The Revolution of the Saints 9780674767867


281 30 97MB

English Pages 347 Year 1965

Report DMCA / Copyright

DOWNLOAD PDF FILE

Recommend Papers

The Revolution of the Saints
 9780674767867

  • 0 0 0
  • Like this paper and download? You can publish your own PDF file online for free in a few minutes! Sign Up
File loading please wait...
Citation preview

ТНЕ А

REVOLUTION OF

STUDY IN

ТНЕ

ТНЕ

SAINTS

ORIGINS OF RADICAL POLITICS

ТНЕ

RE VO LU TI ON OF

ТНЕ

=

SAINTS

А STU DY IN

ТНЕ

OR IGI NS OF

RA DIC AL POL ITI CS MICH AEL WAL ZER

HARVARD UNIV ERSIT Y PRESS CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS LONDON,ENGLAND

llege f H a rv a rd Co o s w llo e F d n dent a в Ьу the Presj @ Copyrjght 19 5

ved All Rights Reser

в N u m b e r б5-22о4 d ar C g o al at C ess Library o f Congr tes o l A m e rk a ta S ed it n U e d in th

Printe

raщ fr rd r 'OUndat · a id e d Ьу а g от th e F o en ,& be as h ton ok this bo f o n io at ic Ьl Pu 7 6 5 4 3 10 g 8

ТОМУ

MOTHER AND FATHER

PREFACE

1 began this book hoping to write sympathetically about а human choice which I thought strange and disturЬing: the decision to Ье а Puritan, to repress oneself and others, to act out а conception of holiness at once abstract and urgent. Calvinist saintliness, after all, has scaпed us all, leaving its mark if not on our conscious then on our clandestine minds, and it is always worthwhile to go back and puzzle over the wounds. But in the course of my work, 1 decided that the choice of Puritanism is not really so different from other, later choices which I find neither strange nor disturЬing. The Calvinist saint seems to me now the first of those self-disciplined agents of social and political reconstruction who have appeared so frequently in modern history. Не is the destroyer of an old order for which there is no need to feel nostalgic. Не is the builder of а repressive system which may well have to Ье endured before it can Ье escaped or transcended. Не is, above all, an extraordinarily bold, inventive, and ruthless politician, as а man should Ье who has "great works" to perform, as а man, perhaps, must Ье for "great works have great enemies." In describlng Puritanism as the earliest form of politicaI radicaIism, 1 have not intended to write а complete history either of the English Puritans or of the English Revolution. Nor have I intended my portrait of Puritan thought and action to replace, but only to supplement, other interpretations of seventeenth-century history. The "rise" of the gentry, the "crisis" of the old aristocracy, the ''winning of the initiative" Ьу the proud Commoners: all these processes (and the economic transformations which underlay or accompanied them) are presupposed throughoнt my book. Puritanism is related to such processes, however, in а special way which has never, 1 think, been made entirely clear: not as their reflex in religious thought, but as а creative response to the difficulties they (and other social changes as well) posed for individual men and women.

The Revolut ion of the S . viii . aints tII1ent is roughly chronolog1cal, I have . . . d JU11lped T hо ugh my trea ther freely when it su1te my purposes and over the !ears ~~ng about Puritan ideas, have collected ma't P~r. larly in wr1 1 . . t1cu Т d r Stuart, and revo ut1onary per1ods, somet·er1a1 fr0 m the u о , . . metimes arguing the ex1stence of а common w111les assum1ng, so 1d .. f h d. 1 view. The revolutionary cr1s1s, _о ~our~, ah its s_ ow developmor ent, а steady accumulation of. ~1sta eh~ у t folse in authority and defia•nces ьу those in opPos1t1on, а 1story о ost opportunities f or _ mise and реасе. This I have not made any attempt to trace сотpro . f d . . . . В the revolution also had its oun at1on, а firm bas1s in radical u~ t· n and organization which goes back to Calvin himself and asp1ra 10 • I . ь· f d . to the work of the Marian ~xiles. t 1s t 1s oun at1on which I have . d ·to describe and expla1n. trie d1 . d h . 1 doing 50 I have Ъу an arge 1gnore t ose t1ny sects on the left~wing, 50 to speak, of English Protesta ntism, whose members have 50 often been treated if not as the counter . . parts then at least as the ancestors of modern democrats, soc1a11sts, and communists. Tha,t treatment does not seem to me very useful. However important ·they are to latter-day genealogists, the sects (even, the Levellers-) are of very minor importa nce in seventeenth-century history. The case for -Puritan radicalism, if it is to Ье made at all, must Ье made with -the Disciplinarians of Elizabet han ·times and the Presbyterians and Congregationalists of the Stuar-t period, that is, with the Puritan mainstream, the true .English Calvinists. That ihese groups differed among themselves and changed over the years is certainly true; nevertheless, 1 have tried to argue that all of them all the time shared certain key ideas incompatiЫe with the traditional system in church and state, ideas which tended continually to produce radical and innovati ve politica l activity. 1 hope at soцie later time to continu e my study of radicalism and to describe щ·оrе fully, perhaps with referenc e to other countries and histories, those peculiar circums tances which make political zeal ~nd discipline possiЫe and even necessary. And that will Ье the tн~е to suggest what is obvious ly true, that radical politics can take differe~t forms, and to develop а critique of the increasingly total forms it has taken in our own time. Such а critique is Ьу no means imp · 1·icit · 1·n anythin g I have said here, for 1 have no wish to rep~at ~r carry Ъackwards in time that easy and false equatio n of radicalism and totalitar ianism which has been so commo n among

Preface



historians, sociologists and political scientists in the last fifteen or twenty years. Му only object is to make Puritan radicalism, so unattractive to my contemporaries, humanly comprehensiЫe. Throughout the book I have expanded all abbreviations and modernized all spelling both in quotations and book titles. This seemed advisaЫe not only for technical but also for editorial reasons. The retention of the old spelling and. abbreviations makes Puritan writing seem hopelessly distant and even quaint, at least to readers not experienced in the study of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century texts. Yet the literature of the English saints, at its best, is marked Ъу а marvelous colloquial eloquence and а simple and moving urgency. 1 have chosen а minor sacrifice in accuracy for what I hope will Ье а gain in immediacy and understanding. Only when quoting poetry (or some old word or phrase no longer in use) have I retained the original spelling. This book was first written as а doctoral dissertation and both in writing it and in preparing to write it I have incuпed oЫiga~ tions to more people than I can possiЫy name here. Many of .my teachers, at Brandeis, Cambridge and Harvard Universities; will recognize in these pages а phrase, а snatch of conversation, an odd notion - and these may have been as important to me as the more systematic knowledge they taught. 1 am grateful to all of them. 1 owe them а debt which сап only Ье repaid Ьу passing оп in my own fashion something of what I learned from them. Му wife, Judith Walzer, ·has been my constant companion and critic during the years that I struggled to understand the Puritan saints and to write this book. Its various metamorphoses, and my own as well, are in large part her work. Professors Carl J.- Friedrich, Louis Hartz, and Baпington Moore all read early versions of several chapters and their encouragement and their advice were equally helpful to me. Му Princeton colleague Paul Sigmund read the section on the ancient science of angelology and coпected many foolish eпors. For five years at Harvard I worked closely with Professor Samuel Beer. His ideas about the proper study of politics have been the major inspiration of my own thought on that same subject. His course, Social Science 2, provided me with the first forum fron1

