Friendship, Coercion, and Interest: Debating the Foundations of Justice In Early Modern England

2004 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Personality ◽  
Valuable Source ◽  
Economic Theories ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Commutative Justice ◽  
Promise Keeping

AbstractThis essay examines the significance of friendship and the expectations associated with it in the early modern debate about trust and the fulfillment of obligations as that debate unfolded in England. A thorough rethinking about the foundations of society and the mechanisms of social order focused on the motives and justifications that led people to create and fulfill obligations to others, especially in the area of commutative justice. Commutative justice was achieved when contracts were secure, promises kept, exchanges carried through, and debts paid. The growth of the state, new economic theories, and the development of strict contract encouraged reliance on coercion (or punitive measures) and self-interest. While these visions of society triumphed, there was a show of resistance based on the idea that friendship was a more valuable source of justice because it brought into play the virtues of generosity, gratitude, and promise-keeping (or fidelity). At stake was the very de fi nition and scope of human personality and morality.

State and Commonwealth

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noah Dauber
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Social History ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
The State ◽  
Material Wealth ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Textual Traditions

In the history of political thought, the emergence of the modern state in early modern England has usually been treated as the development of an increasingly centralizing and expansive national sovereignty. Recent work in political and social history, however, has shown that the state—at court, in the provinces, and in the parishes—depended on the authority of local magnates and the participation of what has been referred to as “the middling sort.” This poses challenges to scholars seeking to describe how the state was understood by contemporaries of the period in light of the great classical and religious textual traditions of political thought. This book presents a new theory of state and society by expanding on the usual treatment of “commonwealth” in pre-Civil War English history. Drawing on works of theology, moral philosophy, and political theory, the book argues that the commonwealth ideal was less traditional than often thought. It shows how it incorporated new ideas about self-interest and new models of social order and stratification, and how the associated ideal of distributive justice pertained as much to the honors and offices of the state as to material wealth. Broad-ranging in scope, the book provides a more complete picture of the relationship between political and social theory in early modern England.

“Vows to the Blackest Devil”: Hamlet and the Evolving Code of Honor in Early Modern England

1999 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 1070-1086 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reta A. Terry
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
The State ◽  
Honor Code ◽  
Honor System ◽  
The Individual ◽  
State Analysis

The Renaissance was a period in which the honor code underwent a significant metamorphosis. The medieval, chivalric code of honor, with its emphasis on lineage, allegiance to one's lord and violence, evolved into an honor code that was both more moral and political in that it began to emphasize the individual conscience and allegience to the state. Analysis of Shakespeare's Hamlet, and in particular its characters' use of promise, provides new and revealing insights into the evolving Renaissance codes of honor, for Shakespeare creates characters in Hamlet that represent various stages in the evolution of a changing honor system.

The Shrine of St. Winefride and Social Control in Early Modern England and Wales

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-19
Author(s):  
Matthias Bryson
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Henry Viii ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Alternative Concept ◽  
The Church

In 1534, Henry VIII declared himself the supreme head of the Church of England. In the years that followed, his advisors carried out an agenda to reform the Church. In 1536, the Crown condemned pilgrimages and the veneration of saints’ shrines and relics. By the end of the seventeenth century, nearly every shrine in England and Wales had been destroyed or fell into disuse except for St. Winefride’s shrine in Holywell, Wales. The shrine has continued to be a pilgrimage destination to the present day without disruption. Contemporary scholars have credited the shrine’s survival to its connections with the Tudor and Stuart regimes, to the successful negotiation for its shared use as both a sacred and secular space, and to the missionary efforts of the Jesuits. Historians have yet to conduct a detailed study of St. Winefride’s role in maintaining social order in recusant communities. This article argues that the Jesuits and pilgrims at St. Winefride’s shrine cooperated to create an alternative concept of social order to the legal and customary orders of Protestant society.

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