The Secularisation of the State (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes

The Secularisation of the State

Introduction: The central question

By 1702, Britain's relationship with religion had changed markedly from the beginning of the seventeenth century. Historians debate the extent to which Britain had become a 'secular state' by this date. This debate matters because it helps us understand how modern Britain emerged from its religious past.

England as a confessional state in 1603

In 1603, England operated as a confessional state. Monarchy and uniformity of belief functioned as twin pillars of strength and social order, with religion binding society together. To paraphrase one contemporary philosopher, religion gave sanctity to marriage, underpinned all oaths and promises, and upheld the sacrifices needed both in peace and war. Early seventeenth-century politics was dominated by arguments over matters of worship and theology, but nearly everyone shared the assumption that uniformity of worship was essential to the survival of the community.

By 1702, however, this assumption faced mounting challenges in an increasingly secular society. Recent historians have questioned whether the assumed degree of change actually occurred, suggesting that there was more continuity in the importance of religion than has been admitted.

The argument for change and secularisation

In the early eighteenth century, religious 'enthusiasm' became a term of abuse. The state had acquired new forms of social binding that did not depend on divine commands. The religious conflicts of the civil war era had made the people of Britain wary of causes expressed in purely religious terms. By 1702, several developments had occurred that meant the confessional state of 1603 was giving way to secularisation and the growing separation of Church and state.

Long-term influences: Renaissance and Reformation

Some influences driving secularisation stretched back over centuries to the Renaissance and Reformation of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. England was deeply affected by the major cultural and religious changes taking place across Europe from the fifteenth century onwards.

The Renaissance also had a direct impact on biblical scholarship, encouraging translations of the Bible into the vernacular modern European languages. The Catholic Church attempted and failed to prevent these vernacular translations from undermining its control of the divinely inspired text. However, Protestantism inevitably downgraded the role of the Church in the process of salvation. Protestants emphasised the individual's relationship with God through the text of the Bible, making literacy a Christian duty rather than merely a practical skill.

Medium-term influences: The survival of dissent

The English Civil War led to an explosion of radical ideas and separatist movements. Religious radicalism became one of the issues dividing Presbyterians from Independents. The Presbyterians viewed religious toleration as a threat to the cohesion of the state.

The appearance of separatist groups—Quakers, Seekers, Anabaptists, Diggers and Ranters—frightened both Presbyterians and Anglicans. These groups united briefly in 1660 in their determination to restore the social order, which they equated with a national Church. The Presbyterians were then shocked to discover that the High Anglicans had no intention of sharing control of the Church with them.

Help also came from within the Church itself, in the form of the Latitudinarian Party, made up of men who emphasised the Church's breadth and capacity to embrace a variety of views. As the heirs of the Great Tew Circle, they were concerned above all to establish religious peace, emphasising forgiveness and brotherhood. Some drew on scientific principles, arguing that belief must be supported by reason and that which could not be demonstrated through rational argument was not sufficient cause for persecution. The Latitudinarians emphasised the virtues of tolerance and dismissed persecution as unworkable. To a certain extent, these views were shared by Charles II himself.

Short-term influences: Charles II, James II and the Toleration Act

Charles II's role in the survival of dissent is contradictory. On the one hand, his Declaration of Indulgence in 1672–73 provided breathing space and allowed Dissenters to organise effectively. He was, however, probably motivated by the desire to ease the conditions of Catholics. In the aftermath of the Exclusion Crisis, between 1682 and 1685, Charles was responsible for the revival of harsh persecution.

What finally drove the Anglican authorities into alliance with dissent was fear of Catholicism. When James II challenged the power of the Church on behalf of Catholics, Anglicans and Dissenters closed ranks against him. In return for their loyalty to the Protestant cause, the Dissenters expected and obtained a degree of religious toleration. The Toleration Act of 1689 did not mean the end of religion as a political issue, but it did signify the end of the 'confessional state'.

The argument for continuity

Against this argument for change and secularisation, close examination of the political debates of the 1690s and early 1700s has suggested that religion continued to lie at the heart of politics.

Two historians in particular need to be considered for their emphasis on continuity rather than change:

Even if one accepts that the eighteenth century as a whole was a more secular period, it could also be argued that this was not achieved until political stability was restored under Walpole in the 1720s. Historians of Northern Ireland might also argue that in this corner of the United Kingdom, at any rate, images of the Battle of the Boyne still adorn the ends of some Protestant houses and the Orangemen continue their annual victory parades through Catholic districts. From this perspective, confessional politics has never been replaced by a truly secular vision of society.

Ideas and ideology: The 'scientific revolution'

One thing that differentiates the modern world from that of the seventeenth century is science. In the modern world, we expect scientific explanations for the things we see around us. We take it for granted that the weather, disease, the night sky, the motion of objects and the evolution of species have rational explanations. It is worth asking whether Britain was a more 'scientific' nation in 1702 than it was in 1603.

Early rational thinkers and religious toleration

In 1605, Sir Francis Bacon published his essay 'The Advancement of Learning', in which he encouraged scholars to subject all aspects of society to rational examination. This was applied not only to the natural world, but also to society and religion.

In the 1630s, Lucius Carey, Lord Falkland, opened his house at Great Tew in Oxfordshire to a small circle of friends who met regularly to engage in intellectual debates. The Great Tew Circle emphasised the importance of rational logic and the need for intellectual freedom in religious and social debate. Though Falkland himself committed suicide during the Civil War, his intellectual circle reflected a growing spirit of rational theology that also influenced the Parliamentarians.

Brooke declared:

'The ways of God's Spirit are free and not tied to a university man or to any man, to any bishop, or magistrate or church. The light shines where it will among men, no matter how humble or ignorant, moves them to utterance, to inquiry and discussion, to ceaseless search for more light, until truth in its entirety shall become known to all, and men have once more become one with God.'

The same spirit of freedom to pursue religious truth is evident in the prayer meetings of the New Model Army and in Cromwell's frequent references to liberty of conscience. Only through the free transfer of beliefs and ideas could people test those beliefs and come towards a greater understanding of God's purposes. As Lord Protector, Cromwell argued for a national Church that would lead by example rather than by force. Cromwell believed that in due course the free search for religious truth would bring the nation together in understanding and faith.

The Royal Society and natural philosophy

In 1660, the foundation of the Royal Society marked an important step in the separation of scientific from religious rationalism. The Society grew out of a small circle of scholars in Wadham College, Oxford, that began meeting around 1650 to conduct scientific experiments.

John Wilkins, the Warden of Wadham College from 1648, was a Cromwellian who had been promoted following a purge of Royalists from the city after the Civil War. It was Wilkins who first gathered around him an extraordinarily diverse group of former parliamentarians and Royalists, united by their common interest in mathematics, astronomy and scientific inventions.

The relationship between science and religion

There is still considerable debate among historians about the nature and extent of the seventeenth-century 'scientific revolution' and the part played in it by the Royal Society. One needs to be wary of attributing to these seventeenth-century scientists modern attitudes towards science and religion.

It would be wrong to dismiss such theories out of hand because we now know them to be incorrect. What was important was the gradual realisation that God worked through natural causes and the development of scientific methods in which theories could be tested by observation of the natural world. However, it is worth noting that in 1702 the primary subject taught at Oxford and Cambridge universities was still theology.