1

1

L

х The Revolution of the . 8aints which I could elaborate а view of Puritanism. А meetin f . O Science 2 teachers, now historians, sociologists, and ~•al 1 SC1en . . . . "d d . ica tisu at var1ous un1vers1t1es, prov1 е me wtth my first set of · demic critics. 1 am gтateful to all the participants: Samuel ВacaNorman Birnbaum, William Chambers, Harry Eckstein Kleer, Epstein, George Nadel, Melvin Richter, Charles Tilly. ' aus А Fulbright gтant from the United States Government in _ 1956 57 and а fellowship from the Social Science Research Council in 1959-60 made possiЫe the research for this book. А gтant from Princeton University provided for the typing of the final manuscript. I wish to acknowledge the kindness 0 f the editors of History and Т heory and Тhe А merican Political Science Review in permitting те to reprint sections of articles which originally appeared in their pages. And finally, I am grateful to the editors of Harvard University Press, and especially to Miss Ann Orlov, for having ·so greatly eased the trauma of puЫication.

polif

1

Princeton, N .J. June 8, 1965

MICНAEL WALZER



CONTENTS

Chapter ONE TWO

ТНЕ EMERGENCE OF RADICAL POLITICS

CALVINISM

22

(

Calvinism as an Ideology 22 The State as an Order of Repression 31 The State as а Christian Discipline 45 Resistance, Reformation, and Godly Warfare

THREE

FOUR FIVE

SEVEN

EIGHT NINE

66

92

ТНЕ

PURITAN CLERGY: MODERN POLITICS AND RADICAL INTELLECTUALS UPON ТНЕ TRADITIONAL POLITICAL WORLD

114

ТНЕ АТТАСК

Puritanism and the Great Chain of Being From Body Politic to Ship of State 171 Politics and the Family 183

SIX

57

TWO CASE STUDIES IN CALVINIST POLITICS The Huguenots 68 The Marian Exiles

1

148

151

ТНЕ

NEW WORLD OF DISCIPLINE AND WORK

199

PURITANISM AND ТНЕ GENTRY: POLITICS AS А VOCATION

232

POLITICS AND WAR

268

CONCLUSION

300

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

328

INDEX

829

ТНЕ А

REVO LUTI ON OF

STUDY IN

ТНЕ

ТНЕ

SAINTS

ORIGINS OF RADICAL POLITICS

. . . you have great works to do, the planting 0f а new heaven and а new earth among us, and great works have great enemies . . . Stephen Marshall 1641

Е EMERGENCE C H A P T E R O N E · ТН S OF RADICAL P O L IT IC

n for power, of faction, io tit pe m co d an t lic nf А politics of co iversal in hu m an history. un у аЫ оЬ рr is ar w en intrigue, an d op cal activity, di ho et m d an n tio za ni ga y or Not so а politics of pa rt revolution. T he d an gy lo eo id l ca di ra opposition an d reform, t compared, fo r or sh y el tiv la re is n tio lu history of re fo rm an d revo eif or of th e power its r de or al ic lit po e th example, w ith tha:t of system, the progтam­ g in go а of l sa ai pr ap ed struggle. T he detach e organization th n, tio ra pi as d an nt te on matic expression of disc is surely fair to it : ity tiv ac al ic lit po d ne of zealous m en for sustai the modem, th at of ly on s ct pe as e ar er th say th at these three toge ical world. is, the postmedieval polit gin at many points in be ht ig m s ic lit po n er od T he study of m e new political th d an li el av hi ac M ith the sixteenth century: w an d th ei r attack s ce in pr an m er G e th d realism, with L ut he r an an d the sovereignty in od B ith w , m lis na io at upon R om an intem however, is no t y, sa es is th of n er nc co of •the new monarchs. T he the idea of soveror , ch ur ch l na tio na e with reason of state, th e startling innovations os th of r he ot an h it w d eignty. It Iies instea of revoluce an ar pe ap e th y: or st hi ical 1 of sixteenth-century polit olution as а poev R . gy lo eo id l ca di ra tionary organization an d mental an d moral of nd ki а as gy lo eo id d e Iitical ph en om en on an related to the rise of th y el os cl , se ur co of , th discipline ar e bo ed an d organized at gn si de lly ia ec sp at th modern state. Yet the idea e political world, th in rt pa e tiv ea cr а ay bands of m en m ig ht pl nstructing society acco re d an r de or ed sh Ыi destroying the esta s of th ei r fe ll ow s- th is an pl e th or od G of d or cording to the W avelli, L ut he r, hi ac M of t gh ou th e th to idea di d no t en te r at all in writers relied ехe re th e es th , :te sta e th or Bodin. In estaЬlishing France volutionary Parties in Re of n tio za n.i ga Or he al о/ M od em 1 Н. С. KoenjgsЬerger, "T h Century," The Joum nt tee Six e th g rin du and the Netherlands History 17:315-351 (1955).

