Biblical Law and the Making of England: Vol. 2 King Henry VIII, John Selden and Thomas Hobbes
Law makes nations, and biblical law determinatively shaped the making of Reformation England.
The Supreme Head: King Henry VIII (1491-1547)
The opening chapter of this volume explores the pivotal role of biblical law in King Henry VIII’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon and the subsequent English Reformation. It argues that Henry’s reliance on Leviticus and Deuteronomy was central to his case, which ultimately led to England’s break from Rome and the establishment of the Royal Supremacy. The chapter carefully explains the theological, political, and historical dimensions of this controversy – and how biblical law set the ship of state on a hitherto unimagined course.
Henry’s case revolved around Leviticus 18:16 and 20:21, which prohibit marriage to a brother’s wife, and Deuteronomy 25:5-10, which commands levirate marriage (in which a man marries his deceased brother’s widow) under specific conditions. Henry argued that his marriage to Catherine violated divine law, as she had previously been married to his deceased brother, Arthur. This interpretation was contested by supporters of the marriage to Catherine continuing, including Bishop John Fisher and William Tyndale. For Fisher, the fact that God commanded the Israelites, in Deuteronomy, to marry the widow of a deceased brother under certain circumstances, proves that the prohibition on marriage with the wife of a brother is either not absolute or does not extend to a widow. Either way, Fisher claimed that it brought the case in point under papal prerogative and so Henry had to submit to the Pope’s view that the marriage was valid. In contrast to Fisher’s reliance on papal authority, Tyndale rejected canon law entirely, and focused solely on Scripture in arguing that Henry should stay married to Catherine.
The chapter critiques the use of biblical law outside the King’s court. It argues that both Fisher’s and Tyndale’s interpretations of Leviticus were problematic because they failed to account for the text’s broader prohibitions. It also argues that Deuteronomy’s levirate law was specific to Israelite concerns, such as preserving family inheritance and lineage, making it less relevant to Henry’s case. Accordingly, the chapter suggests that the King’s court did not fully appreciate the strength of their position, in regard to biblical law. It argues that a modern re-evaluation could indeed conclude that the King was right to challenge the Pope’s authority to make the original dispensation.
The Political Hebraist: John Selden (1584 – 1654)
Henry VIII’s Great Matter kickstarted the Hebraic English revival and John Selden was its leading light. Chapter Two of this volume explores how Selden’s scholarship aimed to construct a universal theory of law derived from rabbinic tradition and rooted in the Seven Laws of Noah. The chapter shows how Selden breaks radically with traditional Christian understandings of natural law and reflects little of the classical philosophical position. It also shows how Selden rejects a traditional Christian understanding of biblical law, including Protestant tradition which saw the Ten Commandments as binding on Gentiles. Instead, Selden saw Jewish law as a civil law comparable to Roman and Greek law; an approach shaped by Renaissance humanism which emphasised the application of historical and philological methods to all legal systems.
The chapter explores how Selden emphasised the historical development of civil laws, thereby limiting the normative application of biblical law. This relativising stance enabled him to address constitutional crises pragmatically, advocating for tradition and conciliar government while opposing arbitrary rule. His ideas influenced the development of contractual constitutionalism with its emphasis on the importance of agreements between rulers and the governed. The chapter contends that Selden’s biblical jurisprudence was unique in its relativism and pragmatism. His idea that all legal systems, including English law, evolved from the Noahide laws and were shaped by local contexts and agreements, helped to demystify the common law. This contrasted with contemporaries including Sir Edward Coke, whose expansive use of biblical law aimed to bolster the antiquity and superiority of English law, with frequent parallels between English statutes and biblical texts. By the late seventeenth century, Selden’s comparative and historical methodology helped to reshape legal thought, paving the way for the Enlightenment’s secular critique of revealed religion. In blending sacred origins with pragmatic evolution, the chapter explores how Selden’s biblical jurisprudence marks a turning point in the conceptualisation of law, with long-term implications for the secularisation of legal and political thought.
The Political Scientist: Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679)
This chapter critically examines Thomas Hobbes’s use of biblical law in Leviathan, comprising around half of Hobbes’s landmark work. It argues that Hobbes employs a dual strategy of assimilation and subversion to align biblical law with his materialist philosophy and political theory while at the same time undermining the Torah’s authority. This is because Hobbes blamed the Bible (or at least its misuse and misunderstanding) for contributing to the English Civil War and so desired to neutralise it as a source of political conflict.
Hobbes’s assimilation of biblical law involves its wholesale reinterpretation and redefinition, portraying Abraham and Moses as absolute sovereigns who combine political and religious authority, and presenting the kingdom of God as a civil kingdom based on consent and choice. Hobbes portrays the Mosaic polity as a model for his Leviathan, claiming that the covenant at Sinai was made with Moses, not God, and that Moses held absolute authority. The chapter carefully sets out Hobbes’s assimilationist reading and explains why Hobbes’s reading is wrong. It also shows how Hobbes misrepresents the role of other power structures in biblical Israel, including judges, priests, and prophets and shows how these were, in fact, designed to distribute authority widely to prevent a Leviathanic concentration of power.
The chapter explores how this strategy of assimilation and subversion works together to knock the Bible out of its place so Hobbes can replace it with his own radical doctrines. His ultimate goal is to subordinate biblical law (including the Ten Commandments) to the needs and interests of the state. Biblical imagery is used to legitimise Leviathan and inculcate obedience to the sovereign while eliminating rival sources of authority. Ultimately, Hobbes’s approach is driven by fear – of civil war, religious conflict, and the instability of human nature – with his Leviathan a pseudo-biblical attempt to impose order through absolute sovereignty.