INTRODUCTION

Having provided an interpretative exposition of the text, I want now to take up a number of issues arising from my reading, which are too complex to have been treated en passant. To begin with, a brief discussion of the providential frame informing the Politica leads to comment on the overall character of the work. In this context I then focus on the topic of corporate imagery with its cohering vocabulary of community, consent and representation. This is followed by a discussion of the resistance topos which is central to the Politica because of Lawson's emphasis on the nexus of community and political order. My purpose is designed to circumscribe the interpretative possibilities of this topic in Lawson's work, rather than to disclose his true position. Indeed, my argument is that any such revelation would be spurious. I turn finally to Lawson's understanding of his times and his explanation for the Civil Wars. Lawson's treatment of contemporary affairs has been largely ignored so far because it is an attempted vindication of his own precepts and an application of his nomenclature; a proper understanding of Lawson on the English Revolution requires first an awareness of his theories and their difficulties.

Each focus of my attention is intended not only to take up issues which so far have only been touched upon, but also it is intended to explicate the textual warrant for the use of the work during the seventeenth century. Part III is thus a pivot for the whole.