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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2014
As historians have long recognized, the “perfidious Machiavel” of the stage was by no means the only image of Machiavelli in the minds of English intellectuals before 1640. Besides frequent denunciations of the Florentine as a devious, amoral politician and an atheist (most of them sincerel a few pro forma), one encounters in English works of theology, moral and political philosophy, and history two other approaches to Machiavelli the political scientist. Some writers, with or without acknowledging their source, mined II Principe and the Discorsi for detailed information. Slowly, tentatively, and sometimes surreptitiously, others worked toward a partial appropriation of Machiavelli's political analysis. The scholarly consensus, however, is that before Machiavelli's new paradigm could be fully accepted in England, a major shift in the political situation had to occur. Only with the coming of the Civil War would writers like James Harrington unreservedly endorse Machiavelli's rejection of the medieval world view in favor of classical political wisdom, which they held to be directly applicable to modern English circumstances.
1 Prezzolini, Giuseppe, Machiavelli anticristo (Rome, 1954), pp. 268–270, 335Google Scholar; Mosse, George L., The Holy Pretence: A Study in Christianity and Reason of State from William Perkins to John Winthrop (Oxford, 1957), pp. 19–20Google Scholar; Praz, Mario, Machiavelli in Inghilterra ed altri saggi sui rapporti letterari anglo-italiani (Florence, 1962), pp. 110–115, 133, 136Google Scholar; and especially Raab, Felix, The English Face of Machiavelli: A Changing Interpretation, 1500-1700 (London and Toronto, 1964), pp. 30–101.Google Scholar
2 Mosse, , The Holy Pretence, pp, 24–27Google Scholar; Raab, , English Face of Machiavelli, pp. 61–64, 70–78, 90–100Google Scholar; Strathmann, Ernest A., Sir Walter Ralegh, A Study in Elizabethan Scepticism (New York, 1951), pp. 161–168.Google Scholar
3 Prezzolini, , Machiavelli anticristo, pp. 336–338Google Scholar; Mosse, , The Holy Pretence, pp. 21–24, 27–37, 48–152Google Scholar; Praz, , Machiavelli in Inghilterra, pp. 154, 162–164Google Scholar; Raab, , English Face of Machiavelli, pp. 34–53, 65–100.Google Scholar
4 Ibid., pp. 118-217; Pocock, J.G.A., The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition (Princeton, 1975), pp. 333–360Google Scholar; Pocock, J.G.A., Introduction to The Political Works of James Harrington (New York, 1977), pp. 15–76.Google Scholar
5 William Jones, Preface to edition of the works of George Horne, cited by Todd, Henry John, ed., Repertorium Theologicum: A Synoptical Table of the Pious and Learned Writings … of Thomas Jackson … (London, 1838), p. xxxii.Google Scholar
6 Jackson does not appear in the most recent general study of English historiography in the pre-Civil War period: Fussner, F. Smith, The Historical Revolution: English Historical Writing and Thought, 1580-1640 (London, 1962).Google Scholar Bacon utilized the Discorsi extensively, but he (like Raleigh, Gabriel Harvey, and Edmund Spenser) was interested in Machiavelli's political maxims, not his philosophy of history. Orsini, Napoleone, Bacone e Machiavelli (Genoa, 1936)Google Scholar; Luciani, Vincent, “Bacon and Machiavelli,” Italica 24 (1947): 26–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7 For other contemporaneous appreciations of Jackson, see Todd, , Repertorium Theologicum, title page and pp. xxxi–xxxii.Google Scholar
8 Bradley, Emily Tennyson, “Jackson, Thomas (1579-1640),” Dictionary of National Biography, 10:544.Google Scholar Corpus Christi College, founded in 1516 by Richard Fox, Bishop of Durham, continued to maintain a strong Durham connection. Liddell, J.R., “The Library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in the Sixteenth Century,” The Library Ser. 4, 18 (1938): 387.Google Scholar
