Great Tew Circle Explained

The Great Tew Circle was a group of clerics and literary figures who gathered in the 1630s at the manor house of Great Tew, Oxfordshire in southern England, and in London.

Lord Clarendon referred to the Circle as "A college situate in a purer air", referring to its pursuit of truth away from the partisan passions of the town. The house was the property of the noble Cary family, and the circle was brought together by Lucius Cary, who became 2nd Viscount Falkland on the death of his father in 1633. The most prominent of those taking part was Edward Hyde, the future 1st Earl of Clarendon, who after 1660 would become known as a leading statesman, and then a historian.^[1]

Views

In the vexed religious climate of the time, the Circle was heterodox, inclining to sympathy with Socinianism.^[2] The favoured approach of some of those involved has been defined as "Arminian humanism", and in any case opposed to rigid Calvinism;^[3] this approach fitted with political views that were essentially royalist.^[4] The central religious figure of the Circle was William Chillingworth.^[5] Falkland himself had a Catholic convert, Elizabeth Cary, Lady Falkland, for his mother, and found the tolerant approach of Erasmus attractive.^[6] He organised the circle with his wife Lettice.^[7]

Influences

Major influences on the thinking of the circle were Hugo Grotius^[8] and Richard Hooker because of the place the latter made for the use of reason in Biblical interpretation and church polity.^[9] These writers formed part of the broader Christian humanist tradition of Jacobus Acontius, George Cassander, Sebastian Castellio, Bernardino Ochino and Faustus Socinus.^[8] The anti-patristic views of Jean Daillé were also significant.^[10] According to the writings of Hyde (as Lord Clarendon), the gatherings and discussions themselves were modelled on those of Cicero and Erasmus, with guests being welcome to differ on points of view. Discourse also took place around the dinner table, with Clarendon likening the "Convivium Philosophicum or Convivium Theologicum ("philosophical-" or "theological feast") to Erasmus's Convivium Religiosum ("godly feast")."^[8]

Tolerance, eirenicism, latitude

Chillingworth was influenced by Acontius, and the Circle read Acontius alongside Johannes Crellius, a Socinian.^[11] They found greater relevance in the eirenicism of Acontius than in the theology (Unitarianism) of Socinus himself.^[12] The context, as explained by the historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, was that of the Thirty Years' War with its Protestant defeats of the 1620s and Catholic expansion; but also of the doctrines of the contra-Remonstrants in an environment of increasing skepticism on religious matters.^[13] Falkland and Chillingworth had been seared by the "Pyrrhonian crisis" of skepticism rampant.^[14] Opposed to fideism, the Circle found in the use by Grotius of probabilism a more attractive option to deal with the challenge of skepticism.^[15]

Trevor-Roper supported the claims of the Great Tew group to the eirenic moral high ground on religious toleration and a commitment to rational dialogue on religion. This analysis has been challenged from the direction of the Circle's political thought, with its commitment to sovereignty. It has also been argued that these are two sides to the understanding of the period of the term "Socinian".^[2] The eirenic style was understood by Puritan opponents as Arminian rhetoric, and they moved away from compromise with it, to polemic and contemplation of war.^[16]

The major theologians of the circle (Chillingworth, Hales, Taylor) have regularly been claimed as precursors of the Latitudinarians, a term anachronistic before 1660.^[17] They are now considered to have paved the way for the Cambridge Platonists, in the attitude that there is no single basis for essential and true beliefs.^[18] The distinction now usual between the Cambridge Platonists and other Latitudinarians is a conventional one, introduced by John Tulloch in the 19th century.^[19]

Participants

Participation in any actual dialogues as described by Hyde is problematic to establish; and the time scale has different points on it, though a beginning date of 1634 (Martinich) seems to be agreed widely. After about 1640 the troubled political situation overshadowed theoretical discussion and writing. The influence of the circle can be traced in theological production (especially Chillingworth's Religion of Protestants, 1638),^[20] literary works and translation in a humanist vein, and the political line pursued by Falkland and Hyde in 1640–1, attempting to find a middle position between Puritan and Laudian extremes.Among those mentioned as being in Falkland's circle are:

Churchmen

• George Aglionby^[21]
• Thomas Barlow
• William Chillingworth
• Hugh Paulinus Cressy
• John Earle
• Charles Gataker^[22]
• John Hales
• Henry Hammond
• George Morley
• Walter Raleigh the cleric.
• Gilbert Sheldon
• Jeremy Taylor.^[23]

Men of letters

• Thomas Carew
• Charles Cotton (died 1658), father of Charles Cotton the poet.^[24]
• Abraham Cowley^[22]
• Sidney Godolphin
• George Sandys
• Sir John Suckling
• Thomas Triplet^[22]
• Edmund Waller

Politicians and lawyers

• Dudley Digges^[25]
• Edward Hyde
• John Selden^[26]

Associations

Since Great Tew was best known as an open house for Oxford scholars, and Falkland's contacts included a group centred on London and the court, it is artificial at best to assign membership in the circle to some who are known to have associated with the group.