The Revolu tion of the S .

aints

2

imagin ed hirn upDD the prince, wl1ether they • as . h • clus1ve1У art t rer а Christia n mag1stra-te, or а ered1tary bureau d ned to politica l pcra~. ~11 а hven ~en' remained subjects,. condem ass1vity . f f . ot er v1s1on, or 1n act the revolut·1onar • lete incomp an was his . d . . в ut t У р1ауе as 1mport ant а part in th c1t1zens and saints of 'vity е for . d .d h ас t1 . · tion of the modern state as 1 t е sovere1gn power of рn~ d ~ · n s, Scotlan d, and most . In Switzerland, the Dutch Netherla ltnpor. h . F tantly in Englan d and later 1n rance, t е old order was fi overthrown not Ьу absolut ist kings or in the name of reas naIIy on of . . 1 d' 1 h state but Ъу groups о f ро11t1ca ra 1са s, t emselves moved Ь У new and revolut ionary ideologies. It will Ье argued below that it was the Calvinists who fi switched the emphasis of politica l though t from the prince to t~t saint (or the band of saints) and then constru cted а theoret' el icats · · · 1 actюn. • d 1: What Calvinis epend ent ро11t1ca 1n justification 1.?r said of the sa1nt, other men would later say of the citizen: th same sense of civic virtue, of discipli ne and duty, lies behind thее h .. two names. Saint and c1t1zen toget er suggest а new integration of private men (or rather, of chosen groups of private men, of proven holiness and virtue) into the politica l order, an integration based upon а novel view of politics as а kind of conscientious and continu ous labor. This is surely the most significant outcome of the Calvinist theory of worldly activity , precedi ng in tirne any 2 infusion of religiou s worldli ness into the econom ic order. The diligent activism of the saints- Genev an, Huguen ot, Dutch, Scottish, and Puritan -marke d the transfo rmation of politics into work and revealed for the first time the extraor dinary ·conscience that directed the work. Conscience and work entered the politica l world together; they formed the basis for the new politics of revolut ion and shaped the charact er of the revolut ionary. They also provide d, it should Ье said, an interna l rationa le for the diligen t efficiency of the modern official and the pious politica l concern of the m?de~n 1 bourgeois. But both these eminen t men were revolutionar1es _n their time; they had first of all to constru ct а world in which their efficiency and concern would Ье respectaЫe-and to attack an older world that had made them both objects of mockery or

J.

Friedrich, Constitutional Reason Survival о/ Constitutional Order (Providence, R.. 1., 1957), Р· 59· 2

Tbls is suggested in С.

о/ State: rhe



IJ'St

the

lcaJ



IJts

the



on of

ra•

w

ве

iy



tt·

ro

Tl1e Emergence of Radical Politics 3

3

disdain. ln ~oliti~s as in religion the saints were oppositional men and their primary task was the destruction of traditiona1 order. But they were committed after that to the literal тefonn­ ~ng of_ human s?cie_ty, to the creation of а Holy Commonwealth 1n w~ich conscie~tious activity would Ье encouraged and even requ1red. The sa1nts saw themselves as divine instruments and theirs was the politics of wreckers, architects, and builders-hard at work upon the political wor]d. They refused to recognize anJ inherent or natural resistance to theiт labors. They treated every obstacle as another example of the devil's resourcefulness and they summoned all their energy, imagination, and craft to overcome it. Because their work required cooperation, they organized to сапу it through successfully and they joined .forces with any man who might hel р them without regard to the older bonds t>f family and neighborhood. They sought "brethrenн and turned away if necessary from their relatives; they sought zeal and not affection. Thus there arose the leagues and covenants, the conferences and congregations which are the prototypes of revolutionary discipline. In these the good work was caпied forward; at the same time, new saints were trained and hardened for their unremitting labor. The resu]ts of that Jabor сап best Ье seen in the English Revol u tion of 1 640. In Elizabethan and Jacobean drama the Calvinist saints who later p1ayed such а crucial part in that 1:evolution were described as men of hypocritical zeal, meddlesome, continually on the move, nervously and ostentatiously searching for godly things to do-thus Ben Jonson's Puritan, Zeal~of"the-Land Busy.4 Zeal-ofthe-Land was а comic figure, but he was also а new man, especially susceptiЬle to caricature. The saint's personality was his own most radical innovation. It was marked above all Ьу an uncompromising and sustained commitment to а political i_deal (wblch other men called hypocrisy), and Ьу а patt_ern of r1gorous and systematic labor in pursuit of that ideal (,vh1ch other men called

· !:ll'l'att•• that the Jacobln cluЬs. а11 unk_ n0-wingly. an а с- rane в-rtnton - о-· h N · played J 1 - • r• t · 1 g the bureaucra rs and petty officials of t е аро eon с era, щ.tportant part m rain n . _ N у - k. ) д 2 - •1•

lte The Jaco blns: Ап E.Шl)I in the New History ( _ew or • .19!0, рр. - 30 .1•· Jhnila.r argument. conntcting Puri.tanism with the r1se of par)Jamt ntary power an.d the tra:lning of pa-rlia.mentariamt will Ье made Ьelow. . . _. _ " 1··в h l _ F . air С! .._. w р Holden Ant,-Puntan Sa.t,тt, 1 ,1:1-16-, 2 • оn.юо, af't о omew . ~-• • •

(New Н.ven, а sи).

The Revolu tion of the Saints Th origins and conseq uences of this godJ.1 4 ed ЬeIO\V 1 II1eddlesomeness). . е dly business will Ье examin • t . t and thts go . h sixteent the m were both new est how comm1tmen . first to sugg ... . mprehe nsion the contem porar1e s of Ca}vi is necessary •.щ ith what 1nco ell approac hed the savage struggies into С century, w and then of romdwbusiness plunge d them, how frequen tly thRr -, ь · h godly zea1 an .. . erity" of the saint-I ong after he had, one w ic ed . In . doubted the sшс d1scussing 1t. trat demons tly sufficien ht Ug th . Bodi th h , о would ave n and Franas d sedition for exampl e, Ьо . . • ' rebe11юn an •н thought in terms of the ragged pleb1ans of the cl~id i dalis ,, f Ь Ь. Bacon st1 m. eu astar о 1ects su ighty "overm the and cal cities ing .of what was to come in s, had some forehod . perhap acon, в England when he wrote а wam1ng aga1nst unempl oyed scholars; such men would indeed become, though not merely Ьecause they were unemployed, the alienate d intellec tuals who fed the minds of the Iay saints. 5 But King James' Lord Chance llor had no sense of what this intellectual food would Ье like or of its consequences in human behavior. Even the great Clarend on, writing after the event, still saw the English Revolu tion as а conspir acy of discontented noЫemen. Не barely noticed the Puritan s and examin ed their faith only as а species of hypocrisy and an excuse for "turbulence. " 6 Clarendon was very wrong; yet his opinion s surely reflected the wisdom of the ages. The active, ideologically committed political radical had never before been known in Europe. Medieval society was, to use the word of а modern theorist, а so~iety largely composed of nonparticipants, inactive men.7 А brief glance at the history of that society will suggest the novelty of Calvinist politics. 11

Wri~ing in the second century A.D., the Stoic philoso pher Epic. · among th ose th1ngs tetus l1sted politics which are "not in our · d • power." "Ве ready' " h е аd vise h1s fellow Roman s, "to say that • d · н " lt oes ПОt СОПсеm 15 was а warnin g against amЬition you. . and th . away · а]so represe nted а turn1ng е pursuit of office Ь t 1t

,

и

11 Bacon, Essays "Of S d' . Commoпu.•ealth t;.._ns м j ~tion and TrouЫes." Jean Вodin Six Boolts о/ the , 6 Edward Ea~l of Cla~e~d ooley (Oxford, n.d.), р. 113. st0 and Civil Wars in Rebellion the о/ E~gland (O~ford, 18:i?), especf~j -~hke Hi ry

See Dan1el Lerner Th о '



• 111.

