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E-book Religion and Governance in England’s Emerging Colonial Empire, 1601–1698

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Penilaian

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On 15 September 1622, the poet, onetime MP, lawyer and cleric JohnDonne delivered a sermon in the grounds of the old cathedral at St Paul’sCross, in which he argued the importance of religion to the govern-mental success of the Virginia Company (VC). Donne demonstrated,in his inimitable style, that structured religious governance would leadto the company successfully establishing control over English and non-English peoples in its colony. It would also ensure the advancement ofProtestantism and English authority abroad, thus providing an ‘exampleof a just Government to other Companies’.1Donne compared the VCto an unseen celestial being, whose religious mission was the corpora-tion’s conscience, its moral backbone, of which the temporal ‘Seals,andPatents,andCommissions’ were the company’s ‘wings’. By merging a reli-gious mission with the constitutional authority of a corporation, Donnebelieved the VC could ‘fly the faster’ towards both commercial and spir-itual success.2The company would act as an evangelical body spreadingboth Protestantism and English authority across the world and through its emerging colonial empire. According to Donne, by establishing a godly,‘just government’, the VC and its members would be ‘bearing witnessin Jerusalem’ and ‘Judea’, or the city of London and country.3Donnewent further, declaring in the language of the Church that, like the ‘apos-tles’ whose ‘dioceses’ were ‘enlarged, farther than Jerusalem, farther thanJudea’, the company would perform ‘miracles’ in Virginia.4Some years earlier, Daniel Price had quoted Donne’s friend ThomasMorton, the Dean of Gloucester, who had used similar language whendescribing the Virginia enterprise.5Morton declared that ‘it is a Voyage,wherein every Christian ought to set to his helping hand, seeing the Angelof Virginia cryeth out to this land, as the Angel of Macedonia did toPaul, O come and help us’.6Quoting from the book of Acts 16:9, bothMorton and Price presented the conversion of the Native Americans ofVirginia in the same manner that Paul claimed to be called by God toconvert the Macedonians.7Just as the apostle Paul had been respon-sible for converting the Greeks, so too had the VC and English beencalled to proselytise to Native Americans in Virginia. Twenty years later,in 1629, the seal of the Massachusetts Bay Company (MBC) used thesame example as in Morton’s sermon to justify their presence in NewEngland, presenting a Native American declaring ‘Come over and helpus’.8In the eyes of Morton, Price, Donne and later the leaders of theMBC, trade and commerce were ‘God’s own invention’, and trade wouldnot obstruct the company’s religious obligation to both establish andspread Protestant government abroad.9In fact it would actually ensureit. As a result of clear religious governance over their English personneland the peoples over whom they claimed jurisdiction, overseas companies would not only ensure the spread of Protestantism and English authority,but also, succeed in their commercial mission, and according to Donne,provide an ‘example of a just Government to other Companies’.10Donnesaw the interactions of England’s overseas companies with non-Christiansacross the globe as an opportunity to advance and combine the Protes-tant faith and English authority abroad in its emerging colonial empire.Such calls to evangelise the ‘natives’ became the bedrock of early colo-nial settlements, encouraging political, religious and financial support fororganisations that coordinated English expansion abroad.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

940 SMI r

Penerbit

Switzerland : Springer Nature., 2022

Deskripsi Fisik

297 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9783030701314

Klasifikasi

940

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

HIstory of Europe

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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