9 Bradley, in DNB, s.v. “Jackson, Thomas,”; Trevor-Roper, H.R., Archbishop Laud, 1573-1645 (London, 1940), pp. 39–65, 92, 113–116Google Scholar; Foster, Andrew, “The Function of a Bishop: The Career of Richard Neile, 1562-1640,” in Continuity and Change: Personnel and Administration of the Church of England, 1500-1642, eds. O'Day, Rosemary and Heal, Felicity (Leicester, 1976), pp. 33–54.Google Scholar Jackson should not be confused with a contemporary of the same name. The other Thomas Jackson, educated at Cambridge, held benefices in Kent and a prebend at Centerbury, wrote several theological works, and testified against Laud (who had given him his start) in 1640. Sutton, Charles William, “Jackson, Thomas (d. 1646),” DNB, 10: 545.Google Scholar
10 Vaughan, Edmund, “Life of Jackson,” in The Works of Thomas Jackson, D. D., 12 vols. (Oxford, 1844), 1: xlii–xlivGoogle Scholar (hereafter cited as Works). If his Diverse Sermons (Oxford, 1637Google Scholar; Works, 6: 1–189Google ScholarPubMed) accurately represent his pulpit style, he was an erudite preacher but refrained from over-elaborate conceits and scholastic principles of organization—unlike Laud, whose style is devastatingly characterized by Trevor-Roper, , Archbishop Laud, p. 45.Google Scholar
11 Vaughan, , in Works, 1: xliv–xlv.Google Scholar
12 Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonensis, quoted by Todd, , Repertorium Theologicum, pp. 3–4.Google Scholar
13 The Eternall Truth of Scriptures, and Christian Belief, thereon wholly depending, manifested by its own Light (London, 1613)Google Scholar, in Works, 1: lx–lxi.Google ScholarPubMed (I have regularized the punctuation in all quotations.)
14 Hutton, Sarah, “Thomas Jackson, Oxford Platonist, and William Twisse, Aristotelian,” Journal of the History of Ideas 39 (1978): 638.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15 Works, 1: lxiii–lxv.Google ScholarPubMed
16 Jackson's first reference to Machiavelli by name came in 1615, but the passage just quoted suggests that he was already familiar with the Discorsi by 1613. Earlier in his preface to The Eternali Truth of Scriptures, he explained that he had steeped himself in “outlandish or foreign Latin writers” before reading “any English writer upon the arguments which I handle” (ibid., I, lix). Despite what some modern historians have assumed, no English intellectual had to await the appearance of Machiavelli's works in his own vernacular or references to him in other modern languages. Jackson's citations of the Discorsi came from the Latin translation by the Basel professor Giovanni Niccolò Stupano (Stupanus), five editions of which were issued before 1613. Prezzolini, , Machiavelli anticristo, p. 313Google Scholar; Gerber, Adolph, Niccolo Machiavelli: die Handschriften, Ausgaben und Übersetzungen seiner Werke im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert, 3 vols, in 1 (Gotha, 1912–1913), 3: 82–84.Google Scholar It is impossible to determine which of these editions Jackson used. In Jackson's day the library of Corpus Christi was rich in Continental publications, and he willed it most of his books. Liddell, , “Library of Corpus Christi,” pp. 387, 391, 403–416Google Scholar; Bradley, in DNB, s.v. “Jackson, Thomas.” No copy of the Discorsi, however, seems to have come into the library before or during his lifetime or through his bequest. I thank the Assistant Librarian of Corpus Christi College for help in the fruitless investigation I conducted there on July 26, 1980. Jackson never cited or alluded to II Principe, the Istorie fiorentine, or any of Machiavelli's minor works.
17 The Eternall Truth of Scripture, in Works, 1: 74–85.Google ScholarPubMed (Here and elsewhere, in order to avoid confusion, I have capitalized pronouns referring to God.)
18 The locus classicus is Niccolo Machiavelli, Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio, 1.2.13. Jackson could, of course, have derived this conception (which, as he developed it, startlingly resembles Vico's) from Polybius, as had Machiavelli. However, although he usually acknowledged his sources, neither Polybius nor Machiavelli is mentioned in the text or cited in the footnotes at this point. His reference to modern “politicians'” mode of historical explanation points to Machiavelli (and/or other near contemporaries) rather than to an ancient proponent of historical cycles. He did not accept all the implications of the Florentine's cyclical view, however; see p. 12.
