Response of the Exiled Church
This chapter finishes the book's investigation of Hobbes's reception during the Interregnum. It examines Hobbes's negative reception, primarily among the outlawed supporters of episcopacy. It argues that this reaction was a mirror image of Hobbes's positive reception, and reacted primarily to the sense that a godless statism had overtaken English Christianity. The episcopalians defended a Laudian dualism against this alliance of Hobbists and Independents. Acutely aware of Hobbes's esotericism on the religion question, his clerical opponents offered a sharp critique of his ecclesiological theory. This critique set the terms for Hobbes's fall from grace after the Restoration, when the episcopal church was restored.
Keywords: dualism, episcopacy, exile, esotericism, Restoration, clericalism, royalism
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