Second Year Humanities Prof. J. McGhee
Hobbes Unit

Hobbes, Deism and the Religious Crisis in England

1. The Religious World of Thomas Hobbes

Three main groups in seventeenth century Britain:

Catholicism: illegal

Anglican Church: official state religion, established by Henry VIII

Protestantism: mainly in the Calvin tradition (Presbyterians, Puritans)

The Stuart kings on the whole favored Anglicanism while Cromwell was staunchly Puritan.

2. The Private World of Thomas Hobbes

A. Was Hobbes a Christian?

B. Was Hobbes a Deist?

Deism was a theological movement which held that God, having created the world, had withdrawn and left it to run in accordance with fixed laws.

Herbert of Cherbury: "The Father of English Deism"

C. Was Hobbes an Atheist?

An atheist denies the existence of God. This position would have been unacceptable and dangerous in seventeenth century England.

Other Names and Terms:

Tudors: Henry VIII, Edward VI, Elizabeth I

Stuarts: James I, Charles I, Charles II

Oliver Cromwell

The Cavaliers and the Roundheads

United Kingdom of Great Britain (1603)

Book of Common Prayer (by Archbishop Cranmer)

Authorized version of the Bible (1611)

Mary, Queen of Scots

John Knox

Guy Fox and the Gunpowder Plot

Roger Williams of Rhode Island

"A Dec rex a rege lex." / "The King is God, and the law is from the King."

"Non est potestas super terrain quae comparetur ei. "/"There is no power on earth which

compares to him."

Malmesbury in Wiltshire