The Allegiance of Thomas Hobbes This page intentionally left blank The Allegiance of Thomas Hobbes JEFFREY R. COLLINS 1 3 Great Clarendon Street,Oxford OX DP Oxford University Press is a department ofthe University ofOxford. It furthers the University’s objective ofexcellence in research,scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark ofOxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc.,New York © Jeffrey R.Collins  The moral rights ofthe author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) Crown copyright material is reproduced under Class Licence Number CPwith the permission ofOPSI and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland First published  All rights reserved.No part ofthis publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,or transmitted,in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing ofOxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law,or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization.Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope ofthe above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press,at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library ofCongress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd.,Chennai,India Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd.,King’s Lynn,Norfolk ISBN 0–19–926847–9 978–0–19–926847–4 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 For Randall and Patricia Collins This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgements This book has taken the better part ofa decade to complete,and over the course of those years I have incurred many debts.I must thank,at the start,the profes- sional staffs ofthe following institutions:the Widener Library and the Houghton Rare Books Library at Harvard University;the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University;the Regenstein Library and the Special Collections Research Center at the University of Chicago;the Bodleian Library and the Queen’s College archive at Oxford University;the Cambridge University Library;the Manuscripts Room of the British Library; the Lambeth Palace Library; the British Public Record Office; the Dr William’s Library in London; and the archive at Chatsworth in Derbyshire.The librarians and archivists at these institutions provided me with enormously valuable guidance through their magnificent collections ofrare books and manuscripts.For financial support,my thanks go to the History Department and Graduate Society ofHarvard University,and to the Jacob K.Javits Fellowship Program ofthe United States Department ofEducation. More pressing still are those personal debts that I have accumulated during the course of researching and writing this book. I have benefited enormously from outstanding colleagues in both the history department and the history and literature program at Harvard University, the Harper Society of Fellows at the University of Chicago, and, most recently, the history department at Queen’s University. My sincerest appreciation goes to Susan Pedersen, James Hankins,Matthew Maguire,Hugh McNeal,Josh Millet,Brian Domitrovic,Mark Molesky, Caroline Elkins, Eric Lohr, Frederick Schnabel, Tony D’Elia, Adrian Johns,Richard Strier,Paul Cheney,and Erik Grimmer-Solem.Most of these col- leagues have either read parts of this book,or responded to presentations based upon it.Their advice has been invaluable.I must also thank the participants in the Early Modern European and Renaissance and Reformation seminars at Harvard University,the Early Modern European Workshop at the University of Chicago, the North American British Studies Association,the Early Modern History semi- nar at Queen’s University, the Early Modern Britain seminar at the Institute of Historical Research in London, Princeton University’s Center for the Study of Books and Media,and the Political Thought and Intellectual HistorySeminar at Cambridge University. Each of these forums provided me with vital feedback. Mark Goldie, John Morrill, Blair Worden, Nigel Smith, Justin Champion, Paul Monod, Steve Pincus, and Noel Malcolm all provided more detailed advice— invariably sound—on various occasions. To the scholarship of Dr Malcolm, as with all scholars ofHobbes,I am particularly indebted.For skilful editorial assist- ance,my sincere thanks go to Ruth Parr,Anne Gelling,and Kay Rogers ofOxford University Press. viii Acknowledgements Richard Tuck served on my dissertation committee, and in that capacity provided regular encouragement and guidance. His published work has also strongly influenced me,in ways that will be detailed in the coming chapters but must be gratefully acknowledged here as well. Finally, my greatest intellectual debts are to my graduate adviser,Mark Kishlansky.Professor Kishlansky has an enormously sharp editorial eye,a tremendous appreciation for scholarship,and the forensic capacities of a trial attorney (always as prosecutor). He has been a model adviser,and has influenced innumerable aspects ofthis book. This book is dedicated to my father and mother,Randall and Patricia Collins, whose patient support oftheir son during a very long education is something for which I will remain forever grateful.My final and most profound debts are to yet another historian:my wife,Ana Siljak. Contents Note on Quotations and Dates x Abbreviations xi Introduction 1 1. Thomas Hobbes and the Uses of Christianity 11 2. Hobbes,the Long Parliament,and the Church of England 58 3. Rise of the Independents 88 4. Leviathanand the Cromwellian Revolution 115 5. Hobbes among the Cromwellians 159 6. The Independents and the ‘Religion of Thomas Hobbes’ 207 7. Response of the Exiled Church 242 Conclusion 271 Bibliography 281 Index 305