stout-
populace."10 ly, and yield not, is an impregnable
Let us therefore examine briefly some fort."'5 Man is corrupt, yet morally
of the difficulties to be met in identifying responsible. Man cannot do God's will,
the prerevolutionary Puritan mind by yet doing God's will is the whole end
its predestinarian-or "Calvinistic"- of existence. This is not a Puritan idea;
character. The two divines upon whom it has been the substance of the most
Haller principally relies for his definition significant tension in all Christian
of puritanism are William Gouge and thought, Protestant and Catholic alike,
Richard Sibbes. Yet Gouge's writings from the time of Paul.
and sermons demonstrate fully the com- Richard Sibbes was, if anything, even
plications of the predestinarian idea as it less of a predestinarian than was Gouge.
was understood by the English divines It is hard to find in his sermons many
and the lack of singularity in the Puritanreferences to the concept. Sibbes tended
theology. Perhaps a single selection from to treat predestination not as a principle
a page of his famous treatise, The whole of exclusion and superiority but as a
armor of God, will serve to make the means of exhibiting the generous miracle
point:" of grace.'6 Like Donne, Sibbes admired
All are made after the same image of God Martin Bucer above John Calvin, prais-
that we are, all are of the same mould, all our ing him for being "a deep and a moderate
own flesh, all our neighbors.... Besides for divine, upon long experience ... re-
aught we know, all may belong to the election
solved to refuse none in whom he saw
of God, and so have a right to the privileges of
God's elect. aliqutid Christi, something of Christ."'7
Objection: (Matthew 7:13-14) Sure it is that Moreover, it is a fact unfortunately
everyone is not elected, there always have been, ignored that in Jacobean England the
still are, and ever shall be a mixture of repro-
strongest and most comprehensive state-
bates with elect. ...
ment of the predestinarian dogma was
Answer: Though this be most true, yet can
we not say of any particular man that he be- not made by a "Puritan" at all, but by
longeth to God's election. If he be not now 11 William GOUGE, The whole armor of God (Lon-
called, he may hereafter. don, 1616), p. 374.
12 Ibid., p. 226.
Elsewhere Gouge cried out for a con-
13 Ibid., p. 267.
sideration of "the infinities of God's
14 GouGE, A guide to goe to God (London, 1626),
mercies, an ocean sufficient to swallow
p. 243.
10 HALLER, p. 85. Some scholars prefer to make a 15 Ibid., p. 246.
distinction between the "Calvinism" of Puritan
16 See "The rich poverty," The complete works of
worship and thought and the "Lutheranism" of
Richard Sibbes, ed. A. B. GROSART (Edinburgh,
Anglican worship and thought (e.g., Horton DAVIES,
1862-64), VI, 241-42.
The worship of the English Puritans [W,estminster,
1948], p. 12). This usage is almost too vague to 17 SIBBES, "The ruin of mystical Jericho," loc.
argue with. cit., I, 57.

