History of Political Literature Author:Robert Blakley Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: abeyance during the reign of Elizabeth; but became more prominently active and vigorous, in the reign of her successor, James I. During the sway of the unfortuna... more »te Charles I., and till he fell by the hand of the executioner, the great body of the English nation never once relaxed their efforts in the cause of popular right, and religious toleration. Cromwell, himself, says, that whatever might be the efficient and proximate causes of the commencement of the civil war, yet God soon brought it to a religious issue; and he constantly affirms, that amidst the contentions, and dangers, and sacrifices of war, the reward which he and his followers always had before them, was the freedom of worshipping God according to their conscience. Section III. From the death of Charles I. to the year 1700. In the reign of Charles I., and during the Commonwealth, and even for a considerable time afterwards, it must be kept in remembrance, that there were floating in the public mind five distinct systems of church government; namely, Popery, Diocesan Episcopacy, Presbyterianism, Independency, and Erastianism. Each of these ecclesiastical forms sought to mould or modify civil liberty and political right in some fashion or other; and hence the writers of each system naturally adopted that particular political theory which was more or less in harmony with their respective views of church policy. The execution of the king was, of itself, one of the most important political events the world ever witnessed. It imparted to the public mind of Europe new views of the ends or purposes of governments, and of the reciprocal duties of citizenship which spring out of, and sustain them. There can be little doubt, but that the writings which had previously appeared in England, and even on the continent, rel...« less
ISBN-13: 9780804608800 ISBN-10: 0804608806 Pages:967 Edition:New ed of 2 ed (1885 Rating: