Jewish Anti-Christian Arguments as a Source of Irreligion from the Seventeenth to the Early Nineteenth Century

Varieties of Seventeenth- and Early Eighteenth-Century English Radicalism in Context

“…48 Consequently, Winstanley rebuked ministers for enforcing observance of the sunday sabbath with the magistrates' power, endeavouring to compel people 'to keep that day after the manner of the Jewish tipe'. 49 Profanation of the sabbath, it should be stressed, was a serious matter during the English Revolution. So much so that the 'Book of Sports' -a royal initiative encouraging traditional Sunday pastimes like Morris dancing, bowls and football outside the hours of divine service -was publicly burned by the hangman on 10 may 1643 at Cheapside,london.…”

“…42 Finally, in the interests of making 'the past more intelligible to the present', not to mention keeping the attention of a general audience, Philip Baker too believes we should continue using the word 'radicalism' in order to convey: Introduction 13 Catholic radicals, 48 royalist radicals, 49 and so-called radical conservatives like the Clubmen? 50 These unusual conjunctions alert us to the interpretative possibilities of recasting radical and radicalism as fluid, situational categories that contravene conventional boundaries in complex ways.…”

“…48 furthermore, twysden bemoaned both the weight of parliamentarian taxation (which he regarded as reflections of 'ambitious appetites'), private interests, and lust for power within the ranks of parliamentarian grandees, as well as what he considered financial and political corruption on an unprecedented scale. 49 more interesting than such hints of constitutional royalism, however, are twysden's statements regarding the power of Parliament and the role of mPs. it is possible to demonstrate, firstly, a repeated insistence upon the legal requirement for, and practical benefit of, annual Parliaments.…”

“…By implication the 'Black-Spread Eagle' had been the house on the walls from which 'the spiers out of the truth and the new light' came to conquer Jericho. 49 'unity in variety', which according to Jonathan scott characterises radicalism as a process, represented both the truth and substance of religion at the 'Blackspread-eagle'. from the late 1640s Calvert's imprint became synonymous with a strand of works which increasingly merged complete liberty of conscience with a spiritualistic and antinomian understanding of religion.…”

“…long-term, indeed perpetual, political stability rested, he believed, in the tight regulation of property distribution: 'equality of estates causeth equality of power, and equality of power is the liberty not only of the Commonwealth, but of every man'. 49 this 'balance' would be achieved by the enforcement of an 'Agrarian' -a law fixing the limits of individual property ownership. An 'equality of power', both domestic and foreign, would thus prevent the 'overbalance' on which mixed and absolute monarchies were founded, and check the growth in the provinces of the sort of over-mighty subjects who had overturned the Roman republic.…”