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 A SOCIAL INTERPRETATION OF ENGLISH PURITANISM 331
John Donne's good friend, that bulwark
of anglicanisrn, Bishop Joseph Hall. In
his farrotis treatise, the Via media,
Bishop IHall worked out at length, a
classic statement of the problem which
supplemented the work of Hooker and
was acceptable to English divines of all
persuasions. These were his principal
dogmatic conclusions:"8
1. There is no son of Adam to whom God
hath not promised that, if he shall believe in
Christ, repent, and persevere, he sball be saved.
2. Besides the general will of God, he hath
eternally willed and decreed to give a special
and effectual grace to those that are pre-
destinate accordling to the good pleasure of his
will; whereby they do actually believe, obey,
and persevere that they may be saved: so as the
same God that would have all men to be saved
if they believe ... hath decreed to work power-
fully in some whom he hath particularly chosen.
3. It is not the prevision of faith, or any
other grace or act of man, whereupon this de-
cree of God is grounded; but the mere and
gracious good will and pleasure of God, from all
eternity appointing to save those whom he
hath chosen in Christ, as the head and founda-
tion of the elect.
4. This decree of God's election is absolute
and unchangeable and from everlasting.
Even a violently anti-Puritan historian
like A. L. Rowse is forced to admit that
"Calvin's ugly doctrine of Predestina-
tion" was a doctrine shared by "all
brands of Protestantism," including
every single important member of his
beloved Anglican clergy.19
The other ways in which puritanism is
alleged to be a distinct religious position
in the Jacobean age are equally subject
to question. For instance, we are fre-
quently told that it was the distinction
of the Anglicans to preach the divinely
established authority of church and
324.
crown.20 What, then, are we to make of
18 Joseph HALL, The works of Joseph Hall, ed. of grace," loc. cit., VI, 104-5.
Philip WYNTER (Oxford, 1863), IX, 490--91.
19 A. L. RowsE, The England of Elizabeth (Lon-
don, 1951), p. 487.
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the statement by William Gouge that the
English kings, always defenders of the
faith, have, through the agency of King
James, restored the Catholic church to
its early excellence? Wherefore, "to this
end, namely to defend the faith, main-
tain religion, and advance piety, hath
God given them that supreme authority
which they have to be in all causes
temporal and ecclesiastical over all per-
sons in their dominions under Christ,
supreme governors. He hath set them on
his throne, and given them his own title.
For he saith of them, ye are gods, children
of the most high."'21
Richard Sibbes was no less explicit in
his regard for an authoritarian and Eras-
tian ecclesiastical society. He declared in
ringing words that "a king is a great
organ or instrument to convey good
things from God, King of Kings, to
men.... 22 As for the authority of the
church, Sibbes argued at length for the
church as the highest worship afforded
earth-bound Christianity, as the one true
embodiment of the Christian effort at
salvation, "for God more respects the
Church gathered together than any
several member."23 Further-shades of
Thomas Aquinas !-the church was so
excellent and beautiful an instrument of
salvation owing to its primary quality of
"orderliness"-the ranked gradations of
ecclesiastical hierarchy.24 Finally, Sibbes
entertained a vision of the church in
terms typical of Donne, Hall, and the
otber leading English clergy of his time.
All these divines continued to see the
Anglican church as a branch, a valid and
20 E.g., HALLER, p. 19.
21 GOUGE, God's three arrows (London, 1631), p.
22 SIBBES, "The spiritual favourite at the throne
23 SIBBES, "A breathing after God," loc. cit., II,
231.
24 Ibid., p. 232.
 332 CHARLES H. GEORGE
noble branch to be sure, of the one true
universal church of God. Sibbes de-
clared: "The whole Catholic militant
Church is but one house of God . . . as
there is but one main ocean of the sea,
yet as it washeth upon the British coast
it is called the British Sea, and as it
washeth on the Germans, the German
Sea... . It hath diverse names of the di-
verse countries which it passeth through,
nevertheless there is still but one main
sea; so it is with the house of God."25
Other attempts have been made to un-
cover a core of Puritan religious elo-
quence before the revolution and to de-
limit distinctive thematic materials in
Puritan sermons. But these efforts are
not convincing. When we are told that
"the symbolism of the nativity and the
passion come to mean little to the Puri-
tan saints,"26 or that preoccupation with
the religious themes of pilgrimage and
the holy war are distinctive Puritan con-
cerns,27 we are being treated to a quite entity from which the study of puritan-
distorted picture of the realities of the
English sermon literature of the via
media.
As a last point, be it noted that the
concept of the "calling," as defined in
the Max Weber thesis, cannot be identi-
fied with any school of ministers until
after the revolution, when Richard Bax-
ter and others used the parable of the
talents to appeal to the successful bour-
geoisie. To "Puritans" like William
Gouge and Richard Sibbes the calling of
a Christian man referred in its secular
aspect almost exclusively to the service
of the high-born ministers of state, and
25 SIBBES, "The church's visitation," loc. cit., I, considers Puritans to be any Protestants, including
376.
26 HALLER, P. 151; cf. SIBBES, II, 438-517; IV,
312-485; V, 197-201, 325-55, and passim.
27HALLER, P. 22; cf. Lancelot ANDREWES, Nine-
ty-six sermons (Oxford, 1841-43), I, 323-24; V,
479-558 and passim.
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on the religious side to the governing
clergy of the church.28 The masses of
ordinary working people, capitalists and
laborers alike, were simply enjoined, as
in the Sumnma of Aquinas and the Insti-
tutes of Calvin, passively to accept their
lot in society and to develop their spir-
itual capacities therein.29 In the time of
King James, the existing social hierarchy
maintained unto itself all the important
religious sanctions.
The conclusion forced inescapably
upon me by the reading of the sermon
literature of the Jacobean age-that
epoch when the Puritan mind is pre-
sumed to have flowered in some of its
greatest preachers-is that we are going
to have to reopen very fundamental
questions regarding the concept of this
Puritan mind and of its social and cul-
tural impact upon England. We have
undoubtedly too long regarded the Puri-
tan mind as a thing given, a religious
ism as a social phenomenon must begin.
The puritanism of Elizabethan and
Jacobean England we can probably de-
fine well enough without recourse to
elaborate psychological or sociological
analysis. The early Puritans were simply
those people in the Church of England
who wanted to institute further reforms
in the national church worship.80 Con-
28 E.g., see GOUGE, The whole armor of God, p.
494; SIBBES, "A glimpse of glory," loc. cit., Vol. VII,
passim.
29 E.g., SIBBES, "Lydia's conversion," loc. cit.,
VI, 521.
30 Quite apart from the debatable use of the con-
cept of a Puritan mind, I cannot follow Knappen in
his definition of puritanism. In one place (p. viii) he
the Separatists and "a number of Anglicans who
accepted the episcopal system," who favor a further
reformation in the church "beyond that which the
crown was willing to countenance." Here Knappen
specifically (p. 489) agrees with the usage of G. M.
Trevelyan in his textbook, England under the Stuarts.
But it must be noted that this definition involves
 A SOCIAL INTERPRETATION OF ENGLISH PURITANISM 333

