Role of Religion in Mid-seventeeth Century England

This study will examine Christopher Hill's The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution and will consider ways in which religion played a crucial and contradictory role in mid-seventeenth century England in the creation of both social order and social disorder, disrupting the traditional gender and class order at the same time that it was used by the powerful to uphold that traditional order. Specifically, the study will describe how the triumph of the protestant ethic strengthened those in power (those who wanted to maintain traditional gender and class order) while at the same time creating opportunities for life and social styles which flew in the face of such traditional order.

As Hill writes, "the essence of feudal society was the bond of loyalty and dependence between lord and man. The society was hierarchical in structure: some were lords, others were their servants" (39). Although this feudal ideal in the seventeenth century was less than fully realized, for the most part those "masterless men" who were without lords were "anomalies, potential dissolvents of society" (40), bu

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Category: History - R