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LATITUDINARIANISM AND APOCALYPTIC HISTORY IN THE WORLDVIEW OF GILBERT BURNET, 1643–1715*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2008

TONY CLAYDON
TONY CLAYDON*
Affiliation:
Bangor University
*
College of Arts and Humanities, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2DGt.claydon@bangor.ac.uk
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Abstract

Although one of the most influential figures of his time, Bishop Gilbert Burnet has become one of the most neglected. This article outlines Burnet's worldview, arguing that it can only be partly understood by labelling him a ‘latitudinarian’ as scholars have hitherto tended to. Alongside Burnet's conventionally latitudinarian descriptions of Christianity as a set of rational and simple beliefs that could command very wide assent, the bishop also had a strong sense of history as a providential and apocalyptic unfolding of a battle between ‘true’ and ‘false’ churches, which was characterized by a powerful European dimension and by an identification of Antichrist with religious persecution. The article concludes with suggestions about how such lines of thought might have cohered with the more traditionally ‘latitudinarian’ elements of Burnet's philosophy, and about how they might allow historians to re-think the latitudinarian movement more generally.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , September 2008 , pp. 577 - 597
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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References

1 For Burnet as a reformation historian, see Drabble, J. E., ‘Gilbert Burnet and the history of the English reformation’, Journal of Religious History, 12 (1983), pp. 351–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar; A. G. Dickens and John Tonkin, The reformation in historical thought (Oxford, 1985), pp. 106–8; Rosemary O'Day, The debate on the English reformation (London, 1986), pp. 38–42, and works by Starkie in n. 4.

2 See Tony Claydon, William III and the godly revolution (Cambridge, 1996); Claydon, Tony, ‘William III's Declaration of reasons and the Glorious Revolution’, Historical Journal, 39 (1996), pp. 387–108CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 The Discourse and Exposition have been seen at the heart of latitudinarianism: see Mark Goldie, ‘John Locke, Jonas Proast and religious toleration, 1688–1692’, in John Walsh, Colin Haydon, and Stephen Taylor, eds., The church of England, 1689–1833 (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 143–71; Greig, Martin, ‘Heresy hunt: Gilbert Burnet and the convocation controversy of 1701’, Historical Journal, 37 (1994), pp. 569–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Thomas Elliot Smith and Helen Charlotte Foxcroft, A life of Gilbert Burnet, bishop of Salisbury (2 vols., Cambridge, 1907). For recent work, see Greig, Martin, ‘Gilbert Burnet and the problem of non-conformity’, Canadian Journal of History, 32 (1992), pp. 1–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Martin Greig, ‘Gilbert Burnet’, Oxford dictionary of national biography (ODNB) (60 vols., Oxford, 2004), viii, pp. 908–23; Starkie, Andrew, ‘Contested histories of the English church’, Huntington Library Quarterly, 68 (2005), pp. 335–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and ‘Gilbert Burnet's Reformation and the semantics of popery’, in Jason McElligott, ed., Fear, exclusion and revolution: Roger Morrice and Britain in the 1680s (Aldershot, 2006), pp. 138–53; John Marshall, John Locke, toleration and early enlightenment culture (Cambridge, 2006), has insightful coverage of Burnet.

5 For Burnet's claim he had ‘fallen into the notions of the latitudinarians’ in the 1660s, see Gilbert Burnet, ‘Autobiography’, in H. C. Foxcroft, A supplement to Burnet's history of my own time (Oxford, 1902), pp. 455–63.

6 The picture of the movement which follows is broadly endorsed by G. R. Cragg, From puritanism to the age of reason (Cambridge, 1966); Gordon Rupp, Religion in England, 1688–1791 (Oxford, 1986), ch. 2; Isabel Rivers, Reason, grace and sentiment (2 vols., Cambridge, 1991–2000), esp. i, pp. 25–88; W. M. Spellman, The latitudinarians and the church of England, 1660–1700 (London, 1993).

