Secular politics and the constitution in the state

For most educated Englishmen political theory was not some etiolated branch of philosophy, but a living ideology which informed their attitudes to political institutions and contemporary debates. Most of the statements of Christians, clerical and lay, were made in response to the stimulus of events, and the various arguments outlined in Chapter 1 need to be set in their contemporary political contexts. These events rarely changed those men's fundamental beliefs, but they did determine which aspects of a wide and complex ideology should be emphasised and vigorously argued. Disputes within and between denominations were also focussed and clarified as controversialists on all sides answered each other's arguments.

This chapter does not attempt to provide a comprehensive review of all religious reactions to the political events of the period, but rather to set the body of theory examined in Chapters 1 to 6 in the general context of contemporary political events by examining some of the crucial points of contact between theory and practice. The major ideological debate of these years centred around the revolution in America, but there were also domestic matters which involved basic issues of principle – the role of the king in the constitution, the Wilkes affair, parliamentary reform, and slavery. The main analysis attempted here relates to the politico-religious reactions to the dispute and war with the American colonies, but first, to set this controversy in context, some brief snapshots of a few of the contributions to domestic debates are offered.