If we investigate Elizabethan thought on the nature of human progress only in terms of J. B. Bury's strict definition of that idea as “a theory which involves a synthesis of the past and a prophecy of the future,” the results are likely to be no more fruitful than Bury found them. By these terms, a complete grasp of the idea of progress requires “an interpretation of history which regards men as slowly advancing … in a definite and desirable direction, and infers that this progress will continue indefinitely.”

Admittedly many Elizabethan concepts were unfavorable to the idea of progress. The Fall of Man accounted not only for original sin but also for intellectual and physical imperfections. It was a common belief, supported by the prophecies of Daniel and other religious teachings, that the end of the world was imminent.