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The Protestant Supranationalism of Britain

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The Political Theology of European Integration

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policy ((PSRPP))

Abstract

This extensive chapter traces British Euro-skepticism to ideas of the English Reformation. Theologically, Royce identifies five central propositions of Britain in the sixteenth century: “Popery” is a totalitarian ideology, Britain should be a Divine Commonwealth, the monarch is inviolable, Parliament is sovereign, and the people have liberties; and he then explains how they became embodied in some of the most important British statutes following the Restoration. Royce then discusses the Common Market/EU referendums of 1975 and 2016, respectively, and identifies these ideas within the political theories of the anti-European politicians in each case. This chapter thus includes one of the first scholarly discussions of the Brexit development.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    He says, “If God look not mercifully upon England, the seeds of utter destruction are sown in it already, by these hypocritical tyrants, and Antichristian prelates, popish papists, and double traitors to their natural country” (38).

  2. 2.

    Church legislation even today remains one of the main categories within the database of the National Archives. [legislation.gov.uk]

  3. 3.

    The masculine gender Hobbes invariably employs presents conceptual difficulties. It is not always clear if he means to indicate that males alone generate the body politic or if “men” simply means “humans.” The men of Hobbes, furthermore, can appear almost androgynous, in that they are seldom if ever presented as husbands or fathers.

  4. 4.

    The Province of Jurisprudence Determined (Indianapolis: Hackett, [1832] 1998).

  5. 5.

    See also “An agreement of the people for a firm and present peace” (1647), which states, “Parliaments are to receive the extent of their power and trust from those that betrust them; and therefore the people are to declare what their power and trust is” (97).

  6. 6.

    Overton and Walwyn’s exact words on this subject are, “Neither you [the House of Commons] nor none else can have any power at all to conclude the people in matters that concern the worship of God. For therein every one of us ought to be fully assured in our own minds and to be sure to worship Him according to our consciences” (43).

  7. 7.

    The decree came through the Star Chamber in July 1637, and placed censorship in the hands of the Chancellors of Oxford and Cambridge and the Bishop of London.

  8. 8.

    His work was Defensio Regia pro Carlo Primo (1649), and was one of the most important critiques to emerge in Europe of the execution of Charles I. Milton, as Secretary of Foreign Tongues to the Parliament, composed it on behalf of that body. See also however Milton’s “Tenure of Kings and Magistrates” (1648).

  9. 9.

    Canada and New Zealand, former British colonies, are governed respectively by the consolidation of the Constitution Acts 1867 and 1982 and the Constitution Act 1986. Israel does not have a written constitution either.

  10. 10.

    The most important expositions of the English or British constitution include Walter Bagehot, The English Constitution (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., 1894); Jean De Lolme, The Constitution of England (London: Baldwyn, 1817); Sir Ivor Jennings, The British Constitution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962); and John Millar, An Historical View of the English Government (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, [1787] 2006).

  11. 11.

    See Jeremy Bentham, The Principles of Morals and Legislation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, [1781] 1988); William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1765–1769); and Sir Edward Coke, The Selected Writings of Sir Edward Coke (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2003).

  12. 12.

    Rainer Grote, “The United Kingdom: Introductory Note,” Oxford Constitutions of the World 45w (2009) [http://oxcon.ouplaw.com/home/OCW]. By permission of Oxford University Press, USA.

  13. 13.

    Prince Philip for example was received into the Anglican faith in 1947 in order to be betrothed to Elizabeth.

  14. 14.

    Anglican churches have ornamental volumes of the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—that are carried in procession and read in front of the congregation.

  15. 15.

    Therefore the Blair Government’s House of Lords Act 1999—by which most of the hereditary peers were expelled—involved the most direct assault on the British Constitution since Oliver Cromwell.

  16. 16.

    Supported by Charles I, this faction believed that Christ died for all men, not merely for the elect.

  17. 17.

    The subsequent Meeting of Parliament Act 1694 would require it to be convened at least once every 3 years.

  18. 18.

    Specifically, the Labour manifesto of 1974 stated its opposition to the terms of accession and a resolution to renegotiate them, along with a promise to submit Common Market participation to the people directly and to respect their verdict. Existing research on the 1975 Common Market referendum includes David Butler and Uwe Kitzinger, The 1975 Referendum (Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 1976); Stanley Haig, “Europe After Referendum,” International Affairs 51 (1975): 487–498; Richard M. Seammon, “British Common Market Referendum of June 5, 1975,” World Affairs 138 (1975): 69–71; and more recently Vaughne Miller, “The 1974–75 UK Renegotiation of EEC Membership and Referendum,” House of Commons Library Briefing Paper Number 7253 (13 July 2015): 1–28.

  19. 19.