temporaries used the word very loose- Along with most of the great Anglican
ly to describe anyone who had some preachers, he objected to name-calling
notion of bettering the liturgy or admin- based upon petty distinctions. He put
istration of the church-or who seemed the case in typical imagery and with
ostentatiously pious. Puritans tended to prophetic insight, as follows:82
emphasize issues of ritual and church As natural, so politic bodies have cutem et
government. They wanted a few changes cuticulam. The little thin skin which covers all
made in the rubric of the Prayer Book, our body may be broken without pain or dan-
ger, and may reunite itself, because it consists
or they evaded subscription to certain
not of the chief and principient parts. But if in
phrases in the Thirty-nine Articles, and the skin itself there be any solution or division
some were sympathetic to presbyterian- ... no art nor good disposition can ever bring
ism or independency. But the important the parts together again . . . though it seem to
fact to be observed here regarding pre- the eye to have soldered itself. It will ever seem
so much as a deforming scar, but is in truth a
revolutionary puritanism is that it was
breach. Outward worship is this cuticula; and
distinctly not a closed "spiritual brother-
the integrity of faith the skin itself.
hood" separated absolutely from the rest
of the Anglican church community. As Furthermore, Anglicans like Donne and
the conservative Archbishop Hutton Hall and Andrewes were far more lenient
wrote to Robert Cecil: "The Puritans, in dealing with the only real radicals in
whose fantastical zeal I mislike, though English religious life before the revolu-
they differ in ceremonies and accidents, tion-the "Sectarians," "Anabaptists,"
yet they agree with us in substance of or "Separatists" as they were variously
religion. And I think all, or most of and indiscriminately called-than were
them, love his Majesty and the present the Puritans. From at least the time of
William Perkins, Puritans had vigorously
State... 31
denounced those "fanciful" troublemak-
This was exactly the sentiment of
ers, who were distinctly to the left of the
Richard Hooker's Ecclesiastical polity,
via media."8
wherein puritanism was treated as a re-
Thus the puritanism of the "middle
spected difference of opinion about minor
way" was essentially a puritanism as old
matters that in no way affected the basic
as the English church.84 Every age had
conformity of English religious life. John
had its share of reform movements and
Donne always refrained in his sermons
of "purifiers" who wanted changes made
from taking issue with the Puritans.
in ritual or a better-educated and moral-
ly reformed clergy. Occasionally in the
some real difficulties. For if the Separatists are in-
cluded, then the Puritan mind becomes a quite un- past reformers had been driven into
wieldy concept. If Robert Browne and Richard
Sibbes and Gerrard Winstanley share one mind, then 32 John DONNE, Essays in divinity, ed. Augustus
we are certainly dealing with a schizoid phenomenon. JESSOPP (London, 1855), pp. 128-29.
In yet another place (p. 353) Puritans are identi- 33 See William PERKINS, Of the calling of the
fied by Knappen as the "intelligentsia" of England! ministerie (Cambridge, 1613), p. 431 and passim.
Meanwhile, puritanism is defined as an "ethical
34 Though he would certainly not agree with my
idealism," the best among the rival idealisms of
general argument, Leonard J. TRINTERUD in his
England in its day "and the most worthy of study at
article, "The origins of Puritanism," Church history,
present" (pp. vi-vii).
XX (1951), 37-57, concludes that English puritan-
31 John STRYPE, Life of John Whitgift (Oxford,
ism was nothing new. However, he also speaks of it
1822), Vol. III (appendix of records and originals), as the true English religion, and he sees no real de-
No. 50. velopment over the years.

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 334 CHARLES H. GEORGE

heresy and revolt by times of severe so- cial or dogmatic grievance against the
cial crisis, as in the case of the Lollards. established church.
Normally, however, purifiers had been an
accepted part of church life in England. III

And this was true of the puritanism of It is going to require an arduous re-
the via media. It was a type of puritan-
search effort to document adequately the
ism with an ancient and respectable final development of the Puritan mind in
the course of the English revolution. We
tradition; it did not represent the menace
of religious or social schism. shall have to analyze carefully the works
The most that was agitated for, as
of can
such men as Jeremiah Burroughes,
be seen in a document like the millenary John Arrowsmith, Stephen Marshall,
petition or in the sermons of the early
Edmund Calamy, John Crodacott, Wil-
Puritan divines, was very modest reform
liam Strong, Thomas Brooks, and Oba-
within the institution of the Anglican diah Sedgewick, all of whom were active
church. On the evidence available, I can in London, intimately connected with
see no strong or widespread movement the revolutionaries, and vitally influ-
against prelacy before the revolution.35 enced by the membership of the house
Puritans came from the same social of commons.
classes as the orthodox Anglicans; they But probably the most fruitful source
shared the same social bias; they were, in from which to begin the task of tracing
short, an integrated part of the religious the genesis of the Puritan mind is in the
community of the established church. written record left to us by the great
No church, especially in a vsital and cre- Richard Baxter. For not only is Baxter
ative period, has been without dissent unquestionably the most famous of the
and agitation and the general attitude of Puritan divines of the revolutionary pe-
the leading Anglican prelates toward the riod, but we know very much more about
"Puritan" divines, it must be repeated, him than we do of any of the others. The
was one of temperance and of dedication history of Baxter's religious development
to the religious and ecclesiastical ideal of can be traced from about the age of
comprehension. That was not an impos- twenty, when, having failed to make a
sible attitude to maintain, so long as the career at Whitehall, he resolved to be-
Anglican hierarchy was dealing with a come a minister in the Church of Eng-
puritanism that had no fundamental so- land, although worried that "the want of
35 On this question of Puritan opposition to academical honours and degrees was like
episcopal government, I much prefer the judgment to make me contemptible with the most,
of William A. SEAW in his classic History of the
English church during the civil war and under the
and consequently hinder the success of
Commonwealth, 1640-1660 (2 vols.; London, 1900), my endeavours."`4 Baxter was, from the
to that of Haller. Haller (p. 173) tells us that even beginnilng, career-conscious, and there
before 1640 "the object of the Puritan reformers
was the reorganization of English society. . . ac-
was certainly nothing especially exciting
cording to presbyterian principles." Shaw, however, from the spiritual point of view in the
felt that the "general body" of English Puritans launching of this most brilliant of Puri-
had never been presbyterian in sympathy, that their
program was "Anglican puritanism," and that
tan ministries.
presbyterianism became important to the Puritan So far as his personal religious prefer-
movement only as a result of the Solemn League and
ences were concerned, Baxter apparently
Covenant (I, 5, I 00, and passim)-impressive evi-
dence, I would argue, of the changes in puritanism 36 BAXTER, Autobiography, ed. Ernest RHYS
wrought by the exigencies of the revolution. (London, 1931), p. 15.