• Thomas Hobbes. Whether Hobbes actually visited Great Tew is unclear; he possibly did so in 1634. His associations with the circle through friendships are more certain in a London context.^[27]
• Poets: Ben Jonson was on good terms with members of the circle, and visited Great Tew;^[28] Thomas May associated with the circle.
• Wits: George Digby and Sir John Vaughan.^{[29] [30]}
• Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh, who moved to England from Ireland after the 1641 rebellion.^[31]
• Sons of Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry.
• Francis Wenman and Henry Rainsford, friends and neighbours of Falkland, linked to the Virginia Company of London.^{[32] [33]}
• Robert Payne and Thomas Lockey, on the Great Tew–Oxford axis of the 1630s.^[34]
• The Catholics Kenelm Digby and Wat Montagu, possibly.^[22]
• Izaak Walton, biographer of Hooker, not likely to have participated at Great Tew, but close to a number of the Circle.^[35]

Relationship to other groups

Falkland himself is identified as one of the Tribe of Ben, the followers of Jonson;^[36] and others of the Circle were also in the Tribe. Falkland also gave the first of the poetical tributes in the 1638 Oxford memorial volume Jonson Virbius, and others of the Circle who contributed were Henry Coventry, May and Digges.^[37]

Hales and Chillingworth have been identified with an "Oxford School of rational theology", containing also Christopher Potter and William Page.^[38] It has been said that, despite the political difference over the defence of episcopacy, there is no clear distinction between the Great Tew line and Laudianism in theology.^[39] Falkland, Hyde and Sir John Colepepper were leaders of the "Country Alliance" of 1640.^[40]

Katherine Jones was someone common to the Great Tew Circle and the Hartlib Circle.^[41] Robert Payne was a central figure in the so-called Welbeck Academy, around the Cavendishes, with which Hobbes was more closely associated than with Great Tew.^[42]

The widowed Lady Falkland (Lettice) took in John Duncon, brother of Eleazar Duncon and Edmund Duncon, who had lost his Essex rectory during the Civil war. He later wrote her biography (1648, in the form of an exchange of letters).^{[43] [44]} It has been suggested that the household was run on lines similar to the Little Gidding community.^[45]

References

• A. P. Martinich, Hobbes: A Biography (1999)
• Noel Malcolm, Aspects of Hobbes (2002)

