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Godliness with a Difference: Religious Arguments for Toleration in Mid- Seventeenth-Century England

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Godliness with a Difference: Religious Arguments for Toleration in Mid- Seventeenth-Century England University of Alberta Godliness With a Difference: Religious Arguments for Toleration in Mid- Seventeenth-Century England by Jeremy Aaron Nathan Fradkin A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History Department of History and Classics ©Jeremy Fradkin Spring 2012 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission. Library and Archives Bibliotheque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du 1+1 Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-87875-0 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-87875-0 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. Canada Abstract This thesis explores some of the religious arguments for toleration in Civil War and Interregnum England. The object of study is not 'toleration' as a singular ideal, but rather a selection of proposed 'tolerations' from this period. The thesis argues that these proposals advocated toleration as something beneficial to the true Christian religion. The first chapter explores the role of sceptical arguments in establishing a probabilistic Protestant epistemology which underpinned proposals for toleration in the 1640s. The second chapter examines the 'conscientious' religious methodology that certain tolerationists envisioned when they advocated a Christian religion grounded in Scripture, 'Reason,' industry and sound moral character. The third chapter suggests that 'philo-semitic' English millenarians believed that Jewish difference would be renewed, rather than erased, by Christ in the millennial kingdom. Together, these chapters suggest that certain kinds of religious difference were deemed 'tolerable' because that difference itself was seen as a godly one. Acknowledgements I am greatly indebted to many individuals at the University of Alberta for allowing me to pursue this project. First among these, Professor Andrew Gow deserves to be singled out for his personal and academic guidance, frequently reminding me of the bigger picture and initiating me into the discipline of history in general. Our often lengthy conversations were an invaluable part of my experience as a graduate student. I am also grateful to several other faculty members within the Department of History and Classics, especially Professor Beverly Lemire and Dr. Jeremy Caradonna, both of whom provided me with whole new insights and questions about early modern Europe. Outside the department, I must thank Dr. Sylvia Brown (English and Film Studies), whose graduate seminar had a profound effect on parts of this thesis. I must also thank the History and Classics administrative staff for their assistance with a variety of technical and administrative concerns. Finally, my experience at the University of Alberta was greatly enhanced by my friendships with my fellow graduate students in History and Classics. There are too many to name here, but I am deeply thankful to each of them for their frequent conversation and support, both personal and academic. This project has taken shape in Edmonton but retains several roots in Ottawa. My approach to intellectual history and to academic writing in general remains profoundly influenced by my experience as an undergraduate in the College of the Humanities at Carleton University, and I am still grateful to Professor David Dean for inspiring and encouraging my interest in early modern England. On a more personal level, I must acknowledge an immeasurable debt to my mother, Barbara Fradkin, one of the strongest and most inspiring people I know, for her consistent support in all things. Finally, I need to mention Laura Thompson, who has been unwavering in her support despite being made to endure not only two years of long distance, but also my incessant lectures about Christianity, Judaism and early modern England which have filled too many of the all-too-short moments we have had together since I moved to Edmonton for this project. Lastly, I must also acknowledge the generous financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) through the Joseph- Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship, which allowed me to focus more closely on researching and writing this project. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Sceptical Arguments and the Case for Toleration 13 Chapter 2: Labourers after Truth: The Process of Faith and the 'Conscientious Man' 30 An Industrious Biblicism 32 Scripture and Reason 34 Honest Error and Hypocrisy 44 'Implicit Faith' and the 'Conscientious Man' 48 Distinguishing the Tolerable from the Intolerable 51 Separatist Toleration: Roger Williams 56 Godly Unity through Godly Liberty 59 Chapter 3: Restoration and Reconciliation in the Judeo-Christian Millennium...62 'Restorationist' Millenarianism in England before 1649 64 Iewes in America and Providential History 71 The Millennial Reconciliation of Jews and Christians 75 Millenarians and Jewish Readmission 77 Non-millenarian Proposals for Jewish Toleration 82 Searching for the 'Christian Jew' 85 Otherness and Godliness, Unity and Exceptionalism 87 Conclusion 94 Bibliography 108 Introduction John Locke, in the very first sentence of his now famous Letter Concerning Toleration, asserted that toleration was, in fact, "the chief Characteristical Mark of the True Church."1 Locke's influence on later liberal political theory has pushed this claim regarding the centrality of toleration to the "True Church," rather than to the commonwealth, into the background. Yet the debate on toleration to which Locke was contributing was, first and foremost, the latest in a long series of public disagreements about the proper doctrine, structure, and jurisdiction of the Church of England. How many divergent opinions and practices among the stubborn English dissenters could be encompassed by an inclusive national church? Under what conditions someone could be a subject of the English state without being a member of her Church? The Letter, Locke's most famous argument for toleration, follows in the tradition of other seventeenth- century English writers by insisting that a certain form of religious toleration is not only beneficial to the state, but will also benefit the truest form of the Christian religion. As Blair Worden has noted, the historical study of toleration is at heart "a Victorian subject, a monument to Victorian liberalism."2 British historians in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries often described the 'rise' of toleration in the early modern period. This field was dominated by intellectual historians who typically conceived of religious toleration as a single idea, a monolithic and organic entity which was seeded in Renaissance humanism and Protestant individualism, began to sprout in the middle of the seventeenth century, and blossomed into a centerpiece of post-Enlightenment liberalism. A special place in this story has usually been reserved not only for Locke, but also for the religious controversies of seventeenth-century England, and especially to the tumultuous Civil War and Interregnum decades. W. K. Jordan concluded his immense The Development of Religious Toleration in England(4 volumes, 1932-40) with the ' John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration
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