19 Justifying Faith (London, 1615)Google Scholar, in Works, 3: 468Google ScholarPubMed (implicit reference to Machiavelli, Discorsi, II.2.6-8).
20 A Treatise Concerning the Original of Unbelief, Misbelief, or Mispersuasions, Concerning the Verity, Unity, and Attributes of the Diety (finished 1624; London, 1625)Google Scholar, in Works, 4: 132–133.Google ScholarPubMed
21 Ibid., 5:346.
22 Ibid., pp. 389-390 (tacit allusion to Machiavelli). Hutton, (“Thomas Jackson,” pp. 638–640)Google Scholar deals briefly with this section.
23 Works, 5: 400–432Google ScholarPubMed; quotation from p. 426 (tacit allusion to Machiavelli). Here and elsewhere Jackson discussed in detail the reliability of ancient historians' accounts.
24 Ibid., pp. 390-400.
25 Ibid., pp. 433-435 (explicit reference to Machiavelli, Discorsi, II.1.1-2). See also Jackson's discussion of the Huns (p. 438).
26 Ibid., pp. 443-448.
27 Ibid., pp. 449-455.
28 Ibid., pp. 461-463, 472. He went on (pp. 463-486) to illustrate this point with three examples: the Polish-Lithuanian defeat of the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald/Tannenberg in 1410 (source: Warszewicki, Krzysztof, Memorabilium rerum et hominum coaevorum descriptio ab orbe condita ad annum Christi MDLXXXV [Cracow, 1585])Google Scholar; Charles V's victory over the Protestant Schmalkald League in 1547 and its aftermath (sources: de Thou, Jacques-Auguste, Historiarum sui temporis [Paris, 1604, and several subsequent editions]Google Scholar; Sleidan, Johann, Commentariorum de statu religionis et reipublicae Carolo Quinto caesare [many editions from 1555 on]Google Scholar; Chytreus, David, De Carolo Quinto caesare augusto [Wittenberg, 1583]Google Scholar; Chemnitz, Martin, Harmonia evangelica, ed. Leyser, Polycarp [several editions from 1593 on])Google Scholar; and the combination of Louis XI and Charles the Bold against the Count of Saint-Pol in 1475 (source: de Commynes, Philippe, Memoires, Latin trans. Sleidan, Johann [many editions from 1545 on]).Google Scholar In regard to the last case, Jackson stated: “The best use which Machiavel or his scholars make of this potentate's mishap is to forewarn great subjects or inferior princes not to interpose as arbitrators or umpires upon advantage when their betters fall at variance” (p. 483). Machiavelli never discussed this incident, and I have been unable to discover to which of his “scholars” Jackson referred. He concluded this section by observing that his readers could furnish additional “parallel examples or experiments suitable to the rule proposed” (p. 486).
29 Works, 5: 483–484, 511–519Google ScholarPubMed; see also p. 445.
30 Ibid., p. 487.
31 Ibid., pp. 489-494 (source: de Thou). In this case, as Machiavelli had often done, Jackson engaged in “rerunning” an historical event, trying to see whether shifts in certain variables might have led to a different outcome.
32 Ibid., pp. 494-504. As sources for the Perugia incident Jackson mentioned Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini but did not provide the precise references: Discorsi, III. 14.2; Storia d'Italia, 11.2.
33 Works, 5: 504–505.Google ScholarPubMed This was Jackson's only lapse into personal attack on Machiavelli as an atheist. As can be seen from a passage quoted below (at footnote 48), he did not share his contemporaries' certainty that the Florentine was an atheist. His relative neutrality in the use of “politic” and “policy” represents an exception to the usual generalizations about English employment of these terms (e.g., Praz, , Machiavelli in Inghilterra, pp. 110–115Google Scholar). See, however, the fuller discussion by Orsini, Napoleone, “‘Policy’ or the Language of Elizabethan Machiavellianism,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 9 (1946): 122–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
34 Bacon, on the contrary, tried to extend Machiavelli's political situation ethics to private life. Luciani, , “Bacon and Machiavelli,” p. 27.Google Scholar
35 The Eternall Truth of Scriptures, in Works, 1: 85.Google ScholarPubMed
36 “A Brief Appendix to the Former Treatise of the Signs of the Time, or Divine Forewarnings,” Diverse Sermons, in ibid., 6: 187-188. Barnabas Oley, editor of two posthumous collections of Jackson's works, repeatedly begged any reader who knew the whereabouts of this lost work to contact him so that it might be published (Oley, , prefaces to A Collection of the Works of that Holy Man and Profound Divine Thomas Jackson, D.D., 3 vols. [London, 1653–1657], 1Google Scholar: unpaginated [4r]; 2: sig. b2v).
