Argument and Authority in Early Modern England: The Presupposition of Oaths and Offices

Conal Condren offers a radical reappraisal of the character of moral and political theory in early modern England through an exploration of pervasive arguments about office. In this context he explores the significance of oath-taking and three of the major crises around oaths and offices in the seventeenth century. This fresh focus on office brings into serious question much of what has been taken for granted in the study of early modern political and moral theory concerning, for example, the interplay of ideologies, the emergence of a public sphere, of liberalism, reason of state, de facto theory, and perhaps even political theory and moral agency as we know it. Argument and Authority is a major new work from a senior scholar of early modern political thought, of interest to a wide range of historians, philosophers and literary scholars.

A radical reappraisal of the character of moral and political theory in early modern England.

Conal Condren is Scientia Professor in Politics and International Relations at the University of New South Wales.

Preface; Introduction; Part I. The Liquid Empire of Office: 1. An overview; 2. Ceremonies of office: the kiss of the Tutti-Man; 3. Institutionalised office: a sense of the scavenger; 4. The vocabulary of office; 5. Offices of the intellect: player, poet and philosopher; 6. Soul and conscience; Part II. The Authority and Insolence of Office; 7. The cases of patriot and counsellor; 8. Casuistry as the mediation of office; 9. The case of resistance to superior power; 10. Metaphor and political autonomy; Part III 'I, A, B': 11. An overview of the oath in seventeenth-century argument; 12. Coronation oaths; 13. The oath of allegiance of 1606; 14. Engagement with a free state; 15. The oath of allegiance and the Revolution of 1688-9; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.