е c4S.f1ng of Tr4 d ·, · •

•onal Society (Glenooe, JU., 1958).

The Emergence of Radical Pol itics

5 from political_ int~rests and activity, а radical severance of priv ak needs a~d asp1rat1ons ~om t~e puЫic worln of cities and empires. The ph1losopher cult1vates 1ntemal things; he mus t Ье prepared "in ev~ry [external] thin g to have the inferior part, in honor, in office, 1n the cou rts of justice, in every little mat ter. 8 " Не is ready to do his duty , to perform any puЫic tasks for which he may Ье mad e responsiЫe Ьу Ьirth or Ьу appointment. But since he has no puЫic vision, no idea of the state reformed, no particular political purpose, he will aim in his office at noth ing more than an honoraЫe performance. His naпow sense of duty narrows in tum his political imagination and discovers no ideal to Ье pati entl y and systematically pursued. The phil osopher forms no party. Him self а slave, Epictetus wrote in an age whe n citizenship had lost its mea ning and all men had become, in one way or ano ther , subjects, whose political existence had but one essential characteristic: that they obeyed impersonal, more or less legal commands. The collapse of the universal sovereignty of the emp ire shattere d even this politics, subjecting men to а frightening variety of extralegal commands and forcing them to make priv ate and personal aпangements. The feudal system that eventually emerged from these aпangements virtually precluded political rela tions.9 For the formal, impersonal, legal and functional-ratio nal ties estaЫished Ьу а con ven tion al political syst em, it substituted the exte nde d family and the private treaty, relations inte nsely personal and in substance at least putatively natural, patr iarchal, and affective. For the interests and ideals that bou nd men together in the pur suit of political goals, it substituted the bonds of personal loyalty, kinship, and neighhorhood. For the rational consideration of political methods, it substituted а Ыin d adherence to customary ways. Men came to inhe rit not mer ely thei r lands and possessions, but also thei r social place ~~d thei r moral and persona1 commitments. Reverence for trad1t1on parallele d the reverence for fathers and lords and similarly preclude d impen ona l dev otio n to ideas, part ies, от states. Fam ilial от dynastic t lplctetus, Th• Ench iridion, tranL Gco tp Loog (Chic

1954). I, XXIX. • ТЬе folJowing eevera1 paragrapha are based Jarge1ago, y on Marc B1.oc_h •. FffUtl4l saae

,,, ttt.n L L, А . Manyon (СЫсаgо, 1g61), and Walte, Ullmann, Princaf,les of G"'Vt'tttmtrtt 4nd РоШ iа in th, Middlг .Ages (New Yo.rk, 1 gбi ).

б

The Revolution of the Saints

aggression or retreat replaced political activity. Distant and largel powerless kings retained some vestiges of authority and sorny claim to dominate the world of feudal arrangements only Ьу in~ voking divine right and acting out the magical rites of religious kingship. But if this increased somewhat the respect with which monarchy ,vas regarded, it also intensified the apathy of subjects -leaving the kings no dependaЫe supporters except God and their relatives. As much under the aegis of Christianity as through the subversive sutvival of pagan cults, politics became а distant realm of magic and mystery. Ordinary men lived in а naпower world, tied to family, village, and feudal lord, and forgot the very ideas of ci tizenshi р and the common good. Religion reinforced the philosopher's advice: politics ought never to Ье the concem of private men. When in the eJeventh and twelfth centuries, the feudal system was given theoretical form, it was described, of course, as а political communit y-but not as а community dependent upon the will or activity of its members and not as а community of equal citizens. In the work of а writer like John of Salisbury, for example, political society was seen as а great organism, а body politic not open to man-made transformations, as natural as was the family. 10 Men were not properly speaking citizens of this body, but literally members, related to the bodily whole in а functional-organic way. These members obviously shared an interest in the well-being of the body, but they were never called upon to der.ide together the precise nature of that interest. If the idea of the body politic suggested а higher degree of social integration than was in fact achieved Ьу the feudal system, it also suggested that the sole agent of that integration was the ruler. It setved the interests, then, of the new monarchs of the high Middle Ages. And it left politics а mystery still, open to the understanding of the rational head, but impenetraЫe to the mindless members. How could the foot challenge the authority or wisdom of the head? Organic imagery also served to justify the hierarchy of persons which had gradually supplanted the chaos of feudal aпangements. Barons and lords might well yield theoretical supremacy to the king; they gained an assured place within а hierarchical system, 10 John of Salisbury, Policтaticш, partially reprinted Ьу John Dickinson, Statesman's Book (New York, 1927), рр. 64ff. See also Dickinson's lntroduction.