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 A SOCIAL INTERPRETATION OF ENGLISH PURITANISM 335

began his professional career as a devoted Baxter's religious development, had he

Anglican. He had no quarrel with Angli- been active a generation earlier, would
can theology or church government. Hie have been indistinguishable from that of
experienced no sudden revelation of the Sibbes or Hall or Donne. But between
Puritan mind, seeming, indeed, to be him and these older divines of the via
quite unaware that such a thing existed media a gulf had opened up. England had
in England. Baxter had never, in the become a land of revolution. The Puri-
year 1634, even known anyone opposed tans as a body found themselves for the
to conformity, and he himself preached first time in a social and political situa-
against nonconformity.37 Only gradually tion where the heat of fanaticism pre-
in the course of the great social struggle vailed. Implicit but vaguely felt social
after 1640 did he feel compelled to work preferences gave way to the sharp lines
out, along with others, the elements of a of the battlefield, and the soft persua-
unique and revolutionary religious view- sions of reform became the militant dog-
point. mas of the army of saints as the English
To be sure, the tradition of Puritan bourgeoisie poured their money and skill
dissent formed a valuable and perhaps into the fight against crown and aristoc-
indispensable foundation upon which to racy.38
erect the revolutionary tabernacle. The It is unfortunately impossible for me
Puritan mind was not created from tabula to undertake any very precise definition
rasa in the revolution. Puritanism was of this "bourgeoisie" amid the cautions
from the outset related to the new social of an increasing number of scholars in
tensions, as protestantism itself was re- the field who are becoming suspicious
lated to the dislocations of a transitionalabout framing class definitions for either
era in European social history. The ques- Tudor or Stuart society. However, this
tion we have to answer is this: Why did much, it still seems to me, is appropriate
the moderate, compromising puritanism to the religious situation: there was an
which respected and even loved the Eng- important political and social upheaval
lish church of the via media become the in England during the years 1640-60,
uncompromising foe of the same church and in a general way the revolutionaries
after 1640, beheading its primate, seizing seem to have drawn their chief leadership
its wealth, and denying its spiritual au- from that large class of economically
thority? progressive (i.e.., capitalist) petty aris-
Did this come about primarily because tocracy which R. H. Tawney has de-
the tyranny of Archbishop Laud was ir- scribed for us, notably aided and abetted
responsible, driving mere religious re- 38 For the economic background of the revolt
formers into open rebellion? Or was it see, in addition to the standard longer studies by
because the spirit of the via media was W. R. Scott, George Unwin, Ephraim Lipson,
Frederick C. Dietz, and J. U. Nef, the interesting
essentially foreign to the genius of the articles by NEF, "The progress of technology and
Puritan mind? Or is it perhaps true that the growth of large-scale industry in Great Britain,
the full explanation is to be found only if 1540-1640," Economic history review, V (1934), 3-24,
and "War and economic progress, 1540-1640," ibid.,
we place English religious thought in the XII (1942), 13-38, in which he argues that England
total social configuration of its time? had undergone a real industrial revolution by 1640.
For it is arguable that the main line of The social aspect of this economic activity is
summarized in R. H. TAWNEY, "The rise of the
37 Reliquiae Baxterianae (London, 1696), pp. gentry, 1558-1640," Economic history review, XI
13, 14. (1941), 1-38.