    “The Faith, Fight, and Fire of a Fundamentalist,” In Word of Their Testimony: Sermons Delivered at the World Congress of Fundamentalists, Edinburgh, Scotland, June 15–22, 1976. (1976: 7).

  20. 20.

    The Great Reformers: John Calvin, Martin Luther, John Knox (Belfast: Puritan Publishing Company, 1968), 32.

  21. 21.

    Ibid., 46.

  22. 22.

    Ibid., 4.

  23. 23.

    The Common Market at the time had nine members: Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, and West Germany. Among those nations, only Denmark and Great Britain were unambiguously Protestant, lending some plausibility to the assertion.

  24. 24.

    Butler and Kitzinger, The 1975 Referendum, 156.

  25. 25.

    Ibid., 266.

  26. 26.

    The Times, 12 October 1988. He and his followers also picketed every stage of the papal visit of 1982.

  27. 27.

    http://www.ianpaisley.org/main.asp

  28. 28.

    Parliament, People, and Power: Agenda for a Free Society (London: Verso, 1982), 45.

  29. 29.

    He was the inaugural President (2001–) of the Stop of the War Coalition, responsible for some of the largest public demonstrations in British history.

  30. 30.

    Against the Tide: Diaries, 1973–76 (London: Hutchinson, 1989), 366.

  31. 31.

    Only the Communist Morning Star and the right-wing Spectator supported withdrawal. The rest of Britain’s newspapers disparaged the anti-market coalition.

  32. 32.

    Thus for example Benn in principle opposed the nationalization of a given industry without the consent of its workers.

  33. 33.

    Free Radical: New Century Essays (London: Continuum, 2003), 218–219.

  34. 34.

    Ibid., 119–121.

  35. 35.

    A Lexicon to Herodotus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1938); The History of Herodotus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1939); and Herodotus, Book VIII (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1939).

  36. 36.

    Respectively, Thucydides historia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955); and The Evolution of the Gospel (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994).

  37. 37.

    Party leader Edward Heath fired him from the Shadow Cabinet for the infamous “Rivers of Blood” speech (20 April 1968) and Powell subsequently fell out with the Conservatives entirely, only to recreate himself as an Ulster Unionist from South Down beginning in 1974.

  38. 38.

    It is the official church of the Lord Mayor of London.

  39. 39.

    The other two were “Britain’s New Deal in Europe” and “Why You Should Vote No.”

  40. 40.

    Butler and Kitzinger, The 1975 Referendum, 292.

  41. 41.

    See Isaac Foot: A Westcountry Boy-Apostle of England (London: Politico’s, 2006).

  42. 42.

    Some of its chapters had previously appeared in the Tribune, Evening Standard, and Observer.

  43. 43.

    His Essay on the Principles of Human Action (1805) is in part a response to Burke.

  44. 44.

    The Times, 16 November 1972.

  45. 45.

    See Elise Uberoi, “European Union Referendum 2016,” House of Commons Library Briefing Paper Number CBP 7639 (29 June 2016): 1–40. The exact wording was, “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?”

  46. 46.

    David Cameron to Donald Tusk (10 November 2015), 4.

  47. 47.

    HM Government, “Alternatives to membership: possible models for the United Kingdom outside the European Union” (March 2016): 1–54; “HM Treasury analysis: the long-term economic impact of EU membership and the alternatives” (April 2016): 1–201; “HM Treasury analysis: the immediate economic impact of leaving the EU.” (May 2016): 1–86.

  48. 48.

    HM Government, “The Long-Term Economic Impact of EU Membership,” 1.J.

  49. 49.

    HM Government, “The Immediate Economic Impact,” 3.

  50. 50.

    Ibid., 2.56.

  51. 51.

    HM Government, “The Long-Term Economic Impact of EU Membership,” 121.

  52. 52.

    Ibid., 11.

  53. 53.

    Conservative MP for Surrey Heath, 2005–; Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, 2015–2016; Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury and Chief Whip, 2014–2015; Secretary of State for Education, 2010–2014; Shadow Secretary of State (Children, Schools and Families), 2007–2010; Shadow Minister (Housing and Planning), 2005–2007.

  54. 54.

    Michael Portillo: The Future of the Right (London: Fourth Estate, 1995).

  55. 55.

    Conservative MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, 2015–; Mayor of London, 2008–2016; MP for Henley, 2001–2008.

  56. 56.

    He is Douglas Carswell, who defected from the Conservatives in 2014.

  57. 57.

    Flying Free (London: Biteback Publishing, 2010), 227.

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  1. Political Science, Northern Virginia Community College, Springfield, Virginia, USA

    Mark R. Royce

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Royce, M.R. (2017). The Protestant Supranationalism of Britain. In: The Political Theology of European Integration. Palgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53447-3_7

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