The Emergence of Radical Politics l d . · 7 а natura an inev1 ta~le ranking of excellence and honor which was rarely 1n the premodern реr10 · d , even th ough prece. challenged . d~nce in its upper reaches was always in dispute. This social to Ье reflected not on1у 1n · t h е h uman h1erarchy was thought . . · organ1sm, but also 1n the cosmos , 1·n God's un1verse: as t hе h еаd rules _th e body, ~edieval writers argued, so God the world and the king the polity; as the angels stand below God in nine ranks and orders, _so the· noЫer parts of the body politic below the king and t~e priests of the body of Christ below the роре. The inequal1ty thus defended estaЫished pattems of obedience and ~eferen~e whi~h ma?e independent political activity as difficult 1n pract1ce as 1t was 1nconceivaЫe in theory. Efforts to restructure or reform the feudal system cou]d only Ье made from above, as in any unchaJlenged hierarchy, Ьу popes and new monarchs, or from outside, Ьу monkish enthusiasts of one sort or another. Neither popes, kings, nor monks~ however, dared suggest to lesser men, certainly not to laymen, that politics inv0lved sustained, methodical endeavor or free and rational association-though indeed the papal bureaucracy саше to incorporate elements of both. The Hildebrandine reform, fostered over the years Ьу Roman officialdom, was surely part of а rationalizing· process, involving as it did а determined attack upon those mysteries (such as the cult of the thaumaturgic king and the sacramental character of coronation) that had invaded the political world.11 The reformers sought to restrict mystery to the religious sphere (and to organize its administration there) and at least partly on the basis of this ·restriction to limit the aчthority of · secular kings and estaЫish а papal overlordship and а new moral order. But the new overlord could hardly suggest а new civisme to his subjects-it seems fair to argue that Gregorian Christianity was "civic" only to its priests-nor could he urge upon them any new forms of political activity. Himself а defender of hierarchy in the secular as in the ecclesiastical order, the роре chose among feudal- factions but created no new political associations.12 Methodical, sy~tematic endeavor remained а monkish characteristic, Fritz Kem, Kingship and Law in the Middle Ages, trans. with intro. Ьу S. В. Chrimes (Oxford, 1948), рр. 54ff. . d · G d 12 Perhaps the best discussion of the Gregorian refor,m~ 1s to Ье foun ш er Tellenbach, Church and Society at the Time (1/ the lnvest,ture Contest, trans. R. F. Bennet (Oxford, 1940). 11

8 .

.

The Revolutioп of the S . the papal bureaucracy and ag . aints .

im1tated perhaps ш religious orders of crusading knights but without signa'ifin in the . .cs о f Iayme С 1 . . the pol1t1 n. а vin1sts wou ld onc day look Ь1 cance k 1.n . . , . crusades as а fi ne examp1е о f re11g1ous act1v 1sm, but thас to. thе find few other examples in the Middle Ages. Feudal cou}d largely the chaotic struggles of aggressive nоЫе families rs Were · hty su ь·1ects" оf weak k'ings. R Ь 11· m1g ' over. е е 1ons were most oft . . . f 1 · . 1 desperate, f ur10us r1s1ngs о nonpo 1t1ca peasants or proletaen• the unorganized, helpless, with only the crudest of programs. rians, Th~ traditional world view of medieval man, with its со · · g ро11t1ca · · 1 order, h1erar tюn о f an unc hangш · chical and orga ncep, . h . 1 and 1ts emp as1s upon persona and particularistic relationic, рrоЬаЫу precluded any sort of independent political aspirati:s• or initiative. 18 Something of both, however, was surely presen~ in the great cities of the late medieval and Renaissa~ce periodsas the long struggles for democracy in the guilds and for the leadership of the guilds in the government demonstrate. But even in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Italy where urbanization was most advanced, it would Ье difficult to discover а politics characterized Ьу zealous, systematic, and sustained activity. There did emerge, among Florentine humanists for example, а new and striking sense of the virtues of political life and the civic duty of citizens. But in practice the intense antagonisms of classes and families among the Italians culminated in conspiracy, assassination, riot, and internal соир, rather than in systematic organization, sustained activity, or revolution. Civic virtue never triumphed over familial loyalty; the idea of shared citizenship never overcame an extraordinary concern with hierarchical status; the class struggle with its usual accompaniment of shared interests and enthusiasms never entirely replaced the feudal vendetta.н

w:y

11

18 The teпn traditi onal is used here in Мах WeЬer' s sense to indicate а society and mentality founded оп custom and personalistic relatio ns. Thus the feudal hierarchy was а chain о/ being and not а hierarchy of office; it w_as not open, to planoe d reconstruction; WeЬer, The .Theory о/ Social and Econom 1c Organ1zotion, traos. А. М. Hende non and Talco tt Parsons (Oxford, 1947), рр. 314ff. сЬ ' н "А popul ar radicalism in the form in which it is opposed to the monar ies of later times, is not to Ье found in the despotic States of the Renais.,ance. Еаьf individual protested inwardly against despotism but was dispos ed to. make tole~ ~ or profitaЫe terms with it rather than comblne witb othen for 1t1 destructi~n. Jacob Burck hardt1 The Civiliюtion о/ the Renaissance in Italy: An ~у (Lon 0 9 ), р. 59. Sce allO G. А. Bruc:ker, Florentine Politic, and Society: 1 J4J•IJ7 1 55

°8

The Emergence of Radical Politics

9 In the early sixteenth century, Machiavelli's Discourses offer an ima~inative an~ realistic discussion of political life and are fil~ed ~Ith а genu1ne. yearning for civic virtue and citizenship. H1s Prince, however, 1s not а program for activist citizens, but а handbook for adventurers. The new consciousness of politics as а matter of individual skill and calculation, which Machiavelli best embodies, was as yet unaccompanied Ьу а new ideology that might give form to the creative work, Iimiting and shaping the amЬition of princes and making availaЫe to them the willing cooperation of other men. The new consciousness thus produced only an intensely personal, faction-ridden politics. Artistry freed from form gave rise to the political condottiere, the virtuoso of power. Whatever the reality of Weber's description of Italy's economic life, the importance of the adventurer in her politics сап hardly Ье denied. 15 Savonarola may well Ье an exception, if the martyr is not in fact а kind of religious adventurer. It was his endeavor, he-wrote, to "make [Florence] virtuous, create for her а state that will preserve her virtue."16 This might have provided an ideal around which to shape political activity and organize а party of zealots. But the single motor force of the Savonarolan reform was а charisma ю purely personal, so incapaЫe of organizational expression, that there remained after the death of the man himse1f nothing more than an exotic memory and а rathcr uninteresting col1ection of sermons. The Florentines were entirely соттесt to recognize in Savonarola а man but not а movement, а passion but not an ideology. Half а century later the people of Geneva would discover that precisely the opposite was true of John Calvin. 111

Machiavelli's adventurer-prince is one of the first of the "masterless men" of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These were the heroes and villains of the age, cut Ioose from organic, Social World о/ · (р пnceton, 19б2 ) , рр • 2 s, .,11 5• 1 2 5- 126·• .and Lauro Martines, The 0 . • the Florentine Humanists: 1390-1460 (Prшceton, 1963), РР· 5. ~15 See Мах Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit о/ Capitalism, trans. Talcott Parsons (New York, 1958), рр. 58ff.. 16 Quoted in Roberto Ridolfi, The Life о/ Girolamo Savonarola, trans. Cecil Grayson (New York, 1959), р. 105.

