State and Commonwealth: The Theory of the State in Early Modern England, 1549–1640

278 Pages·2016·3.677 MB·English

by  Noah Dauber

State and Commonwealth

State and
Commonwealth
The Theory of the State in Early
Modern England, 1549– 1640
noah dauber
Princeton University Press
Princeton and oxford
Copyright © 2016 by Princeton university Press
Published by Princeton university Press,
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In the united Kingdom: Princeton university Press,
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library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
names: dauber, noah, author.
title: State and commonwealth : the theory of the state in early modern england,
1549–1640 / noah dauber.
description: Princeton : Princeton university Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: lCCn 2016001828 | ISbn 9780691170305 (hardback)
Subjects: lCSh: Political science—Great britain—history—16th century. | Political
science—Great britain—history—17th century. | Great britain—Politics and
government—1558–1603. | Great britain—Politics and government—1603–1649. |
State, the. | bISaC: PolItICal SCIenCe / history & theory. | PolItICal
SCIenCe / General.
Classification: lCC Ja84.G7 d29 2016 | ddC 320.10942/09031—dc23 lC record available
at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016001828
british library Cataloging- in- Publication data is available
this book has been composed in Sabon next lt Pro
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the united States of america
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
to my Parents

ContentS
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xi
introdUction: state, rePUblic, and commonwealth 1
chaPter 1. the reformers’ commonwealth
Visions of Commonwealth in the reign of edward VI 27
chaPter 2. a society of orders
Sir thomas Smith’s De Republica Anglorum 81
chaPter 3. the monarchical rePUblic
John Case’s Sphaera Civitatis 114
chaPter 4. the Private and the PUblic
the Aphorisms and Essays of Francis bacon 153
chaPter 5. the Penal state and the
commonwealth of conscience
thomas hobbes and The Elements of Law 189
conclUsion: the legacy of commonwealth 229
Bibliography 235
Index 253

aCKnowledGmentS
my first debt is to richard tuck. I have been studying the history of
political thought and discussing it with him since the middle of
my undergraduate years, and his example of formulating a posi-
tion, thinking about it, and rethinking it over decades has made it possible
and pleasurable to think of it as my life’s work. the earliest inklings of the
approach taken in this book probably came from reading bits and pieces of
Gierke’s Natural Law and the Theory of Society and discussing them with him
in those first years, and there are echoes of countless other conversations
throughout this book. In graduate school, he introduced me to Istvan hont,
whose generosity and company I treasured then and for years afterward,
and whose memory remains a constant reminder of the importance of se-
rious scholarship in the history of political thought. when we first met, we
discussed at some length the work of horst dreitzel, whose approach to the
history of ideas has influenced mine ever since.
I owe my appreciation of the sophistication of the medieval aristotelian
commentary tradition to Christoph Flüeler, lidia lanza, and marco toste,
and I would like to acknowledge the Swiss national Science Foundation for
its support of the time I spent working with those scholars at the university
of Fribourg. our work together is most obviously reflected in chapter 3,
but it has changed my understanding of the arc of the history of political
thought more generally and has convinced me that there is still much more
to say about the continuities between medieval and early modern political
thought.
this book began to take definite shape during the semester I spent at
Cambridge in the spring of 2014, and I thank my colleagues there for their
wonderful generosity and hospitality. In particular, I am grateful to anna-
bel brett, John robertson, and richard Serjeantson and the conveners and
attendants of the wonderful Political thought work- in- Progress series, es-
pecially hugo drochon. thankfully, Isaac nakhimovsky and Karuna man-
tena, longtime friends and colleagues, were in Cambridge at the same time,
and they made hard work a pleasure. another longtime friend, leah whit-
tington, was a great help in the final stages of the book process; I cannot be
more thankful for her friendship and for our ongoing dialogue.
ix