7 For the apparent affinity between latitudinarianism and natural science, see Barbara Shapiro, ‘Latitudinarianism and science in the seventeenth century’, Past and Present, 40 (1968), pp. 16–41; M. C. Jacob, The Newtonians and the English revolution (Hassocks, 1976).

8 Burnet constantly updated and re-wrote his manuscript history from 1683. A version exists as British Library Add MSS 63057 a–b. The standard edition is M. J. Routh, ed., Bishop Burnet's history of his own times (6 vols., Oxford, 1833).

9 Spurr, John, ‘“Latitudinarianism” and the Restoration church’, Historical Journal, 31 (1988), pp. 61–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Richard Ashcraft, ‘Latitudinarianism and toleration’, in Richard Kroll, Richard Ashcraft, and Perez Zagorin, eds., Philosophy, science and religion in England, 1640–1700 (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 151–77.

11 Andrew Starkie, The church of England and the Bangorian controversy, 1716–1721 (Woodbridge, 2007), ch. 6.

12 Richard Kroll, ‘Introduction’, and John Marshall, ‘John Locke and latitudinarianism’, in Kroll, Ashcraft, and Zagorin, eds., Philosophy, pp. 1–16, 253–82.

13 For a fine introduction: Mark Goldie, ‘Cambridge Platonists’, ODNB, online edition (Jan. 2008).

14 Foxcroft, Supplement, pp. 453–9; Greig, ‘Gilbert Burnet’.

15 Foxcroft, Supplement, p. 461; Greig, ‘Gilbert Burnet’.

16 Clare Jackson, Restoration Scotland (Woodbridge, 2003), ch. 7; Allan, David, ‘Reconciliation and retirement in the Restoration Scottish church’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 50 (1999), pp. 251–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 Gilbert Burnet, A discourse on the memory of Sir Robert Fletcher (London, 1665), pp. 27–8.

18 Ibid., pp. 66–7, 131–4, 175.

19 Ibid., pp. 116–17, 131–2.

20 [Gilbert Burnet], A modest and free conference (London, 1669); Gilbert Burnet, A vindication of the authority, constitution and laws of the church and state of Scotland (London, 1673), esp. epistle to the reader.

21 Gilbert Burnet, Some passages out of the life of Rochester (London, 1680). This had eight editions by 1715. For other works revealing Burnet's view of Christianity's social effects and its rationality (even that of its miracles), see Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preached before the king … Christmas day, 1696 (London, 1697), pp. 17–19; Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preached before the king … Christmas day, 1689 (London, 1690), pp. 20–1.

22 For examples: Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preached before the king and queen … on 19th day of October (London, 1690); Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preach'd before the queen and the two houses of parliament (London, 1707); Gilbert Burnet, Of charity to the household of faith (London, 1698); Gilbert Burnet, Charitable reproof (London, 1700); Gilbert Burnet, Because iniquity shall abound (London, 1706).

23 Gilbert Burnet, Some sermons preached on several occasions (London, 1713), p. 42; Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preached before the House of Commons, 31 January (London, 1689), p. 32; Gilbert Burnet, An exhortation to peace and union (London, 1689); Gilbert Burnet, The bishop of Salisbury's speech to the House of Lords (London, 1704); Gilbert Burnet, A charge given at the triennial visitation of the diocese of Salisbury (London, 1704), appended sermon; Gilbert Burnet, A discourse … with a new preface (London, 1713), preface.

24 Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preached at the funeral of Robert Boyle (London, 1692) – see also Gilbert Burnet, An exposition of the church catechism (London, 1710), pp. 30–2. Gilbert Burnet, Injunctions to the arch-deacons of the diocese of Salisbury (London, 1690); Gilbert Burnet, A discourse of the pastoral care (London, 1692); Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preached and a charge given at the triennial visitation (London, 1714); Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preached at the funeral of … John Tillotson (London, 1694), pp. 31–2.

25 Published together as Gilbert Burnet, The royal martyr and dutiful subject (London, 1675). These were republished to embarrass Burnet in 1689 and 1710; for later comment on his supposed shift see Foxcroft, Supplement, appendix 1; Greig, ‘Burnet’, ODNB, viii, pp. 916–17.