'ТЪе Rcvolu tion of thc S«,inu taierarcl,ical, aocl pa1·tk t1lari~tic ties-am bltiou~ . calcula tiпи • reverent- insensitivc to the an(~ient n1.ysteries bttt not yct gт:-.tect iп to :t 111odcrn soci:tl sys terп . Some or thcse men eventцal l found а new 111aate1· in Cu lvjn 's Cod and tJ1en they set tl) \\•ort creati11g а ne,v юciety in ,vhkta l1e could Ье glorificd and th(y coнld Ье active. Calvin pursucd po,ver in (;eneva witl1 all ttн~ artfulness of а Macl1iavellian adventнrer; the same might bt St,tid of his follo,ve rs in England . Yet the eJcmenu of кver1te enth• cetнury revolutionary politics need only Ье listed to suggest ttн: distaпce the English Calvini sts t1ad come not only front tl1c р~ sivity of medieval members, but also from the pure self-aggrandizeto

"in~~

ment of Renaiss ance princes. First, the judicial murde r-and not the assassi nation- of King Charles 1; the trial of the king in 1649 was а bo)d explora tion into the very nature of monarc hy rather than а persona l attack upon Charles himse1f. Secondly, the appeara nce of а ,vell~is ciplined citizens ' army in which represe ntative council s arose and "agitato rs" lectured or preache d to the troops, teachin g even privates (cobЫers and tinkers jn the satiric literatu re) to reflect upon politica l issues. Thirdly , the first effort to ,vrite and then to re,vritc the constitu tion of а nation, thus quite literally constтucting а new politica l order. Fourthl y, the public presenta tion of ,vho)e sets of clamoroнs demand s, many of them from previoнsly passive and nonpoli tical men, for the reorgan ization of tl1e chнrcl1, thc state, tl1e governm ent of Loпdon, the educationat system, and tl1e administratio11 of th.e poor la,vs. Fifthly, the formati on of groups specifically and delibera tely desigпed to implemeпt tl1ese dcmand s, groups based оп the princip le of ,,oJunta ry association and requirin g proof of ideological commit шent but not о( Ыооd ties, aristocr atic patrona ge, or local residcnce. Sixtt.ly, the appeara nce of а politica l joumalism in respon~ to the sudden expansi on of the active and inteтe!ted puЫic. Finally and аЬоvе all, the shaгp, insisten t a,varen csi о( tlн: nced for and tf1e possibllity of rt/orm. Surely one or the tlecisi\'C~ cru1ract eri,tics of the пе,\' politia, tt,is passion to rein.ake societ)' was clrarly nwnifest in а шmon preached Ье(оте t.lat- House of Con1mo11s in 1611а : Re(orm ation must Ье univern l (ahortc d the Puriн,n minister Thomas C.UtJ . . . re(orm all places, aJI ре1"ЮШ aod ulli111'; nrorm

The Emerg ence of Radica l Politic s

11

the benches of judgement, the inferior magistrates R f .h · · · f h •. • . . е orm t е un1vers1t1es, re orm t е c1t1es reform the countri· es f · f er1or · . , . . , orm 1n schools. of learn1ng, reform the Sabbath refonn th re d" h , е or 1nances, t е worsh1p of Go~ · · · you have more work to do than I can speak ... Every plant which my heavenly father hath not planted shall Ье rooted up.11

~he sa~e .spirit was presen t sixty years earlier in а group of Pur1tan minist ers who drafted а parliamentary Ьill which with its first clause woul~ have thrown down all existing "laws, customs, statutes, ord1nances and constitutions" of the English church. 18 It is hard even to conceive of а politics of such destructive sweep in the Middle Ages. It is at least equally hard to imagine the magistrates, scholars, or soldiers who would happily have set about provid ing new laws, customs, statutes, ordinances, and so on. ln his own fashion, however, Cromwell was such а man; John Milton , who served him, was surely another. Not only the church , but the state, the househo]d, the school, even the theater and the sports arena- religio n, culture, family, and politic s-all these the great Puтitan poet would have made anew.19 The very word reform took on а new meaning in the course of the sixteen th and sevent eenth centuries: it had once suggested renewal, restora tion to some original fonn or state.20 This was the connot ation it рrоЬаЫу carried for early Protestants with their vision of the primiti ve church and for many French and English la,vyers who conceived and glorified an "ancie nt constitutio n." But the changes proposed in the name of these two myths were often so radical and represented, despite the appeal to custom and preced ent, such а sharp depart ure from cuпent practice, that reform саше eventually to mean simply improvement, change for the better, indeed, radical c_hange for the better. Ву the 1б о's the word implie d transformat1ons of_ the sort asso4 ciated today with revolu tion. That was the sense 1t already had for the conservative Hooke r who saw reform as an endless process: "There hath ·arisen а sect in Englan d which ... seeketh to reform Tliomas Case, Two Sermons Lately Preached (London, 1_642), 11, ~3, 16. (The spelling has been moderni zed here and in all subseque nt ~uotatюns and t1tles.) 18 Quoted in J. Е. Neale, Elizabeth l and Her Parliaments: .1584-.1601 (London, 17

957), Р· 149· 19 See especially Milton, Works, ed. F. А. Patterson , et al. (New у ork , 1932) III ' ' part I, 237ff. and IV, 275ff. . 20 Oxford English Dictiona ry, s.v. reform, reformat1on. 1

12

The Revolu tion of the Saints

even the French [that is, the Huguenot] reformation." It had а similar meaning in Milton's ,vork: "God is decreeing some new and great period in his church, even to the reforming of reformation itself."21 Preachers and Ia,vyers continued, of course, to appeal to primitive and ancient practices, but the shift in meaning is clearly visiЫe in the gradual replacement of the cyclical view of history that underlay the idea of renewal with а progressive view that provided а theoretical foundation for the idea of improvement.22 The development of а theory of progress is only another sign of the new political spirit, the new sense of activity and its possibllities, the more radical imagination that mark the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The origins and nature of this new spirit are suggested Ьу the fact that progress was first imagined in terms of а Christian history and an imminent millenium, or again, Ьу the fact that it was а minister who preached so energetically of reform to the gentlemen, lawyers, and merchants of the English Commons. The Puritan cleric insisted that political activity was а creative endeavor in which the saints were privileged as well as oЫiged to participate. The saints were responsiЫe for their world-as medieval men were not-and responsiЫe above all for its continual reformation. Their enthusiastic and purposive activity was part of their religious life, not something distinct and separate: they acted out their saintliness in debates, elections, administration, and warfare. Only some sensitivity to religious zeal сап make the behavior of the English in the sixteen-forties and fifties explicaЫe. Politics for the moment was the pursuit of а religious goal; its end was joy-if only spiritual joy-as Milton surely knew and even the most somber and dutiful of the saints must dimly have sensed. But Puritan zeal was not а private passion; it was instead а highly collective emotion and it imposed upon the saints а new and impersonal discipline. Conscience freed the saints from medieval passivity and feudal loyalty, but it did not encourage the individualist, Italianate politics of faction and intrigue. Puritan the Laws о/ Ecclesia.stical Polity, Everyman's Ed. (London, 1954), bk. IV, Worlcs, IV, 540. Milton, 4. Vlll, Millenium and Utopia: А Stud1 in tht Bulcground of th• Tuveson, L. Е. 22 Sec ldea о/ Progress (Вerkeley, 1949). 21 О/

