31.3 Europe: a.d. 1601 to 1700  (Page 17/30)

A few details about the Puritan faith seems appropriate at this time. Durant (Ref. 53 ) says:

"Perhaps only among the Jews did religion play so pervasive a role in everyday life as among the Puritans; and indeed Puritanism agreed with Judaism in almost everything except the divinity of Christ."

The chief object of life was to escape the fires of hell and the machinations of the Devil. Only a few were destined by God for salvation. They attempted to legislate morality, establishing fasting days, the "blue" Sunday still with us to some extent today, made adultery a capital crime and oaths a severe misdemeanor. Some say that while the Puritan regimen narrowed the mind, it strengthened the will and the character and helped to prepare Englishmen for self rule. An offshoot of the Puritan faith is found in the Quakers, founded by George Fox. Their basic faith was obscured for a time with fantasies and bigotry. They distinguished themselves by allowing no ornaments on their clothing, ref using to remove their hats for any reason whatsoever and by addressing all persons by "thou" and "thee". They were very intemperate in their denunciation of other sects. Pagels (Ref. 163 ) writes that George Fox, although probably unaware of it, carried on the old Gnostic tradition (see pages 320 and 339), with analogous interpretations of religious experience.

Under Charles II, military and naval power declined and the Dutch navy regained supremacy on the seas. In England, however, there burst out pent-up intellectual energy. We must list such names as Robert Boyle for his work in chemistry, Robert Hooke, the perfecter of the microscope, Halley the great astronomer, Christopher Wren, geometer, astronomer and architect and William Harvey, former student at Padua, who described the circulation of the blood in man. But above all, we must mention Sir Isaac Newton, who, using Galileo's and Kepler’s work, formulated the laws of gravity. Newton developed the calculus and the binomial theorem and used his mathematics in physics and astronomy. His work had far flung consequences, even giving rise in the religious field to Deism. The king conferred an official charter upon the Royal Society of London for improving natural knowledge, in 1662. Most of the men just mentioned, along with some poets like Dryden and Waller, were members. The poet John Milton is said to have introduced more than 600 words into the English language, all derived from the Latin, Greek or Hebrew. (Ref. 218 )

The English common man of this time was a coarse, rough, profane individual. When prisoners were hanged, drawn and quartered, their heads were parboiled first with Bay salt and cumin seed, to keep them from putrefaction while on public exhibition and to keep the birds from seizing them. (Ref. 211 ) Most roads in England were nearly impassable. Carts usually moved at about two miles an hour and were often held up for days by high water. The various parts of England were essentially cut off from each other and that was a factor in making the inns of that day so important and so different from those of today. The inn was a hub of commercial activity. For example, in 1686 Salisbury in Wiltshire, then a small town, could accommodate 548 travelers and 865 horses in its inns. (Ref. 292 ) Most of London in-city transportation was by boat on the Thames, as the streets were narrow and covered with garbage and filth, crowds of people and deep ruts, which made carriage rides hazardous. There were abnormally cold winters in this century and Londoners held all the festivities of Carnival (Christmas to after Twelfth Night) on the frozen Thames. In early 1683, however, huge ice floes at the mouth of the river froze in ships, so that food and goods ran short and prices quadrupled. But city life took refuge on the frozen river and even huge markets were held. It was a violent city with murders common and frequent hangings and the inevitable drawings and quarterings. Although the richest city in Europe, as late as 1660 London was so short of food that 1/5 of the people who were buried in even prosperous parishes had died of starvation. (Ref. 213 ) But the nobility continued to live extravagantly. It is said that when Henry Berkeley, Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire, went to London he took 150 servants with him. Business in the city was run by fewer than 200 merchants. (Ref. 292 )