26 Burnet, Dutiful subject, pp. 1–3, 6–14; Burnet, Royal martyr, pp. 37–41

27 Burnet, Royal martyr, pp. 6–32. Note also the acknowledgement that Charles I's ministers had been as much to blame for the civil war as the rebels in Gilbert Burnet, The memoires of the lives and actions of James and William, dukes of Hamilton (London, 1672), preface.

28 For Burnet's constitutional whiggism, see [Gilbert Burnet], An enquiry into the present state of affairs (London, 1689); [Gilbert Burnet], An enquiry into the measures of submission (London, 1689); Gilbert Burnet, A memorial drawn by King William's special direction (London, 1705); Gilbert Burnet, The bishop of Salisbury, his speech in the House of Lords (London, 1710). For ‘latitudinarian’ justifications of 1689: [Gilbert Burnet], The present state of Jacobitism in England (London, 1702); Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preach'd … on the 29th May (London, 1710), pp. 6–10.

29 For Burnet's anti-popery, see below passim. Hostility to dissent clustered at the start of Burnet's career: [Burnet], Modest and free conference; [Gilbert Burnet], A modest survey of the most considerable things (London, 1676) – but he denounced schism even after the toleration act: Gilbert Burnet, Four discourses delivered to the clergy of the diocese of Salisbury (London, 1689), final discourse; Burnet, Discourse of the pastoral care, p. 101. For the Jews, see [Gilbert Burnet], The conversion and persecution of Eve Cohen (London, 1680).

30 For a systematic account of popery's irrationality: Gilbert Burnet, The infallibility of the church of Rome examined (London, 1680).

31 For dissenters' lack of charity see, for example, [Burnet], Modest and free conference, esp. pp. 48–51; [Gilbert Burnet], The last words of Lewis du Moulin (London, 1680). Cohen's family are criticized for coercion, but Jewish worship is praised when her upbringing leads her to reject idolatrous Catholicism, [Burnet], Conversion and persecution, p. 5.

32 For Burnet and patristics, see Franks, Martha, ‘Gilbert Burnet, tolerance and the fathers of the church’, Anglican and Episcopalian History, 67 (1998), pp. 26–78Google Scholar. For examples, Gilbert Burnet, An answer to the animadversions on the history (London, 1682); [Gilbert Burnet], The Protestant's companion (London, 1685); [Gilbert Burnet], A discourse concerning trans-substantiation (London, 1688), pp. 8–12.

33 This case was at least implicit in Burnet's early set-piece attacks on popery, [Gilbert Burnet], Rome's glory (London, 1673); Gilbert Burnet, A rational method for proving the truth of the Christian religion (London, 1675); [Gilbert Burnet], The unreasonableness and impiety of popery (London, 1678), as well as numerous later works. For a sermon which laid out human history clearly, see Gilbert Burnet, Of the propagation of the gospel in foreign parts (London, 1704), pp. 1–12.

34 Quote from Gilbert Burnet, A second part of the enquiry into the reasons offered by Sa. Oxon [1688], p. 7. Burnet charted a steady decline from primitive purity, so dating final corruption precisely was impossible: the first 800 years were accepted as providing valid examples in Gilbert Burnet, A vindication of the ordinations of the church of England (London, 1677). For the Waldensians, see [Gilbert Burnet], The history of the persecution of the valleys of Piedmont (London, 1688), pp. 1–2.

35 For example, Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preached before the queen … 29th May, 1694 (London, 1694), pp. 10–13; Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preach'd at the cathedral church of Salisbury (London, 1706), pp. 6–23; Burnet, Rational method, esp. pp. 93–4; Burnet, Vindication of the ordinations; Gilbert Burnet, Reflections on a relation of the English reformation (London, 1689); Gilbert Burnet, A letter to Mr. Thevenot (London, 1689).

36 For Burnet's epistolatory network: Marshall, John Locke, pp. 484–94.

37 For the internationalism of Burnet's history, see Tony Claydon, Europe and the making of England, 1660–1760 (Cambridge, 2007), pp. 67–74.

