The English Bible and the Seventeenth-century Revolution

Résumé du livre

The translation of the Bible into English in the sixteenth century was one of the most important events in English history. Previously the sacred text had been accessible only to a tiny minority: now anybody could read or listen to it. The Scriptures were believed to contain the solution to all problems. An Introduction to the 1603 edition of the Geneva Bible told readers that they 'contain matter concerning commonwealths, governments of people, by magistrates (good and evil), peace and war, prosperity and plagues, subjects (quiet or disordered); ... husbands, wives, parents, children, masters, servants ... ; the private life and doings of every man in wisdom and folly, love and hatred, soberness and incontinency, mirth and sorrow, speech and silence, pride and humility, covetousness and liberality; the common life of all men, as riches, poverty, nobility, favour, labour and idleness'. This book explores some of the effects of the Bible -- on English literature during its greatest century, on social, agrarian, foreign and colonial policies. During the seventeenth-century Revolution the Bible was used to justify both resistance to and defence of the King, democracy, communism, regicide, the rule of the saints, the overthrow of international Catholicism, even free love. It called into question all established institutions and practices. But the Revolution revealed the impossibility of agreeing on what the Bible said. Scholarly discussions convinced many that it could not be the Word of God because it contradicted itself. The later seventeenth century saw rapid decline in the importance of the Bible as a guide to immediate political action. This book should help us to a better understanding of England's most controversial century.