The Republican Discourse on Religious Liberty during the Exclusion Crisis

Much recent historiography assumes that republican calls for religious liberty in seventeenth-century England were limited to Protestant dissenters. Nevertheless there is evidence that some radical voices during the Civil War and Interregnum period were willing to extend this toleration even to ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inHistory of European ideas Vol. 38; no. 3; pp. 352 - 369
Main Author Mahlberg, Gaby
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Taylor & Francis Group 01.09.2012
Subjects
Attitudes
Catholicism
Catholics
Civil War
Discourse
Exclusion Crisis
Freedom
Henry Neville
Historiography
Loyalty
Pragmatism
Protestants
Radicalism
religious liberty
Republicanism
toleration
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Summary:Much recent historiography assumes that republican calls for religious liberty in seventeenth-century England were limited to Protestant dissenters. Nevertheless there is evidence that some radical voices during the Civil War and Interregnum period were willing to extend this toleration even to 'false religions', including Catholicism, provided their members promised loyalty and allegiance to the government. Using the case study of the republican Henry Neville, this article will argue that toleration for Catholics was still an option during the Exclusion Crisis of the late seventeenth century despite new fears of a growth of 'popery and arbitrary government'. Neville's tolerationist approach, it will be shown, was driven by his Civil War and Interregnum experience, as well as by political pragmatism and very personal circumstances which shaped his attitude towards Catholics in his own country and abroad.
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ISSN:0191-6599
1873-541X
DOI:10.1080/01916599.2012.674841