Notes and References

1. Book: Ted-Larry Pebworth. Literary circles and cultural communities in Renaissance England. 24 March 2012. 2000. University of Missouri Press. 978-0-8262-1317-4. 174.
2. Book: Sarah Mortimer. Reason and Religion in the English Revolution: The Challenge of Socinianism. 24 March 2012. 4 March 2010. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-51704-1. 63–5.
3. See Arminianism in the Church of England.
4. Book: Patrick Müller. Latitudinarianism and didacticism in eighteenth century literature: moral theology in Fielding, Sterne, and Goldsmith. 24 March 2012. 19 January 2009. Peter Lang. 978-3-631-59116-1. 17.
5. Book: Tom Sorell. The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes. 24 March 2012. 26 January 1996. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-42244-4. 22.
6. Book: Jean-Louis Quantin. The Church of England and Christian antiquity: the construction of a confessional identity in the 17th century. 24 March 2012. 25 April 2009. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-955786-8. 215.
7. 66709. Cary [née Morison], Lettice, Viscountess Falkland. Allen. Elizabeth .
8. Book: Gary Remer. Humanism and the Rhetoric of Toleration. 24 March 2012. 31 January 2008. Penn State Press. 978-0-271-02811-8. 144.
9. Michael Brydon, The Evolving Reputation of Richard Hooker: An examination of responses 1600–1714 (2006), p. 52.
10. Book: John William Packer. The transformation of Anglicanism, 1643-1660: with special reference to Henry Hammond. registration. 24 March 2012. 1969. Manchester University Press ND. 69. GGKEY:2UELGKR2ZUF.
11. Book: John Marshall. John Locke, Toleration and Early Enlightenment Culture: Religious Intolerance and Arguments for Religious Toleration in Early Modern and 'Early Enlightenment' Europe. 25 March 2012. 30 March 2006. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-65114-1. 324.
12. Book: Sarah Mortimer. Reason and Religion in the English Revolution: The Challenge of Socinianism. 25 March 2012. 4 March 2010. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-51704-1. 6.
13. Book: Reid Barbour. Literature and Religious Culture in Seventeenth-Century England. 25 March 2012. 2002. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-00664-4. lxxx.
14. Hugh Trevor-Roper, From Counter-Reformation to Glorious Revolution (1992), p. 176.
15. Book: Daniel Garber. Michael Ayers. The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy. 1034 and 399. 26 March 2012. 2003. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-53720-9.
16. Book: Gregory D. Dodds. Exploiting Erasmus: the Erasmian legacy and religious change in early modern England. 25 March 2012. 9 April 2009. University of Toronto Press. 978-0-8020-9900-6. 212.
17. E.g. Edward Augustus George, Seventeenth Century Men of Latitude; forerunners of the new theology (1908); https://archive.org/details/seventeenthcentu00georialaarchive.org.
18. Book: Knud Haakonssen. Enlightenment and Religion: Rational Dissent in Eighteenth-Century Britain. 25 March 2012. 2 November 2006. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-02987-2. 20.
19. Book: Martin Ignatius Joseph Griffin. Richard Henry Popkin. Richard Henry Popkin. Lila Freedman. Latitudinarianism in the seventeenth-century Church of England. 25 March 2012. 1992. BRILL. 978-90-04-09653-0. 12.
20. In full The Religion of Protestants, a safe way to salvation, or, An answer to a booke entitle Mercy and truth, or, Charity maintain'd by Catholiques, which pretends to prove the contrary (Oxford, 1638).
21. Malcolm, p.92 note 53.
22. Martinich, p. 103.
23. Book: Kim Ian Parker. Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion. The biblical politics of John Locke. 25 March 2012. 1 March 2004. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. 978-0-88920-450-8. 17.
24. Book: Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon. The History of the Rebellion: A New Selection. 25 March 2012. 12 February 2009. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-160777-6. 489.
25. Martinich, pp. 63–4.
26. Martinich, pp. 63–4, and p. 217.
27. Book: Tom Sorell. The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes. 25 March 2012. 26 January 1996. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-42244-4. 23.
28. Martinich, p. 217.
29. Book: Robert Wilcher. The discontented cavalier: the work of Sir John Suckling in its social, religious, political, and literary contexts. 24 March 2012. 2007. Associated University Presse. 978-0-87413-996-9. 175.
30. Book: Gordon McMullan. Jonathan Hope. The Politics of tragicomedy: Shakespeare and after. registration. 25 March 2012. 1992. Routledge. 978-0-415-06403-3. 40.
31. Book: Sylvia Monica Brown. Women, gender, and radical religion in early modern Europe. 25 March 2012. 2007. BRILL. 978-90-04-16306-5. 289.
32. Malcolm, pp. 74–5.
33. Book: Preston T. King. Thomas Hobbes: critical assessments. 25 March 2012. 1993. Taylor & Francis. 978-0-415-08081-1. 348.
34. Malcolm, p. 325.
35. Book: Ted-Larry Pebworth. Literary circles and cultural communities in Renaissance England. 25 March 2012. 2000. University of Missouri Press. 978-0-8262-1317-4. 178.
36. Book: Virginia Brackett. The Facts On File Companion to British Poetry. 25 March 2012. 2008. Infobase Publishing. 978-1-4381-0835-3. 452.
37. [Barrett Wendell]
38. Book: Nicholas Tyacke. Aspects of English Protestantism, c. 1530-1700. 25 March 2012. 2001. Manchester University Press. 978-0-7190-5392-4. 279.
39. Book: Paul D. L. Avis. Anglicanism and the Christian Church: theological resources in historical perspective. 25 March 2012. 2002. Continuum International Publishing Group. 978-0-567-08745-4. 73.
40. [J. S. Morrill]
41. Book: Steven Shapin. A social history of truth: civility and science in seventeenth-century England. 25 March 2012. 1994. University of Chicago Press. 978-0-226-75018-7. 144 note 49.
42. Book: Juhana Lemetti. Historical Dictionary of Hobbes's Philosophy. 3 April 2012. 16 December 2011. Scarecrow Press. 978-0-8108-5065-1. 352.
43. Duncon, Eleazar.
44. Book: John Duncon. Lettice Cary (viscountess Falkland.). The holy life and death of the lady Letice, vi-countess Falkland, with the returnes of spiritual comfort and grief in a devout soul. Repr. (of part of the 1648 ed.).. 29 March 2012. 1760.
45. A. L. Maycock, Nicholas Ferrar of Little Gidding (1938), note p. 231.