CW2: Religious Radicalism Flashcards
Who were the Diggers/True Levellers?
Wanted to achieve total equality through communes
Small following dominated by Gerrard Winstanley who denounced buying, selling, property rights and wage labour - laid groundwork for Communism and Liberation theology
Community established at St. George’s Hill Apr 1649 that collapsed after a year due to land owner hostility - forced Fairfax to act
Who were the Baptists?
Numbered 35-40,000 by late 40s concentrated in London, South Wales and plmt armies
2 types: general baptists who believed God’s grace was open to all and particular baptists who were predestinarian
Shared the belief that baptism should be administered to enter church rather than at infancy and accepted Commonwealth to ensure peaceful practise
Who were the Quakers?
400-600,000 by 1660 and were violent in 1650s
Emphasised individual conscience/’inner light’ so that their thoughts were lawful regardless of anyone else
Radical doctrine espoused by lower echelons of society threatened wealthy gentry - stoked by campaigns to abolish tithes, links to political radicalism and refusal to salute to social superiors
James Nayler, leading Quaker, rode into Bristol on an ass to replicate Christ’s entry into Jerusalem - condemned of ‘horrid blasphemy’ in Dec 1656 and branded, bored through the tongue, flogged twice and imprisoned for life
Who were the Ranters?
Held 2 distinct beliefs: antinomianism (God’s grace is open to all) and pantheism (God created all things)
Believed saints were beyond power of law, and that to the pure, them all, all things were pure - shown by practise of ‘free love’, swearing and blasphemy (Ranters)
1650 Blasphemy Act targeted them to protect against these ‘monstrous opinions and wicked and abominable practises’ (Kishlansky)
Yet too small in number and too radical by all accounts to hold much significance
What was the combined significance of these religious radicals?
Though they failed to achieve their political/religious objectives - Diggers/Levellers crushed by NMA, their ideas influence later movement in Britain
Who were the 5th Monarchists?
Millenarianists campaigning for political, social and religious reform - end of Stuarts was end of time
Huge NMA influence through Major General Harrison - played a large role in the regicide - came closest to power arguably