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 336 CHARLES H. GEORGE

by a numerically smaller group of city revolutionary England, the symbol of

merchants and industrialists. faith in the old society as well as the old
It is probably true that in the six- God, was almost inevitably brought
teenth century there had been a sig- under attack. No longer were Punrtans
nificant correlation between the sup- mere purifiers of the church; they were
porters of the English Reformation and now a group which joined the revolu-
the rising bourgeoisie. It seems probable tionary assault on the institutions and
that the spoils of the Reformation were ideals of the old society. In the fires of
largely exploited on a capitalist basis and civil war, puritanism took on the temper
that the most conservative economic of steel.
elements, in the north and west of Eng-The seventeenth century was an age of
land, had clung most tenaciously to the
passionate religlous sensibilities and im-
Roman church. But the amazing success agination. It was impossible for most
of the Reformation in England after 1570 people to be without a strong religious
and the equally amazing failure of Ro- viewpoint or to be uninterested in re-
man catholicism meant that by 1603 the lgious matters. Psychologically it was
religious divisions between Protestant therefore most important for the bour-
and Catholic no longer reflected the geoisie to feel sure of themselves in the
economic and political divisions within eyes of God at a time when they were
the social body of England. The genius of acting in defiance of the traditional
Elizabeth and her ministers brought political and social sanctions of their
about a via media in English social, eco-society. In a religious age even social ob-
nomic, political, and religious life. For jectives
a were better-and perhaps neces-
brief span of years all major segments sarily-presented
of in the guise of religious
English society looked to the monarchyimperatives. And so the English revolu-
as representing their indispensable eco- tionaries identified their cause and en-
nomic and political interests, and on this nobled their destiny in religious terms.
basis the religious via media was ac- The effects of this great cultural ferment
complished. The accession of James dis- worked profound changes in Puritan
turbed this delicate balance, as the ideas.
records of his parliaments eloquently But how did puritanism change? How
testify; but it was still true that the was it new, how was Richard Baxter
Puritans in parliament, even as the Puri-
different from Richard Sibbes? To begin
tans who invested in the Massachusetts with the most strikg difference was
Bay Company, were decidedly not revo- unquestionably the quite direct way in
lutionary in outlook. It would seem that which Baxter tied his religious precepts
so long as there was an economic and to the virtues of the bourgeoisie as a
political modus vivendi, just so long wasclass. Although he did not, of course, use
there a religious "'middle way." the terminology of class warfare, he did
When the political breaking point put the case for the necessity of a change
came in 1640, the religious via media wasin English social leadership in the strong-
finished. In a penrod of such violent so-est possible terms consistent with his
cial readjustment, there were few possi-rellglous orientatlon.
ble areas of neutrality. As the struggle On his first important ministry at
mounted in range and intensity, the Bnrdgnorth, Shropshire, the thing which
Anglican church, the church of pre- impressed Baxter most about the people

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 A SOCIAL INTERPRETATION OF ENGLISH PURITANISM 337
there was that they were a "dead-
hearted" lot, owing to the fact that the
town had no "general trade" to lead
them along the paths of virtue ! Writing
in the last decade of the century, long
after the revolutions had been won and a
new via media achieved, he still recalled
that it had been "principally the differ-
ences about religious matters that filled
up the parliament's armies and put the
resolution and valour into their soldiers
. . . and the generality of the people
through the land . .. who were then
called Puritans. . . both preachers and
people, adhered to the parliament. And
on the other side, the gentry that were
not so precise and strict against an oath,
or gaming, or plays, or drinking nor
troubled themselves so much about the
matters of God and the world to come.
..".Y40 He continued very interestingly
to draw a correlating social distinction in
the revolutionary alignment, noting that
"on the parliament's side were . . . the
smaller part . . . of the gentry in most
of the counties, and the greatest part of
the tradesmen and freeholders and the
middle sort of men, especially in those
corporations and counties which depend
on clothing and such manufactures."'41
While, on the other side, "tenants of . . .
gentlemen, and also most of the poorest
people, whom the other call the rabble,
did follow the gentry and were for the
king."42 Finally, and conclusively, Bax-
ter put together the social revolution and
the new religious view in phrases that
reveal the inmost heart of the revolu-
tionary dispensation; we are told flatly:
"Freeholders and Trades-men are the
Strength of Religion and Civility in the
Land: and Gentlemen and Beggars, and
39 Reliquiae Baxterianae, p. 15.
40 BAXTER, p. 34.
41 Ibid.
42 Ibid.
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Servile Tenants, are the Strength of In-
iquity; . . . And their constant Converse
and Traffic with London doth much pro-
mote Civility and Piety among Trades-
men."43 This text of social revolution
impregnating the structure of religious
thought is a crucial distinction in the
puritanism of Baxter, and it is a distinc-
tion even more prominent among the
London preachers.44
Baxter and his fellow-Puritans were
increasingly influenced by their social
affiliation in the revolution to push every
opportunity to make this identification
between "religion" and the "middle sort
of men." Before long they had provided
the English middle classes with a whole
new psychology of very great authority,
with a religious attitude which was con-
sonant not only with their political des-
43 Reliquiae Baxterianae, p. 89. Note that we are
confronted in Baxter, as in so many of his con-
temporaries, with a fearful confusion of social
terminology. The leaders of the "other side"-the
king's supporters-are variously denoted as "gen-
try" or "gentlemen": yet, of course, we know that
these terms can equally characterize the leadership
of the parliamentary side. Indeed, a good proportion
of Baxter's own congregations were made up of
gentry. The reason for this confusion is simply that
class terms have seldom been used analytically even
by intellectuals until the latter rnineteenth century.
Thus Tawney's use of the word "gentry" is as his
seventeenth-century equivalent for the Marxist
"bourgeoisie" and is altogether distinct from the
usage of the word by Baxter's contemporaries. It
makes a great difference whether such social termi-
nology is used, as with Baxter here, in a context
which gives particular coloring to the word- "free-
holders" versus "gentlemen"-or, as with Tawney,
is an attempt at economic and social analysis.
I would emphasize, however, that the Puritan
use of the word "gentlemen" in the revolution (cf.
Cromwell's use of the same word) does indicate that
they strongly felt that some sort of social and moral
distinction was in order between the gentry on the
side of parliament and the gentry fighting with the
king, that they did not regard the aristocracy as a
single, homogeneous class, and that they insisted
that the new gentry had left the old pattern of
aristocratic life.
44 See particularly the works of Calamy, Arrow-
smith, and Crodacott.
 338 CHARLES H. GEORGE

