Luisa Simonutti

H. W. Blom

John Christian Laursen

In recent decades, historians of early-modern European political thought have tended to neglect the concept of monarchy and monarchism, focusing instead on the development of republicanism during this period. Monarchisms in the Age of Enlightenment aims to correct this imbalance by illustrating that many thinkers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in fact, saw monarchy as a solution to the instability, chaos, and even violence of experiments with republican government. Editors Hans Blom, John Christian Laursen, and Luisa Simonutti have brought together outstanding scholars in the field to correct many of the misleading stereotypes about monarchy, and to explore the variety and dynamism of this form of government, in early-modern Europe. Contributors explore four major themes: monarchisms in the political thought of Spinoza, Bayle, Fénelon, Hume, and Montesquieu; enlightened Christian and millenarian monarchisms; defending and resisting absolute monarchy; and, finally, reflections on the British monarchy. Fascinating and timely, Monarchisms in the Age of Enlightenment will be of interest to historians, political theorists, political philosophers, and political scientists.

Liberty, Patriotism, and the Common Good

Monarchisms in the Age of Enlightenment

After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, the Huguenot refugees who spread throughout Protestant Europe contributed greatly to the development of new political ideas and realities, ranging from the theory and practice of freedom of the press through religious toleration and early modern economic discourse. The essays in this volume throw new light on their work.

New Essays on the Political Thought of the Huguenots of the Refuge

Gianni Paganini

Margaret C. Jacob

Clandestine Philosophy is the first work in English entirely focused on the philosophical clandestine manuscripts that preceded and accompanied the birth of the Enlightenment.

New Studies on Subversive Manuscripts in Early Modern Europe, 1620?1823

Clandestine Philosophy

Published by the University of Toronto Press in association with the UCLA Center for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Studies and the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library.

Skepticism and Political Thought in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Cary J. Nederman

The concept of heresy is deeply rooted in Christian European culture. The palpable increase in incidences of heresy in the Middle Ages may be said to directly relate to the Christianity's attempts to define orthodoxy and establish conformity at its centre, resulting in the sometimes forceful elimination of Christian sects. In the transition from medieval to early modern times, however, the perception of heresy underwent a profound transformation, ultimately leading to its decriminalization and the emergence of a pluralistic religious outlook. The essays in this volume offer readers a unique insight into this little-understood cultural shift. Half of the chapters investigate the manner in which the church and its attendant civil authorities defined and proscribed heresy, whilst the other half focus on the means by which early modern writers sought to supersede such definition and proscription. The result of these investigations is a multifaceted historical account of the construction and serial reconstruction of one of the key categories of European theological, juristic and political thought. The contributors explore the role of nationalism and linguistic identity in constructions of heresy, its analogies with treason and madness, the role of class and status in the responses to heresy. In doing so they provide fascinating insights into the roots of the historicization of heresy and the role of this historicization in the emergence of religious pluralism.

Transforming Ideas of Heresy in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Heresy in Transition

R.H. Popkin

This is the first book to bring together studies of a wide variety of millenarians who were active in the 17th and 18th centuries in France, The Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, and eastern Europe. It provides much food for thought for students and teachers of early modern ideas, the history of philosophy and religion, and the making of the modern world. It opens up many avenues for further work.

John Christian Laursen

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