6 Biblical rhetoric
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Patrick Collinson
Abstract
When members of the Elizabethan parliaments demanded of their queen that she marry or otherwise determine the succession to the crown, they sometimes spoke with feeling of England. Early modernists hope that they may at least be permitted to write of ‘patriotism’. Granted that there were many ‘patrias’, from the homestead and parish pump upwards and outwards, this chapter focuses on that species of patriotism which was national sentiment. Where did national patriotic sentiment come from, or, a more modest and manageable question, where and how did it find a voice? This chapter suggests that there was a source of nationhood, the religious imagination, which was the conscience, informed and excited by the Bible.
Abstract
When members of the Elizabethan parliaments demanded of their queen that she marry or otherwise determine the succession to the crown, they sometimes spoke with feeling of England. Early modernists hope that they may at least be permitted to write of ‘patriotism’. Granted that there were many ‘patrias’, from the homestead and parish pump upwards and outwards, this chapter focuses on that species of patriotism which was national sentiment. Where did national patriotic sentiment come from, or, a more modest and manageable question, where and how did it find a voice? This chapter suggests that there was a source of nationhood, the religious imagination, which was the conscience, informed and excited by the Bible.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of abbreviations vi
- Acknowledgments vii
- Introduction 1
- 1 The politics of religion and the religion of politics in Elizabethan England 36
- 2 The Elizabethan exclusion crisis and the Elizabethan polity 61
- 3 Servants and citizens 98
- 4 Pulling the strings 122
- 5 Elizabeth I and the verdicts of history 143
- 6 Biblical rhetoric 167
- 7 John Foxe and national consciousness 193
- 8 Truth, lies and fiction in sixteenth-century Protestant historiography 216
- 9 One of us? 245
- 10 William Camden and the anti-myth of Elizabeth 270
- 11 John Stow and nostalgic antiquarianism 287
- Index 309
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of abbreviations vi
- Acknowledgments vii
- Introduction 1
- 1 The politics of religion and the religion of politics in Elizabethan England 36
- 2 The Elizabethan exclusion crisis and the Elizabethan polity 61
- 3 Servants and citizens 98
- 4 Pulling the strings 122
- 5 Elizabeth I and the verdicts of history 143
- 6 Biblical rhetoric 167
- 7 John Foxe and national consciousness 193
- 8 Truth, lies and fiction in sixteenth-century Protestant historiography 216
- 9 One of us? 245
- 10 William Camden and the anti-myth of Elizabeth 270
- 11 John Stow and nostalgic antiquarianism 287
- Index 309