tiny but with their economic activities as the glory of a religion of their own! The
well.45 growing need of the emerging society for
The new economic ethic which had a religious rationale which would estab-
emerged in seventeenth-century England lish beyond question the everyday values
seems to have represented an accommo- of their new economic community was
dation to the increasing importance of supplied by the Puritan divines. This
capitalist enterprise in the nation's econ- involved a radical break with the ethical
omy. There was good reason for the busi- tradition of historic Christianity, and it
nessman to feel the need for an ethic was possible only as part of a revolu-
more appealing than anything offered by tionary movement which rejected the
Roman catholicism or by the old protes- social bias of the ruling elite. Henceforth
tantism. And it is interesting to observe
the bourgeoisie need no longer be diffi-
the importance of the revolution in dent about their way of life, no longer
precipitating the development of the apologetic before the traditional censures
economic virtue. The English bourgeoisieof a religious ethic sprung from a feudal
had been growing in economic strength agrarian society.
and social prestige for a hundred years The Puritan ethic demanded, first of
since the advent of protestantism. Yet all, a new ideal pattern of the Christian
the majority of the great Protestant di-man. Protestantism generally had dis-
vines refused to budge from the generally
carded the medieval ideal of the monk;
suspicious and disapproving attitude of yet in any sermon portrait of the ideal
the medieval theologians regarding the Christian type, the English Protestant
religious propriety of the basic economic divines before 1640 turned invariably to
activities of the bourgeoisie. Just before a very similar pattern of virtues, idealiz-
the revolution the Puritan theologian, ing the qualities of charity, humility, and
William Ames, of the generation of pious contemplation.47 There is really a
Gouge and Sibbes, published from his most dramatic change in the character
exile in the Netherlands a popular and of this ideal Christian type with the
authoritative manual of Protestant re- coming of the revolution. The model
ligious ethics in which his position on Christian becomes, most important of
interest, contracts, profit taking, and all,
the a hard worker, a man as prodigal of
like, is virtually indistinguishable from his energy as he is thrifty of his time:
that of Thomas Aquinas.46 "The worth of time is for the work that
What a difference was soon to appear, is to be done in time."48 "If you idle away
once the revolution was under way and this life, will God ever give you another
the middle classes stood forth clothed in here? If you do not work well, shall you
45 See R. H. TAWNEY, Religion and the rise of ever come again to mend it?"49 Every-
capitalism (New York, 1947), for a perceptive treat- where in Baxter's writings we come
ment of this subject, a study limited chiefly by
Tawney's unfortunate idealization of medieval eco- across injunctions to be "up and be do-
nomic theory and religious doctrine. Also, of course,
47 M. M. Knappen declares that "spiritual medi-
Max WEBER'S The Protestant ethic and the spirit of
tation" was the first duty of the Elizabethan Puritan
capitalism (New York, 1948) is a stimulating essay (Two Elizabethan Puritan diaries [Chicago, 1933],
on the same subject.
p. 4).
46 See William AMES, Conscience with the power 48 BAXTER, "The redemption of time," The prac-
and cases thereof (London, 1639), Book V, pp. 221-
tical works (London, 1830), XIII, 530.
63. This is a translation of De conscientia, which
appeared in 1632. 4 Ibid., p. 531.

