The English Bible and the 17th-Century Revolution

Social reformers, heresy hunters, political radicals, anti-Papists, Quakers, royalists, free-love advocates and physicians eager to regulate midwives all found support for their views in the Bible during England's revolutionary 17th century. The scriptures, as Hill demonstrates in this scholarly, often colorful study, permeated political and economic debates as well as everyday speech. Formerly Master of Balliol College, Oxford, Hill argues that the Bible, translated into vernacular English as early as 1534, ``did far more good than harm'' as a guide to immediate action, even though some people used it as a justification for patriarchy and national arrogance. He traces the Bible's impact on John Milton, John Bunyan and Andrew Marvell and concludes with a discussion of the Bible's ``dethronement'' as final arbiter by the 1690s, a move he deems a triumph of the human spirit. (Oct.)