The nature of ‘the powers that be’: politico-religious thought 1637-53 and its antecedents

Most of the writing about political thought in England during the seventeenth century remains resolutely secular in orientation, despite the long-standing concept of a ‘Puritan revolution’ which ought to have flagged up the likely contribution of religion. By contrast, the focus of this paper is on the politico-religious justifications and their converse as deployed by opponents and defenders of the monarchy, from the Scottish rebellion of 1637 to the demise of the English republic in 1653, but also in the context of a pre-existing body of ideological thinking much of it biblically inspired.