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 A SOCIAL INTERPRETATION OF ENGLISH PURITANISM 339

ing"; to "look about you, and see what social mores of the English aristocracy.
you have to do, and do it with your The Christian man of the Puritan ideal
might."5" In fact, in at least one place he must deny himself "passion," "imagina-
treats idleness as the very worst of sins, tion," "lustful pleasures," "love-songs,"
for by wasting time "you are guilty of "worldly and idle talk," "romances and
robbing God himself. It is him that you other idle and tempting books,". "vain
owe your labours to; and idleness is un- sports and pastimes" (hunting, hawking,
faithfulness to the God of heaven that bowling, "complimentary visitations"),
setteth you on work: ever in working for "drinking," "tedious meals," "vanity of
men, you must do it ultimately for apparel," "useless knowledge and news,"
God."51 and, above all, "ease and idleness."54
Here it ought to be emphasized not Clearly, "the common shame" of the
that this fanatically espoused ethic of aristocracy has lost them the moral lead-
work was necessary to the success of ership of the community. They are quite
capitalism but rather that it was a prod- past reforming; they must be replaced by
uct of a revolutionary situation. That is, godly men.
the Puritan divine selected for praise not Even the language of puritanism
just the ordinary virtue of the bourgeoi-changed to accommodate the deter-
sie, but precisely the virtue which the mined social bias. Gouge and Sibbes had
aristocracy most conspicuously lacked. been as fond of fancy oratorical language
The emphasis was always on the distinc- and farfetched metaphors as any of the
tion of the homo bourgeoisiensis. Thus Anglicans.-" The abandoned use of alle-
"lords and knights and gentlemen" who gory and long-labored similes was even a
think because they have a liberal main- peculiar weakness of William Gouge.56
tenance that their lives can be pleasantly But with Baxter and Calamy and Arrow-
given over to idleness are evril.52 For "the smith and their fellows a new emphasis
idle forfeit the protection and provision was put upon the "plain" style, in con-
of God."53 trast to the "witty," refined language of
The English revolutionaries could the preachers to court and aristocracy.
Moreover, the old dialectical structure of
have availed themselves of no more bril-
the medieval sermon, retained by Puri-
liant strategy than that of moral right-
tan and Anglican alike in the prerevolu-
eousness. It had the genius of sircerity
dionary period, was replaced by a more
and the compulsion of a crusade. Look at
modern, sensible, direct approach that
the list of Puritan ethical strictures.
would appeal to the bourgeoisie.
There you will find a catalogue of the
64BAXTER, "Sell-denial," lOc. cit., pp. 128-222,
passim.
50 BAXTER, "Now or never," oc. cit., VII, 494.
66Here I must emphatically disagree with both
51 BAXTER, "A treatise of self-denial," loc. cit.,
XI, 198. HALLER (pp. 22-23, 129), and W. Frazer MITcHELL
(English pulpit oratory from Andrewes to Tillotson
62 Ibid., p. 200. Note again that the word "gentle-
[London, 19321, pp. 5-6). Both these scholars, it
men" in the seventeenth century includes the gentry seems to me, place far too high an estimate on the
as well as the titled aristocracy. The Puritan clergy quality of Puritan eloquence and seriously misrepre-
of the revolutionary era were consistent critics of sent the literary content of the orthodox Anglican
this group in so far as they shared the evil ways of sermon.
the greater aristocrats; the criteria of moral judg-
6See The whole armor of God or the fantastic
ment were to be found in the way of life of the city
Exposition of the Song of Solomon (London, 1615),
bourgeoisie or of the hardworking squires.
which Gouge had published as a "sound exposition
6 Ibid., p. 198. of the sense and meaning of the words."

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 340 CHARLES H. GEORGE

Another fine triumph of Puritan ide- thrift, the productive employment of

ology was a new concept of the "calling,"
one quite different from that familiar to
the previous generation of Protestants.
To Puritans like Sibbes and Gouge, only
the clergy and important members of the
aristocracy, never lesser laymen, had a
religious calling. But in the course of the
revolution the calling of a Christian man
came to mean service to God by in-
dustrious labor in a productive and use-
ful job. The idle aristocracy, who served
their government with the feeling that
they worked "rather as a recreation than
as a calling,"57 have relinquished any
claim to leadership. A man's work is in-
separable from his religion: "The reason
why you choose any trade or calling
or course of life, should be the will of
God."58 Or, as Calamy preached, "every
ability and opportunity is a talent with
which we are betrusted, and for which
we must be accountable."59 Finally, the
calling was the real guarantee of salva-
tion: "Make but your calling sure, and
you need not make any question of your
election."60
Intimately related to the concept of
the calling was a new doctrine of earthly
rewards. The Puritan preached a gospel
of success. Hard work in one's calling
would produce tangible satisfactions.
But the wealth which resulted from the
favor of the Lord must not, of course, be
squandered in personal consumption.
Ostentatious living was a terrible of-
fense.6" The Puritan enjoined saving,
BAXTER, "Self-denial," loc. cit., XI, 199-200.
58 Ibid., pp. 139-40.
5 Edmund CALAMY, The noble-mans patterne
(London, 1643), p. 16.
60 BAXTER, "A treatise on conversion," loc. cit.,
VII, 312.
61 John CRODACOTT, The vanity and mischief
justice
making . .. earthly treasures our chiefe treasure an account of the very different attitude of the
(London, 1655), p. 9.
those benefits God grants.62 Again puri-
tanism singled out the distinction of its
class; it was violently opposed to all
aspects of the aristocratic life in its dis-
play, its waste, its "conspicuous con-
sumption. "63
This class distinction on the basis of
economic virtue was extended to the
lower classes as well. Indeed, in dealing
with the poor, the Puritans reached the
heights of dogmatic insolence. Poverty
was the result of sin-sinful idleness.
R. H. Tawney has brilliantly developed
this aspect of Puritan thought, relating
it to the new economic ethic.64 Very
probably this attitude toward the lower
classes, particularly the hatred of charity
and the gospel of the workhouse, is the
accommodation of puritanism to the de-
velopment of a capitalist rationale which
would make the lower classes into "in-
struments of production" or relegate
them to the status of the poor damned
who ought to be put to work for the good
of their souls. But it was more than that.
This attitude was also related to the
political program of the bourgeoisie. It
was part of their fear of that social move-
ment to the left of their own, of the pos-
sibility of further revolution by the
propertyless classes. The fear of the Lev-
ellers, formulated by the Liberals in po-
litical theory, was expressed from the
62 BAXTER, "The character of a sound, confirmed
Christian," loc. cit., VIII, 405.
63 For an interesting account of the ruinous ex-
travagance of the Stuart aristocracy-which was
more than a Puritan prejudice-see the article by
Lawrence STONE, "The anatomy of the Elizabethan
aristocracy," Economic history review, XVIII (1948),
1-53. The article is not confined to the period of
Elizabeth's reign.
64 TAWNEY, Religion and the rise of capitalism,
pp. 210-26; see W. SCHENK, The concern for social
of in the Puritan Revolution (London, 1948), for
sectarian radicals.

