Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Note on dates and style
- Introduction
- 1 Bishop Bramhall, the ‘Great Arminian’, ‘Irish Canterbury’ and ‘Most Unsound Man in Ireland’, 1633–1641
- 2 Bishop Bramhall, the Earl of Newcastle, Thomas Hobbes and the First English Civil War
- 3 Hobbes's flight to France, De Cive and the beginning of the quarrel with Bramhall, summer 1645
- 4 An epistolary skirmish, 1645–1646: Bramhall's ‘Discourse’, Hobbes's ‘Treatise’ and Bramhall's ‘Vindication’
- 5 Bramhall and the royalist schemes of 1646–1650
- 6 Hobbes and Leviathan among the exiles, 1646–1651
- 7 The public quarrel: Hobbes, Of Liberty and Necessity, 1654, Bramhall, Defence of True Liberty, 1655 and Hobbes, Questions concerning Liberty, Necessity and Chance, 1656
- 8 Castigations of Hobbes's Animadversions and The Catching of Leviathan, 1657–1658: Hobbes as Leviathan of Leviathans
- 9 The Restoration and death of Bramhall and Hobbes's last word, 1668
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History
Conclusion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Note on dates and style
- Introduction
- 1 Bishop Bramhall, the ‘Great Arminian’, ‘Irish Canterbury’ and ‘Most Unsound Man in Ireland’, 1633–1641
- 2 Bishop Bramhall, the Earl of Newcastle, Thomas Hobbes and the First English Civil War
- 3 Hobbes's flight to France, De Cive and the beginning of the quarrel with Bramhall, summer 1645
- 4 An epistolary skirmish, 1645–1646: Bramhall's ‘Discourse’, Hobbes's ‘Treatise’ and Bramhall's ‘Vindication’
- 5 Bramhall and the royalist schemes of 1646–1650
- 6 Hobbes and Leviathan among the exiles, 1646–1651
- 7 The public quarrel: Hobbes, Of Liberty and Necessity, 1654, Bramhall, Defence of True Liberty, 1655 and Hobbes, Questions concerning Liberty, Necessity and Chance, 1656
- 8 Castigations of Hobbes's Animadversions and The Catching of Leviathan, 1657–1658: Hobbes as Leviathan of Leviathans
- 9 The Restoration and death of Bramhall and Hobbes's last word, 1668
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History
Summary
A principal aim of this book has been to show that the quarrel of Hobbes and Bramhall should not be considered merely philosophical or theological. Apart from the obvious fact that it was not confined to the issue of free-will, even that philosophical–theological issue was a matter of controversy in the realm of politics. The issue of free-will, the distinctive doctrine of ‘arminianism’, was a source of discord in that sphere. There was too much baggage attached to ‘free-will’ for it to be an entirely academic question; the debate over that issue was not without serious ‘ideological’ purchase. This is not to say, however, that one cannot extract the Hobbes–Bramhall quarrel over the issue of free-will from the unique political and personal contexts upon which I have concentrated. One may also read their peculiar debate as another round of a centuries-long philosophical–theological debate on that issue. Three-and-a-half centuries later one can still find, mutatis mutandis, philosophers and theologians fighting the same war. The combat has lasted so long that one can consider the subject of free-will a perennial one – one of those ‘central problems of philosophy’, timeless inasmuch as it appears to be a ‘question that all reflective people must find pressing, regardless of historical and geographical circumstance’.
Similarly, taking a broader and long-term perspective, one may read their debate as yet another round in a decades-long fight over the theology and ecclesiology of the church of England which erupted when Henry VIII opened Pandora's box in the 1530s.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Hobbes, Bramhall and the Politics of Liberty and NecessityA Quarrel of the Civil Wars and Interregnum, pp. 276 - 304Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007