The Divine Feudal Law: Or, Covenants with Mankind, Represented. Samuel Pufendorf
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the principle on which the Church of Rome is founded.
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Despite the limited scope of Pufendorf’s project of reconciliation, it was later used in the attempted reunion of Protestants in England and on the continent, as shown by the English translations of the work. Neither the title of this nor of the second English edition of 171410 is faithful to the Latin original. The Latin title is in fact difficult to understand. In Roman law, jus feciale (literally, “fecial law”) is the law of negotiation and diplomacy. It remains unclear how the reunion of Protestants is related to this particular law. This may explain why the English translator, Theophilus Dorrington,11 did not follow the original. The title of his first edition (“The Divine Feudal Law”) refers to the specific nature of the covenants between God and man. As Pufendorf explains in section 25, the original covenant between God and Adam was of the nature of “feudal” covenants among men, in which no proportion is observed between the matter of the crime and the severity of the punishment; rather, the right to benefit from the contract depends on a condition insignificant in itself. Thus the great condition of the original covenant between God and man was placed in abstinence from the fruit of the tree of knowledge. This explains the severity of the sanction annexed to the prohibition of eating the fruit.
As Dorrington observes in the “Advertisement” to The Divine Feudal Law, his translation is intended to serve two purposes. In his view, Pufendorf wrote the treatise to promote peace and union among the Protestant churches in Germany. Finding the state of the church in England much the same, Dorrington suggests that the book may be of similar use in his own country as well. What Dorrington must have in mind here is the much-disputed relationship between the Church of England and the Dissenters. As the so-called Toleration Act of 1689 had lifted the penalties of only some of the laws on which the former discrimination of dissent had been based, “orthodox” Protestant Dissenters (Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists) remained in a politically inferior position, while no other “sects” benefited from the act. In Pufendorf’s terms, Dissenters in Great Britain were at best granted “limited” toleration. While some authors advocated full toleration of religious dissent, others pleaded for “comprehension”; that is, they proposed to receive Dissenters as members of the established church.
In the second place, Dorrington recommends Pufendorf’s treatise as a means of better understanding the principles and practices of the Lutheran Church. In Dorrington’s view, the latter was usually depicted falsely and injuriously by its adversaries. The reasons a proper understanding of the principles of the Lutheran Church seemed important to him are spelled out more clearly in the second edition of 1714. Dorrington there introduces the work as a demonstration of the extent to which the principles of the Lutheran Church “agree with the Church of England.” He considers it “a Seasonable Essay towards the Uniting of Protestants upon the accession of His Majesty King George to the throne of these Kingdoms.” What made this so “Seasonable” was the fact that only with the death of Queen Anne and the accession of George I did the succession to the British throne switch from the Stuarts to the Hanovers, as provided for at the Glorious Revolution. What is more, George I had been brought up a Lutheran.
Although Dorrington wished to further strengthen the Protestant alliance by uniting the Church of England with the Protestants on the Continent, some of the Anglican divines still persisted in their opposition to the Protestant succession. Among them was Thomas Brett (1667–1743), an eminent divine who took the accession of George I as an opportunity to join in communion with the “non-jurors.” That was the name given to the Anglican churchmen who in 1689 refused to take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary and their successors under the Protestant Act of Succession of that year. Their leaders on the episcopal bench who persisted in their refusal were suspended.
At the time of his ordination, in 1690, Brett had complied with the oath. However, when upon the accession of George I an act of Parliament was passed obliging all divines to refresh their oaths, Brett refused. This helps explain why Brett responded to Dorrington’s translation with A Review of the Lutheran Principles, in which he attempted to show “that Baron Puffendorf’s essay for uniting of Protestants, was not design’d to procure an union between the Lutherans and the Church of England.” The Review was published in two editions in 1714.12 In the same year appeared A Second Review of the Lutheran Principles, composed by “a Lover of King George” in answer “to Dr Bret’s late insolent libel against the Lutheran Churches.”13 The publication of these pamphlets suggests that the influence of Pufendorf’s treatise was not restricted to debates on reunification in the German empire. Despite its limited scope, it could also be employed as a model for reconciling Protestants in Europe.
THE Divine Feudal Law: OR, Covenants with Mankind, REPRESENTED. Together with MEANS FOR THE Uniting of Protestants. In which also The Principles of the Lutheran Churches are Stated and Defended.
By SAMUEL Baron PUFENDORF.
Translated from the Latin by Theophilus Dorrington, Rector of Wittresham in Kent.
LONDON: Printed for John Wyat, at the Rose in St. Paul’s Church-yard, 1703.
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The Works of this Excellent Author need no Man’s Recommendation, nor can I think fit to pretend to give them any Advantage by mine. It shall suffice therefore barely to advertise concerning this, That it is the last Work of this Famous and Great Man, and so may be reckon’d the Product and Fruit of his utmost Improvements in Wisdom, Piety and Learning. He had consider’d it, as he thought, sufficiently, and was about to make it publick when he was prevented by a sudden Sickness; the Issue of which, at first, was doubtful, but which, in a little time, prov’d fatal. When this was expected, he left it in Charge with his Friends to publish this Work after his Death, who fulfill’d his Will in doing so. He wrote it with the Blessed Design to serve and promote Peace and Union among the Protestant Churches in Germany, and thought it might be of some Use towards this happy Effect. And then the State of the Church being much the same with us in England, as it is with them, we may reckon upon it as his Opinion or Judgment, that such an Essay or Endeavour to Reconcile and Unite Protestants, is very seasonable and proper, and may be useful to us. I thought also that it might be of Use to us in England, to understand and know the Principles and Practices of the Lutheran Churches (which are the true Protestant Churches beyond the Seas) better than for ought I can find we commonly do: And these are represented here fairly and distinctly in their true and genuine Lustre, and freed from the false and injurious Representations which are commonly made of them by their Adversaries. We may also I think see by this Book, that if any sober and judicious Persons in the Lutheran Churches have any Disesteem of the Church of England, or Prejudice against it, this comes to pass by their not knowing it exactly. Which may well be, inasmuch as it has been the Fortune of our Church to be more industriously, and more represented abroad by its Enemies than by its Friends. And I believe it may be of great Use to us to know this. For these Reasons I thought it worth my Time and Labour, and agreeable enough with my Duty, and the earnest Desire I have, according to it, to serve Truth, and Piety, and Peace, among us, or, which includes all that in one Word, the Church of England, to turn this Book into our common Language; by which Means I judge it will become more known, and so be more useful among us than it was likely to be while it remain’d in the Original Latin. Now this is done, I pray God it may be serviceable to all those good Purposes mention’d, to whom be Glory for ever.
Amen.
AN
EPITOMY
Of the following
BOOK.
Sect. 1. The Wickedness of Mankind a Cause of many Calamities among them.
Sect. 2. Religion abused to encrease the Miseries of Mankind.