A History of Political Thought in the 16th Century (Routledge Library Editions: Political Science Volume 16)

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This presentation of the main phases and features of political thought in the sixteenth century is based on an exhaustive study of contemporary writings in Latin, English, French, German and Italian. The book is divided into four parts. The first part deals with the new thought of Protestantism. The rest describes special ideas that emerged in England, France and Italy.

A History of Political Thought in the 16th Century (Routledge Library Editions: Political Science Volume 16) Review

I found this book first in a used bookstore. I have always been fascinated by the reformation and this promised, at a glance, to be more in depth than anything I had ever read before on the subject (Durant The Reformation or Bainton's Here I Stand being my first introduction), though its focus is on political as opposed to religious thought (though you cannot separate the two in the sixteenth century). I accidentally left my copy in a Dep't of Motor Vehicles hearing room and was beside myself with anticipation until my Amazon copy came.

It should be noted that this book is not intended to be biographical or a general survey of the individual writers he covers so much as it is about their political theories. A basic knowledge of the era is presumed. Although my interests led me to relish this book, from which I learned a staggering amount of information, I have to warn anyone who just wants a general introduction to the reformation, don't go here. It is very repetitive as many of the writers he covers, some of whom I have never heard of before, wrote on the same topics and often with similar opinions. And he goes very deeply into their thought. Those people should probably instead read one of Bainton's wonderful works, which, though they are also scholarly, are meant to be read by the general public, or the above stated Durant work.

That being said, this work by Allen is masterful. I learned more about the political thought in that century (and to some degree others) than I would have thought possible and copied over 80 pages of it verbatim into my own mini-version. It includes, of course, the theories of Luther, Calvin, Melanchthon, Macchiavelli, the Anabaptists, John Knox, etc. - the usual reformation cast of characters, but also those of religious figures and writers I now admire much more, like Castellion, Acontius, Michael Servetus as well as many other brilliant, brave and sympathetic figures.

I'd like to give two quotes from the book, the first quote showing both the author's humility and also the extraordinary difficulty of comprehensiveness in historical research, and, the second his insight.

The first quote: "I am like other people; I have left undone things I ought to have done and have done things I ought not to have done. There exists much relevant literature, especially of the period of the civil wars in France, which I have not read; and more, almost certainly, than I even know of. I have sometimes referred to and even quoted from French pamphlets or treatises without having verified my references or quotations. I believe that in these cases my authority is fully sufficient: but this is a thing that ought not to be done. . . In truth the thought of the sixteenth century is so rich and various and its literature so extensive, that perhaps it is so wrong as yet for anyone to deal with it as a whole. To work out fully the political thought of France alone would require a book the size of this one. Work of this kind is, in the long run, of use or account only so far as it is thorough. All the evidence must be examined and collated, all the texts must be studied. Perhaps the right title for this book would be simply: `Some of the Political Thought of the Sixteenth Century.' But nothing in the world is much more futile than apology. It were best, in concluding any book, to say simply, with the author of the Book of the Maccabees: `If I have done well and as is fitting the story, it is that which I desired; but if slenderly and meanly, it is that which I could attain unto.'"

The second quote: "It has to be remembered, also, that there of course existed, on all sides, the constant tendency of the human mind to resent disagreement and to regard those who differ from ourselves as foolish or perverse or wicked. . . Men have to learn not to resent contradiction; and when the proposition in question is one that seems of the utmost import, the lesson is hard to learn. That which has convinced me, ought, it seems, to convince all others, or, alternatively, it ought not to have convinced me. The alternative may seem intolerable."

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