The Em erge nce of Rad ical Poli tics 13 ministers cam paig ned against the personal extravagance of the great Renaissance cou rtier s and deplored the role of "pri vate interest" in politics. The conscientious activity that they favoтed is perhaps best revealed in Cromwell's New Model Arm y, with its rigid cam p discipline, its elaborate rules against ever y imaginaЫe sin from loot ing and rapi ne to Ыasphemy and card-playing and finally its workmanlike and efficient military tacti cs. Such а discipline, emphasizing self-contтol (or mut ual surveilla nce), sustained com mitm ent and systematic activity mig ht well have its parallel in politics. Indeed, the new spir it of the Pur itan s can Ье defined as а kind of mili tary and political work-ethic, directly analogous to the "worldly asceticism" which Мах Web er has described in economic life, but orie nted not toward acqu isition so much as tow ard con tent ion, struggle, destruction, and rebuilding.23 Calvinist conscience gave to war and to politics (and if Weber is righ t to business as well) а new sense of met hod and purpose. It is this above all that distinguishes the activ ity of the saints from that of medieval men, caught up in the unc hanging world of trad i tion, fixed in thei r social place and loya l to thei r relatives; and also from that of Renaissance men, purs uing а purely personal amЬition. IV

The purposive and systematic activity of the saints is at least logically dep end ent оп four othe r developments in social and political hist ory -asp ects of the gradual transformation of а traditional into а mod ern society. The se are not quit e accu rately described as the prec ond ition s of Calvinist radicalism, for they were themselves the prod ucts of hum an willfulness and even of the willfulness of the saints. The y are developments parallel and тe­ lated to the emergence of radical poiitics; they help ed make ideological com mitm ent and political reconstruction possiЫe. Thr ee of these developments can Ье described Ьу simp ly paraphrasing Мах Web er's outl ine of the social basis of the new economics.24 (1) The separation of politics from the household. Alre ady in the Middle Ages, the r~or deri ng activity of papalists and new 2а

Weber, Protestant Ethic, рр. 95ff.

24 IЬid., рр. 21-22 .

The Revolu tion of the Saints 1 partiall y successful war • 4 1 g and only monarchs had re~uir ed; : : and legal privileges of the feudal against the proprietary . gt d out Ьу many observers, however families. It has b~en ;;:ne; this war not Ьу abolish ing but ь; that popes and ki~gs an: monopalize these rights and privileges as bridegr oom of the church and for seeking to appropriate th country. Thus the familial aggresfor themselves, for e P~Pt~e th O the monarch as faреп~odr was replaced Ьу dynasti c aggrandizement 1· . the grand patris1on of an ear ier . h. of feudal lords Ьу . . 1es patr1arc tty ful k. gs Such changes obv1ously d1d .not rule and thе ре in · f ower . • of familial palitics, in the form of ar1stocratic archies O Р_ out the continuatюn t. nepotism. But they did tend to reduce 1· . 1 1·r ·r ra ic fac tion and bureauc 1 only Ьу tance of kinship in ро 1t1ca 11 1 е, . . ь· impor the at omewh 5 у 1s ch1ldren. equa were s subject king's the th • . d suggest1ng at а11 а recognif the Calvinist saints, however, requ1re . • •• • The act1v1ty о ь· ts were knowledgeaЫe and act1ve c1t1zens rather . t1on that а11 su 1ес а housement was l'ti'cal children ' that govem .. . . not . than na1ve ро 1 lov1ng а no~ k1ng the and fam1ly, d hold, the state not an extende g up of adical politics was depend ent upon the break1n d . d d. ·fi d father. R 1storte 1mages. the traditional family and all its magn1 е an That it also had а part in the reconst ruction of the family in а more modern form will Ье argued below. ( 2 ) тhe appearance о/ form~lly free т~п. In the sixteen th century it is first possiЫe to gl1mpse that 1llegal man who has become so common in modern times, the politic al exile. Не has an importance in the history of politics someth ing like that of the runaway serf in а broade r social history . Не is the runaway subject, а very different figure from the defeate d feudal lord, the banished baron who traveled in countri es not precise ly foreign and graced the courts of his relatives. The exile first appears in Italy, among the faction leaders of the Renais sance city-states who so often found themselves condem ned to wande r abroad or to live in embltte red isolation on their countr y estates. But the new, sixteenth-century radical was more likely than the Renais• sance politician to Ье self-exiled for ideolog ical reasons , the victim not of а feud but of а persecu tion. The religio us Reform ation, destroying or significantly underm ining the corpor ate church, had set Ioose а ne,v group of men, freelan ce preach ers and vagabond scholars. Often driven from their native land, these new

