Argument authority early mod england

411 Pages·2006·4 MB·English

by  Conal Condren

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Argument and Authority in Early Modern England
Conal Condren offers a radical reappraisal of the nature of moral and
political theory in early modern England through an examination of
widespread arguments about office. The vocabulary of office-holding
andabusewassufficientlysuppleandpervasiveforustoinferageneral
presuppositionofofficecoheringthewholespectrumofsocialdiscourse,
fromconceptualisingthesoultounderstandingtheresponsibilitiesofthe
philosopher,poet,parentandpriest.Theexplorationofthisvocabulary
involvesa reconsideration of the nature of early modern social debate,
challenging fashionable preoccupations with emerging ideologies and
with liberalism, liberty, republicanism, a public sphere, and reason of
statetheory,throughwhichstudyofseventeenth-centurypoliticaltheory
has been organised. Indeed, the very idea of early modern political
theory is called into question. Professor Condren reconsiders the im-
portance of oath-taking, and analyses anew the three great crises of
oath-takingthatpunctuatedEnglishhistoryintheseventeenthcentury.
Again,hisconclusionschallengewidelyheldbeliefsaboutearlymodern
politicalargument,theprocessofsecularisation,andtheriseofdefacto
theory. Argument and Authority is a major new work from a senior
scholar of early modern political thought, of interest to a wide range
ofhistorians,philosophersandliteraryscholars.
CONAL CONDREN is Scientia Professor in Politics and International
RelationsattheUniversityofNewSouthWales,Australia.

Argument and Authority in
Early Modern England
The Presupposition of Oaths and Offices
Conal Condren
TheUniversityofNewSouthWales
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Cambridge University Press
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©ConalCondren2006
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Firstpublishedinprintformat 2006
isbn-13 978-0-511-16838-3 eBook(EBL)
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To Averil

Contents
Preface page ix
Introduction 1
Part I:The liquid empire ofoffice
1 An overvi ew 15
2 Ceremonies of office: The kiss of thetutti-man 36
3 Institutionalised office:a sense of the scavenger 54
4 The vocabularyof office 80
5 Offices ofthe intellect: player,poetand philosopher 105
6 Soul and conscience 125
Part II: The authority and insolence ofoffice
7 The cases of patriot and counsell or 149
8 Cas uistry as the media tion of office 172
9 The case of resistance tosuperior power 186
10 Metaphorandpolitical autonomy 209
Part III: ‘I, A.B.’
11 An overview ofthe oath in seventeenth-centuryargument 233
12 Coronation oaths 254
13 The oathof allegiance of 1606 269
vii
viii Contents
14 Engagement with afree state 290
15 The oath ofallegiance and theRevolution of1688–9 314
Epilogue 343
Bibliography 353
Index 391