Many different people expressed the religious turmoil of the 1500’s in many different ways. The aristocrats had there method, the layman his or hers, the royalty another, and the writers and authors of the 1500’s had a style all their own. And while each author had his own unique way of expression-some using poetry, others plays, and some essay’s-they all seemed to share a central assumption about finding religious truth, and that was the idea that religion had become a personal affair. Which meant that the internalization of sin and of faith was the only way by which you could understand god, because in view of the recent revival of empiricism and skepticism it was considered impossible to use reason to understand god. These new ideas of internalization and personal internal religion would set the groundwork for the beginnings of religious revolts, and ultimately the religious freedom so widely enjoyed by the larger part of the western world today.
This idea of the internalization of religion is expressed forthright in William Perkins ‘Cases for Conscience’ and his implantation of technometria-charts which allowed a person to see exactly where they as an individual were on their path to salvation. Other writers such as John Donne, Aemilai Lanyer, and George Herbert also expressed their support for the idea of internalization and personal choice. Donne extolling the idea with the passage, “doubt wisely; in strange way to stand inquiring right, is not to stray”[1]. Herbert in his Sinne I and Prayer I speaks of this internalization in verse saying, “The sound of glorie ringing in our eares; / Without, our shame; within our consciences; [2] and talks about how this internalization brings, “Softnesse, and peace, and joy, and love, and blisse.” [3] Lanyer in “To all virtuous Ladies in generall” then adds, “fill your lamps with oyle of burning zeale, that to your faith he may his Truth reveale.”[4] Alluding to the biblical story that teaches us that all must have their own personal internalized faith in order to reach salvation.
Another author who expressed his ideas about religion during this time was the famous philosopher, Sir Francis Bacon. Expressing his views in “Of Unity In Religion,” Bacon writes “Religion…is a happy thing when itself is well contained within the true band of unity,”[5] thereby making the assumption that the internalization of religion would be most beneficial if that internalization and personal interpretation led to unity, which according to Bacon in his “On Superstition” is most easily reached through atheism which, “leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue.”[6].
Other authors expressed their views on religion in various other ways. Without Bacon, Donne, Marlowe, Lanyer, Perkins, Herbert, and even William Shakespeare and Ben Johnson it is hard to say whether or not the religious reforms and ideological changes that were necessary for the bringing forth of the dogma of free religion would have ever come to germinate. It is not to far-fetched to say that the “power which gaue me eyes” [7] to see the path that led to the religious freedom enjoyed by the larger part of the western world is a direct result of the writings of the aforementioned authors and their contemporaries.
[1] John Donne, “Satire III,” at http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/satire3.htm
[2] George Herbert, “Sinne I,” at http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/herbert/sinne1.htm
[3] George Herbert, “Prayer I,” at http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/herbert/prayer1.htm
[4] Aemilia Lanyer, “To all virtuous Ladies in generall.” At http://www.u.arizona.edu/ic/mcbride/lanyer/sdrjladi.htm
[5] Sir Francis Bacon, “Of Unity in Religion,” Essays at http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/bacon.html#3
[6] Sir Francis Bacon, “On Superstition,” Essays, at http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/bacon.html#16
[7] Sir John Davies, “Of The Soule of Man and the Immortalite Thereof,” from Nosce Teipsum as http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/humane2.html