The Eme rgen ce of Radi cal Polit ics 15 intellectua~s nour ished their fervor as well as their resentment and or~anize~ а? oppo sition that reached consideraЫy beyond th~ factious intrig ues of_ the Italians. The mere presence of the ex1le, however, whet her 1n Italy or in the north , is sufficient indication of the existence of many more persons detached from feudal bonds and oЫigations. Thes e are the "masterless men" of Hobbes' description; their lives are reflected also in the new litera ture of the picaresque. In Hobb es' work and in the novels they most ofte~ apfe ar as. rogu es-da nger ous or delightful depe nding on one s po1nt of v1ew. But they were also pilgrims and so they are described in the serm on litera ture of the Puritans.21i Only such men woul d Ье сараЫе of orga~izing themselves voluntarily uponthe basis of ideological commitment. Only with them migh t the politics of dynastic aggrandizement Ье replaced Ьу the politics of indiv idual , party , class, and natio nal aggrandizement. (3) The rational, amoral, pragmatic consideration of political methods. А truly realistic sense of the methodology of power, its acquisition, prese rvatio n, and use, рrоЬаЫу appears first in the Italia n cities. The relati ve weights of skill, energy, and luck in political affairs were there calculated with great care and dedicated inter est. On the basis of an accumulating record of actual political expe rienc e the appropriateness of various means to various ends was Iengt hily debated. The long-term effect of such debates was to end th,e usefulness of mystery as а political Iimit: nothi ng was exem pt from the vigorous, pragmatic conc em of а man like Machiavelli. Thou gh with obviously different purposes, some thing of this same conc em survived and was even exten ded and made more profo und iri the political casuistry of Calvinist and Jesui t write rs. 26 The exhau stive and often tedious deliberations of pries ts and saint s as to whet her thi~ о~ that political mea~s migh t Iegit imate ly Ье empl oyed Ьу Chr1st1ans had а dramat1c effect: the passi onate pursu it of personal powe r was trans fo~e d into а colle ctive and consc ientio us ende avor and the devll1sh study of the art of polit ics into а god~y science. Every act _of every king was open ed to the secon d guess1ng of alert, calculat1ng, and Ье The best discussion of the theme of piJgrim~ge in Purita n literature is t~ lly found in Willia m Haller , The Rise о/ Puтitanasm (N~w York, 1957), espeaa рр. 147ff. Оп the picaresque, see F. w. Cbandler, The L1teratuтe о/ Roguery (New York, 1907). 28 G. L. Mosse, The Holy Pretence (Oxford, 1957). 25

The Rev olut ion of the Saints 16 more religious sub ject s-an d this pious second-gues~ing was even hiaveIdangerous to kings than was the cool pra ~at ism of а Mac casuists, Iian adventurer. Conscientious men requ1red the careful ately their but once they had been told that ~o":er was I_egit~m рrоЬа­ goal they were extraordinarily effect1ve 1n pursu1ng 1t and g the necesЫу even more ruthless than the adv entu rer in ado ptin . . .. sary means. modern (4) The rise о/ large-scale politic~l -uni ts. O~I_y 10 ~he -family, state are the various centers of trad1t1onal pol1t1cal l1fe transcorporation, town, and so on-o verw helm ed and then socialized formed into min or units through which chil dren are esented. and taugpt obedience and economic or Iocal interests repr k, in the And only whe n this, or something like this, is, so to spea politics. works, is the stage set for the full dev elop men t of radical сt to argu e that а А recent student of revolution is surely сопе historical full-scale party organization of political rebels is the modem parallel of the complicated, powerful app arat us of the 27 But this state; the two appear together in the sixt eent h century.' s and the is not merely а matter of the challenge of absolutist king groups of response of radicals and heretics. In а sense, the two ion, even men, kings and rebels, work tog ethe·r-whatever the tens tical units the wars between them. The suppression of sma ller poli ple, Ьу in which energy and zeal had Ьееn dissipated (for exam ion of Hussite heretics in а semifeudal Bohemia), the destruct of the feudal, familial, and local loyalties, the reap pear ance (out citizen: medieval organism) first of the subj ect and then of the e which these шау well provide the social basis for that obedienc logical new monarchs required; tl1ey also prov ide the basis for ideo cominitment and voluntary association. V

of free The breakdown of feudaI patr iarc hy; the emergence es; the ra~en , whether exiles or vagabonds, pilg rims or rogu mod ern state tюnal calculation of politicaI means; the rise of the in which -the se developments sugo-est the h-istorical situ atio n th e saint appeared. Не wa~ the man who possessed that "unusu· 2 the development of ~е i ~ K~enigsberger, "Revolutionary Parties," р. 5SS· On The Tudo r Revolution _ns~tutюns of th e modem state in England, see G. R. Elton ' т overnment (Cambridge, Eng., 195s).

17 The Eme rgen ce of Rad ical Poli tics ssary ally strong chara_c~er" (to ~s~ We_ber's phrase) which was nece erto overcome pol1t1cal trad1t1onal1sm and to survive in the dang 28 ds to ous w~rld of ma~terless men. In а rough way, he coпespon ious Weber s ·econom1c entr epre neur , ,-vho differed from the caut h as medieval ~urgh_er and the Itali an adventurer-capitalist muc isthe new sa1nt d1ffered from the medieval subject and the Rena lsance condottiere. Radical politics was the saint's creation, deve ntaoped thro ugh а difficult process of invention and experime own tion. Its systematic and sustained character was the saint's ods character, acte d out in worldly endeavor. Its part icul ar meth cs were prod uced in muc h the same way as modern military tacti is,. were evolved oui of feudal diso rder and personal combat, that cally in the course of the political conflict itself, Ьу men systemati ry. active, imaginatively responsive to opportunity, seeking victo Good brother, we must bend unto all means 29 Tha t may give furtherance to the holy cause. Thu s spoke Ben Jons on's Trib ulat ion Wholesome as he led one t. of the Puri tan bret hren into the shop of the ungodly alchemis ess of the political Не suggested the conscientious recklessn was entr epre neur . Trib ulat ion, Iike his brot her Zeal-of-the-Land, Jonson's play unа caric atur e; yet the audi ence that watched dedoubtedly had some acqu ainta nce with him. The saint to Ье ion, scribed below is in some ways а "typ e"-t he sociological vers ioned perhaps, of caric atur e. Yet part icul ar historical men fash them themselves as best they coul d in his image, and some of cause. certainly soug ht every availaЫe means to furth er the holy pages It is with these poli tical entr epre neur s that the following the are concerned. In every coun try, thei r features were roug hly ature. same; hence the usefulness both of the "typ e" and the caric It mus t always Ье rem emb ered , of course, that these were men nds, of diverse interests and capacities, of different social backgrou ed participating in vari ous ways in the going system and com mitt draw n with varying inte nsity to the new orde r. Individuals were est into the form al life of the refo rme d churches whose deep ed, loyalties covertly Iing ered behi nd; others, genu inel y com mitt of nevertheless mai ntai ned anac hron istic or disjo inted patt erns 2 8 WeЬer, Protestant Ethic , р. бg. 29 Jonson, .TJie Alche mist, III. i.

The Revolution of the Saints 18 thought, expression, or conduct. Despite ~11 t~is, _however, the the ne,•• and 1deal1zat1on, · t 1•s vi· siЫe, open to caricature .-v • • • • sa1n politics inexpiicaЬle without h1m. H1s presence in th1s world of confusion, caution, and peren11iaI half-heartedn ess suggests а series of questions. Genevan