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 A SOCIAL INTERPRETATION OF ENGLISH PURITANISM 341

beginning in Puritan sennons. Baxter chology. The army of saints, it may be

and the other Puritan preachers hated supposed, was thereby further isolated
the "giddy and turbulent sectaries" with and identified by the inner communion of
grace. Or again, we need a study which
a bright, burning hatred.65 The frighten-
ing independency of Cromwell's army, will illustrate the quite considerable
the Levellers and Baptists and Fifth changes which were worked in the Cal-
Monarchy men, the religious geniusvinist
of dogma of predestination by the
Winstanley-these elements were anath- London preachers in the period 1640-60
ema to the Puritans. They were the re- as they applied the dogma to the revolu-
ligions of the poor and the damned. tionary political community.67
But the most extraordinary aspect of Further, it may be that we should also
the new doctrine of wealth remains to be revise the common estimate of the typi-
mentioned. This was the remarkable cal English Puritan as a soul tormented
theory that the material success granted by doubts, fears, and feelings of spiritual
by God to sober and industrious men inadequacy. The conversion of the Puri-
was more than a mere temporal reward. tan, though often colorfully verbalized,
For wealth, unquestionably a heavy and was in some notable cases quickly and
possibly crushing burden on the gospel decisively accomplished. Baxter had
road to salvation and an unresolved nothing but scorn for anyone who wasted
torment for theologians of the Middle time being undecided about the question
Ages and the Reformation, now in Puri-of regeneration or election.68 The mystic,
tan hands became the very leaven of or the man of sensitive, insecure con-
salvation! "If the man be gracious andscience, was generally out of place among
religious that is great and rich, he will
the Puritans of the revolution. "Turn
make sweeter harmony and melody in and live," Baxter demanded; "be con-
God's ears than if he were poore and in a fident of your salvation."69 It is necessary
low estate."66 This was the refrain of a to get the question of salvation out of the
new hymn. Boldly the Puritan marched way, to take strength and courage from
the sanctified camel of opulence throughthe fact of salvation and "get on with
the very much enlarged eye of a golden the work in hand."70 God's will is mani-
needle. fest, God's plan is unfolding. Who would
There is not space to discuss even delay victory with false doubts?
briefly all the interesting new develop-
In conclusion, then, it would seem that
ments which Puritans effected in Chris-
we need either to press for a revised in-
tian ethics, aesthetics, and theology terpretation of the Puritan ethos in the
under the pressures of the revolutionary light of what can be found out about
epoch. I should only like in passing to
67 See Stephen MARSIRALL, The right understand-
suggest a few lines of profitable inquiry. ing of the times (London, 1647); John ARRowsmti,
For instance, the doctrine of election asThea covenant avenging sword (London, 1643);
psychological experience, which had beenWilliam STRONG, The trust and the account of a
steward (London, 1647); BAXTER, A holy common-
rejected by the earlier Puritans as Ana- wealth (London, 1659).
baptist nonsense, seems to have become
68 See BAXTER, A call to the unconverted (New
for Puritans in the revolution, and after, York, 1830).
a cardinal feature of their religious psy- 69Ibid., p. 134.
65 BAXTER, Autobiography, p. 85. 70 BAXTER, "Directions and persuasions to a
6 CALAMY, p. 17. sound conversion," loc. cit., VIII, 17.

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 342 CHARLES H. GEORGE
Puritan experience before and during the
revolution, or else we ought to abandon
altogether the concept of the Puritan
mind as historically misleading. I need
hardly stress the complexity and tedious-
ness of the problem. It would be most
convenient, of course, if we could avail
ourselves of scientific notation and speak
of "puritanism," and "puritanism2" to
indicate differences in the religious out-
look of Puritans before 1640 and after-
ward; but, failing that and desiring to
retain the word in our historical vocabu-
lary, it is suggested that great effort be
made to realize the importance of the
social milieu in modifying, often radical-
ly, the ideology of the English Puritans.
The differences between the status quo
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puritanism of Sibbes and Gouge and the
revolutionary puritanism of Baxter and
Calamy are too significant to be ignored.
We need, first, to appreciate the co-oper-
ative and moderate temper of the divines
of the via media and, second, to docu-
ment the peculiar puritanism which was
a product of the revolutionary front
lines: the puritanism which was a battle
hymn, a fighting faith, a militant psy-
chology fitted to the exigencies of civil
(and class?) war. When this task has
been faithfully completed, we may then
use the concepts "puritanism" and the
"Puritan mind" with some assurance of
historical accuracy.
COLORADO COLLEGE