He reveals a kinship with the Metaphysical poets through his ingenious use of extended logic, even when dealing with emotions: his yoking of very dis-similar things, of the mundane (even profane) … JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization helping the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways. English poet and member of Parliament. Baxter does not always seem to use the terms “sufficient” and “efficacious” grace in the senses ascribed by Lamont to Davenant, noted above. 1621, Marvell grew up in the Yorkshire town of Hull where his father, Reverend Andrew Marvell, was a lecturer at Holy Trinity Church and master of the Charterhouse. Andrew Marvell (b. Nicholas von Maltzahn draws our attention to Hugh Trevor-Roper’s account of a tendency among Erasmian free-thinkers in that period to take refuge in the “armour” of Presbyterians and moderate Calvinists. In a matter as momentous as one’s eternal destiny, it may indeed make sense to seek out the safest course and follow it. Milton’s father was a prosperous merchant, despite thefact that he had been disowned by his family when he converted fromCatholicism to Protestantism. Marvell’s best services to his party and his cause were rendered out of Parliament, and he was of course unlucky in dying before the Popish Plot, which would have afforded such splendid material for his pen.10. © 1962 University of Pennsylvania Press For the most part, he does not reveal a disagreement from Danson on what might be called doctrinal grounds; this suggests that those points at which he does so deserve close scrutiny. Marvell Studies was previously published as the Andrew Marvell … 1. His concerns as to Milton’s intentions have been superseded by a more serious worry: that the task may be beyond even Milton’s ability: As Elsie Duncan-Jones has pointed out, “The apprehension that the ‘bold’ poet might not ruin the sacred truths ‘to fable and old song’ is surely not one that Marvell in his own person could have entertained for a moment.” Similarly, the third objection (that “some less skilful hand” might be inclined to turn Milton’s epic poem into a play in heroic couplets) is probably merely a jibe at Dryden. He is highly critical of Danson’s style of argument, his lack of decorum and his failure to attain “that Gravity, Humility, Meekness, Piety or Charity” (Prose Works, 2:474) that would be appropriate in a defence of “the cause of God”. In the second, however, he may equally be implying that Parker has read no more of Grotius than he has of Richard Hooker, whose title he borrowed for his Ecclesiastical Polity. Essays for Andrew Marvell: Poems. The son of an Anglican clergyman, Marvell was born on March 31, 1621, in Winestead-in-Holderness, Yorkshire, England. If you’d like some more book discussion and literary criticism by me, I’m now sending out a newsletter, Talk about books, every two weeks, containing exactly that. In Paradise Lost, Milton is closer to Arminianism than to hypothetical universalism. So, notwithstanding William Lamont’s confidence that Marvell’s religion can be identified, Marvell’s position in matters of faith remains elusive. In intervening in this dispute, Marvell claimed to be motivated by nothing more than the desire “to hinder one Divine from offering violence to another” (Prose Works, 2:482). That was to be my thesis topic. a program that addresses the needs of scholars, teachers, students, professionals, and the broader community of readers. Check out using a credit card or bank account with. Of more significance is the fact that it was an incidental theodicy: like all of his controversial works, it is an intervention in a quarrel already under way and was evidently not written with the aim of expounding general principles. Marvell was born on 21 March 1621 in the east Yorkshire village of Winestead, where his father Andrew Marvell senior was vicar. Much of his poetry deals with love, the nature of the human soul, and religion. He is the poet who suggests that eyes and tears take on each other’s properties, that subject and object are somehow the same, or difficult to distinguish from each other. Danson denied that he believed that God was the author of sin but, to maintain that position, he needed to insist on an apparently sophistical distinction between the act itself (which is predetermined) and its sinfulness. he’s attracted to the idea that genders may refuse to remain distinct but instead blend into each other. Notes. At any rate, Marvell’s “theodicy”, informal though it might be, is not so much concerned with justifying God’s ways as with persuading men of the injustice of attempting to exercise control over the various potential paths to salvation that might be chosen by their fellows. Gender: Male Race or . If this was the Baxterian position, it was distinguishable from a more thoroughgoing Calvinism in only one significant respect: Baxter maintained that Christ died to atone for the sins of everybody; Calvinists insisted that he died only for the elect. With a personal account, you can read up to 100 articles each month for free. This is Baxter’s principal safeguard against antinomianism. Yes, this was the Marvell I thought I recognized. Given that there were undoubtedly “things which the Wisdom of God hath left impervious to Humane Understanding”, Marvell may have felt it safer to adhere to a belief that steered clear of evident errors than to embark on a pedantic search for the precise truth. Were Andrew Marvell not a major poet in his own right, he might be regarded primarily as a fascinating transitional figure. As has been mentioned, the middle way sought to steer a course between, or to reconcile, Arminianism and Calvinism. Select the purchase 1678) is today one of the best known of English 17th-century poets, his poems frequently anthologized and studied in school and university syllabi. It is committed to encouraging diversity in regional coverage, chronological range, and methodological approaches. The English poet and politician Andrew Marvell (1621-1678), one of the writers of the 17th century most admired by the 20th, composed lyric poetry which is sensuous, witty, elegant, and sometimes passionate. That his theodicy is his final work, written in the last year of his life, does not tell us anything about the importance he attached to the subject. The chief task of the staff of the Press is to continue building a publishing program that is influential and