38 For example: [Gilbert Burnet], A letter written upon the discovery of the late plot (London, 1678), p. 43; Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preached at the funeral of Mr James Houblon (London, 1682), p. 25; [Gilbert Burnet?], Popish treaties not to be relied upon [1688].

39 For example: [Gilbert Burnet], Reasons against repealing the acts of parliament concerning the test (London, 1678); [Gilbert Burnet], Reflections on a late pamphlet entitled Parliamentum Pacificum (London, 1688), p. 5.

40 Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preached before the queen … 16th day of July (London, 1690), pp. 24–9; Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preached before his majesty King George … 31st October (London, 1714), pp. 8–27.

41 Burnet always saw William as a European leader – see especially Gilbert Burnet, A compleat history of the life … of William the third (London, 1702).

42 Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preached in the chappel of St James (London, 1689), p. 5; Burnet, Pastoral care, p. 9.

43 For the general tone of 1690s fast sermons, see Claydon, William III and the godly revolution, chs. 3–5: for a particularly jeremiadical example, Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preached at Whitehall … 29th April (London, 1691).

44 Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preach'd at St Bride's before the lord mayor (London, 1711), p. 15.

45 For the preaching see Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preached … at Bow church, September 2 (London, 1680); Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preached on the fast day December 22 (London, 1681), esp. p. 18; Gilbert Burnet, An exhortation to peace and union: a sermon … 29th September (London, 1681), and many of the other sermons cited in other notes. For crisis warnings: [Gilbert Burnet], The ill effects of animosities among Protestants (London, 1688); Gilbert Burnet, Remarks made on the examination of the exposition of the second article (London, 1702), p. 8.

46 For aspects, see F. J. Levy, Tudor historical thought (San Marino, 1967); Paul Christianson, The reformers and Babylon (Toronto, 1978); John N. King, English reformation literature (Princeton, NJ, 1982).

47 See, for example, William Lamont, Godly rule: politics and religion, 1603–1659 (London, 1969), ch. 7; J. G. A. Pocock, The Machiavellian moment (Princeton, NJ, 1975), ch. 12; Christopher Hill, Some intellectual consequences of the civil war (London, 1980).

48 Johnston, Warren, ‘The Anglican apocalypse in restoration England’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 55 (2004), pp. 467–501CrossRefGoogle Scholar, has a good summary of historiographic trends.

49 For the plagiarism, see Greig, ‘Gilbert Burnet’.

50 Gilbert Burnet, A discourse wherein is held forth the opposition (London, 1688), p. 5; Burnet, Sermon … chappel of St James, p. 13; [Gilbert Burnet], A relation of the barbarous and bloody massacre (London, 1678).

51 For metaphorical millenarian language, see Claydon, William III and the godly revolution, pp. 51, 63.

52 Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preach'd … upon the reading of the brief for the persecuted exiles (London, 1704), pp. 27–8; Gilbert Burnet, Two sermons preached in the cathedral church of Salisbury (London, 1710), p. 19.

53 Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preached at the coronation of William III (London, 1689), p. 20; Gilbert Burnet, The history of the reformation … the third part (London, 1715), dedicatory epistle.

54 Gilbert Burnet, The mystery of iniquity (London, 1673), p. 155; [Burnet], Unreasonableness and impiety, pp. 23–7; Burnet, Sermon … chappel of St James, pp. 28–9.

55 For Protestant defences of coercion, see Mark Goldie, ‘The theory of religious intolerance in Restoration England’, in Ole Peter Grell et al., eds., From persecution to toleration (Oxford, 1991), pp. 331–68.

56 Gilbert Burnet, A relation of the death of the primitive persecutors (Amsterdam, 1687), p. 9.

57 Burnet, Mystery of iniquity, p. 142; Burnet, Exhortation … 29th September, pp. 15–16; Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preached at the chappel of the rolls (London, 1684), p. 14.

58 Gilbert Burnet, Some letters containeing an account of what seemed most remarkable (London, 1687), pp. 227–30; Burnet, Sermon … persecuted exiles, p. 17.