37 A Treatise of the Divine Essence and Attributes, in Works, 5: 528, 552.Google ScholarPubMed
38 Ibid., 6: 110.
39 The sermon on Luke 21:25, delivered on the second Sunday in Advent (November 28), 1630, was described by Jackson in “A Treatise” as a continuation of his “former argument” (Ibid., p. 169). Oley was therefore mistaken in assigning the sermons to the mid-1630s (Preface to 1673 edition, quoted in ibid., 1: xxxv-xxxvi). Religious and political tension in the late 1620s motivated Jackson to concern himself with prodigies and portents; greatly heightened tension in 1637 undoubtedly led him to publish his individual sermons, together with the “Treatise” (a reworking of several sermons). Except for 2 Chron. 6:39-40, the texts of these sermons were prescribed for specific dates in the church calendar: Jer. 26:19 on July 30, Luke 13:5 on March 2, and Luke 21:25 on the second Sunday in Advent. The Booke of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England (1604; rpt. London, 1844).Google Scholar
40 The exceptions are some of those on Luke 13:5 (comprising the “Treatise”), which were described as “delivered partly before the King's Majesty, partly in the Town of Newcastle upon Tyne” (Works, 6: 110Google ScholarPubMed).
41 Ibid., pp. 5-26.
42 Ibid., pp. 27-46. On the suitability of providences and “ordinary events of our times” to modern sensibilities, see also A Treatise of the Divine Essence and Attributes, in ibid., 5: 487-488.
43 First Sermon on Jer. 26:19, in ibid., 6:49-59 (explicit reference to Machiavelli, Discorsi, III. 1.2).
44 Second Sermon on Jer. 26:19, in Works, 6: 70–89.Google ScholarPubMed
45 Third Sermon on Jer. 26:19, ibid., pp. 90-109. Here, and in his previous discussion of fear (pp. 59-68), Jackson, without identifying his antagonists, was confuting some points in Puritan theology.
46 He discussed these at greater length in “A Sermon or Postil” on Luke 21:25, in ibid., pp. 169-187.
47 “A Treatise,” in ibid., pp. 110-118.
48 Ibid., pp. 118-121 (explicit references to Machiavelli, Discorsi, 1.56.1-3; Commynes, Memoires, VIII.3).
49 Works, 6: 117, 119, 122–123.Google ScholarPubMed Given his belief that Machiavelli, while a trustworthy reporter on events in his own time, had at some points deliberately misconstrued Livy's history of early Rome (see above at footnote 20), it is surprising that Jackson did not take issue with his account of the Romans' political manipulation of portents: Discorsi, 1.12.3-4, 13.1-3.
50 Harrington, James, The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656)Google Scholar, in The Political Works of James Harrington, ed. Pocock, , pp. 161–162.Google Scholar
51 On France, see Huppert, George, The Idea of Perfect History: Historical Erudition and Historical Philosophy in Renaissance France (Urbana, Ill., 1970)Google Scholar, none of whose protagonists apparently used Machiavelli; and Kelly, Donald R., Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship: Language, Law, and History in the French Renaissance (New York and London, 1970)Google Scholar, who briefly mentions Charles Dumoulin's references to the Florentine (pp. 175, 178). According to Eric Cochrane, Paolo Giovio was the Italian historian most indebted to and appreciative of Machiavelli. Historians and Historiography in the Italian Renaissance (Chicago and London, 1981), pp. 368, 371.Google Scholar
