Richard J. Hayton
Richard J. Hayton is a History PhD student. Richard's project title is 'The Political Bible in England, 1660-1715'.
31 January 2022
Project Title
The Political Bible in England, 1660-1715.
Academic Supervisors
-
Professor Rachel Hammersley (Newcastle University)
- Dr Adam Morton (Newcastle University)
Project Description
Since the 1970s scholars have moved to realise the immense significance of the Bible in early-modern political thought and discourse. Deemed the supreme authority in all matters including government, in the seventeenth century the ‘Book of Books’ sat foremost on the political shelf alongside Plato’s Republic. Scripture facilitated thinkers, preachers and polemicists with a diverse and elastic arsenal of passages that could be applied to any issue, and contrived to justify virtually any opinion. This practice reached its pinnacle in the turbulent politics of the 1640s and 50s, but overuse and dubious interpretation stretched the Bible’s limits and left it discredited as a political source – or so we believe.
Though it has received little scholarly attention, there is no question that scriptural evidence continued to be wielded to some degree in the debates of the later century. My 2021 MA dissertation, How prevalent was the Bible as a source in the political discourse of the 1679-1681 Exclusion Crisis, highlighted that potent, unambiguous verses asserting the divine right of kings remained an ordinary tool of tory writers by 1681. More interestingly, my research suggested that writers were specifically moving away from more sophisticated biblical arguments as espoused by Robert Filmer and John Locke.
My PhD project regards the political Bible in its twilight period, spanning from the Stuart restoration in 1660 to the traditional start of the Age of Enlightenment in 1715. In examining more than one hundred English pamphlets, polemics and treatises – concerning issues such as monarchy, resistance theory and toleration – my objective is to investigate the supposed decline of scriptural-based arguments in this period. The project seeks to understand how quickly the political Bible’s decline came about, and critically, the reasons for it: whether applied scriptural evidence was discredited by its misuse; whether the Bible was rejected from the ‘rational’ discipline of political philosophy; or even whether the holy book’s authenticity came under suspicion.
Previous Research
Research Paper
Post-Medieval Chivalry and the English Gentleman: How chivalry survived the sixteenth century as a device for masculinity. Presented at De Montfort University’s Identity and Power conference, April 2021.
This paper considered that the myth of post-medieval chivalry, an attractive model of masculinity, provided the means for Elizabethan-era gentlemen to perform traditional masculine roles which had become inaccessible. It discussed how some gentlemen attempted to reconcile the hostile realities of early modern warfare with enduring expectations for ‘knightly’ masculinity, and highlighted the use of chivalry as a language to articulate these ideas.
Research Magazine Article
The Unlawful Games Act 1541: Controlling Recreation and Maintaining the Class Divide. Published in Bangor University’s humanities research magazine, 1884, January 2020.
Comparing its language and scope with other English laws against sports or gambling, I argue that this 1541 act was mainly an oppressive attempt to manage and distinguish norms for different classes, having more in common with economically-controlling acts like the 1563 Statue of Artificers.
Available online: https://1884.rkarl.org/2020/01/the-unlawful-games-act-1541.html
Other Roles
Student Trustee, UNDEB (Bangor University Students’ Union), 2020-2021. Volunteer member of UNDEB’s trustee board and governance subcommittee, responsible for scrutinising and approving the actions of the charity in line with its principles and the law.