59 Burnet, Mystery of iniquity, p. 106; [Burnet], Letter written upon the discovery, pp. 28–30; Burnet, Exhortation … 29th September, pp. 27–8; Gilbert Burnet, The history of the rights of princes (London, 1682), p. 46.

60 For Foxe's Albigensians: Stephen Reed Cattley, ed., The acts and monuments (12 vols., London, 1837), ii, 376–83.

61 [Gilbert Burnet], An apology for the church of England [Amsterdam, 1688]; Gilbert Burnet, Reflections on the relation of the English reformation (London, 1689), pp. 60–1.

62 For example, Gilbert Burnet, The new preface and additional chapter to the third edition of the pastoral care (London, 1713), preface; Gilbert Burnet, An introduction to the third volume of the history of the reformation (London, 1714), pp. 69–70.

63 Burnet, Sermon … chappel of St James, pp. 27–30.

64 For examples, Burnet, New preface, p. 9; Burnet, Sermon … 19th day of October, pp. 26–7; [Gilbert Burnet], An answer to Mr Henry Payne's letter (London, 1687), p. 3; [Burnet], Reflections on a late pamphlet, p. 8; [Burnet?], Popish treaties, p. 4; [Burnet], Ill effects, p. 20; Burnet, Sermon preached on the fast day, pp. 30; [Burnet], History of the persecution, p. 47; Burnet, Charge given at the triennial visitation, p. 15; Burnet, Sermon … brief.

65 Burnet, Sermon … funeral of Mr James Houblon, p. 32.

66 Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preached at Bow church (London, 1690), p. 13–14; Burnet, Injunctions to the archdeacons, p. 6; Burnet, Some sermons, p. 39.

67 Burnet, Exposition of the thirty-nine articles, preface.

68 Burnet, Discourse of the pastoral care, p. 204.

69 Ibid. pp. 201–2.

70 Sarah Hutton, ‘More, Newton and language of biblical prophecy’, and Robert Iliffe, ‘“Making a shew”: apocalyptic hermeneutics and the sociology of Christian idolatry in the work of Isaac Newton and Henry More’, in James E. Force and Richard H. Popkin, eds., The books of nature and scripture (London, 1994), pp. 39–53, 54–88.

71 Though Burnet approved of test acts which (peacefully) prevented persecutors gaining public office and war to block Louis XIV's worldly ambition.

72 Burnet, Mystery of iniquity, pp. 141–2.

73 Gilbert Burnet, A sermon preached before the aldermen of the city of London (London, 1681), p. 24; G[ilbert] B[urnet], The case of compulsion (London, 1688), p. 15.

74 For example, the new introduction to Gilbert Burnet, A discourse of the pastoral care (London, 1713), rebuked high churchmen, but retained the 1692 text with its attack on dissenting schism.

75 For Burnet and comprehension, see Greig, ‘Gilbert Burnet’; for the ecumenical nature of the reformation of manners movement, see Rose, Craig, ‘Providence, Protestant union and godly reformation in the 1690s’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 3 (1993), pp. 151–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar; for Burnet's role in developing a broad view of the reformation, see Claydon, Europe, pp. 313–40.

76 Burnet, Sermon preached … September 2, pp. 20–1.

77 Burnet, Exposition of the thirty nine articles, preface, pp. vi–ix.

78 Classic studies: B. S. Capp, Fifth monarchy men (London, 1972), ch. 9; W. M. Lamont, Richard Baxter and the millennium (London, 1979).

79 See above, n. 51.

80 Johnston, ‘Anglican apocalypse’.

81 Claydon, William III and the godly revolution, ch. 2.

82 John Tillotson, A sermon preached at Lincoln's Inn Chappel on 31st January, 1688 (London, 1689), p. 33; Simon Patrick, A sermon preached at St Paul's Covent Garden on 31 January, 1688 (London, 1689), p. 34 – see also Simon Patrick, A sermon preached in the chappel of St James … 20th January, 1688 (London, 1689); Edward Fowler, A sermon preached at the Guildhall … 7th September (London, 1704), pp. 21–2.

83 Marshall, ‘Locke and latitudinarianism’, esp. pp. 265–9.