innovative, Book Description: Andrew Marvell's celebrated poetic ambivalence to the philosophical, political and religious controversies of mid-seventeenth century England is the subject of this book, which includes major new historical readings of his most important lyrics and politi. Andrew Marvell. I wrote my doctoral thesis about the theme of justice in Andrew Marvell’s works. The second objection, however, is both more substantial and more plausible and, while Marvell might not personally have felt that there was anything to worry about on that account, he took it seriously enough to give this potential objection a much more thorough answer than the other two seemed to require. In Aphorismes of Justification (1649), he explains why justification is by faith alone. Without that special assistance, nobody would repent, not because God had predetermined us to obduracy, but because our own depravity leaves us without the ability to have faith or even to wish for our own repentance. Richard Baxter] or any of his brethren coul'd pretend to.” This is Parker’s only express mention of Grotius in the preface. His defence of Howe is part of this project of comprehension. This emphasis on the importance of works — while acknowledging that faith is paramount — is consistent with Marvell’s response to Samuel Parker in The Rehearsall Transpros’d: The Second Part (1673). In Chapter 3 of my thesis I suggested that the effect of Marvell’s Hastings elegy was ultimately to demonstrate that confidence in divine justice was far from being a comforting belief. There is a possibility, however, that the gnomic character of Marvell’s argument may lead us to conclude too much. So, if we genuinely have faith and are repentant, we will endeavour to obey the law in so far as we can, so as not to repeat our former transgressions. Religion and divine justice in the work of Andrew Marvell. It is far from clear, therefore, that either Baxter or Howe believed that nobody who had merely sufficient grace, without the additional benefit of efficacious grace, would ever be saved. This essay is also available in PDF. Baxter’s statements that faith and repentance are unattainable without the aid of efficacious grace are mitigated by his emphasis on the importance of free will. First, it is debatable whether Baxter himself was as close to Calvinism as Lamont takes him to have been. Baxter can have been in no doubt that there were antinomians whose certitude of their own sainthood was all too likely to be delusional. The Arminians, who had been defeated at the Synod of Dort, held that nobody was predestined either to salvation or damnation: although they recognized the importance of divine grace, they believed that it was both resistible and available to everybody. Baxter expounds this principle in more detail. Scholars believe that Marvell remained at Cambridge until 1641 pursuing a master’s degree, but he left after his father died and did not return to finish his studies. It was the path that provided the best likelihood of avoiding the dangers of antinomianism on the one side and attributing “too much to his own natural vigour and performances” on the other. Milton did not place any restrictions on the universality of Christ’s atonement. He was born on 31 March 1621 to Reverend Andrew Marvell, a Church of England clergyman, and his wife Anne Pease Marvell. The reference in his Preface to Bramhall’s Vindication, quoted above, might be taken to imply that the Bishop was Grotius’s intellectual equal (and when he mentions him in the Reproof it is usually in association with Bramhall). At that time, the bounds and restraints of the Catholic ideals were beginning to fall apart. This was unacceptable to Calvinists, in that it seemed to ascribe more efficacy to the will of individual sinners than to that of God. He also wrote in the pastoral style of the classical Roman authors. Not only that, but for much of the work’s length, Marvell seems to be more concerned with the manner in which the controversy is conducted than with its matter: as N H Keeble makes clear, “he ‘intermeddles’ ‘not as an Opinionist either way’ (p. 433). The metaphysical poets often parody the common topics of love and religion. This Companion brings a set of fresh questions and perspectives to bear on the varied career and diverse writings of a remarkable writer and elusive man. Not only can we cooperate in our own salvation, we are required to do so. In the light of this, it seems less likely that the aim of the Remarks Upon a Late Disingenuous Discourse was to expound Howe’s or Baxter’s views on election, predetermination and universal atonement than to illustrate the narrowness of the gap between mainstream Calvinism and Howe’s beliefs. In 1638 hemade a trip to Italy, studying in Florence, Siena, and Rome, butfelt obliged to return home upon the outbreak of civil war in England,in 1639. He appears to assert that sufficient grace is sufficient in more than a purely hypothetical sense. A paradox that was indicative of a fundamental contradiction in the nature of reality, on the other hand, was something that perturbed rather than stimulated him. That being so, the poem’s very existence is itself instructive. In any case, it seems likely that, in 1672 and 1673, Marvell had an opinion of Grotius that was similar to Baxter’s. Baxter distinguished between God’s roles as rector (Lamont uses the phrase “God’s judicial capacity”), in which he dealt fairly and equally with all humankind according to his law, and as “Benefactor” or dominus, in which he did not treat persons equally (and in which justice did not require him to do so; p. 241). Whether one considers Paradise Lost to be the work of an Arminian or an adherent of the “middle way” depends on whether one thinks that the universalism of the “middle way” was always entirely hypothetical, never actual. Of these, the one that concerns us is the second. Marvell is a writer who clearly loves paradox and self-contradiction. The first part of “On Paradise Lost” explores three possible categories of objection to Milton’s undertaking. There is no doubt that he believed there were some — the elect — who received grace that was both effectual and irresistible. Religion; Poet Bio. The second caveat which should be borne in mind while attempting to deduce Marvell’s beliefs from his prose works of the 1670s is that none of these works appears to have been written in order to promote a particular doctrinal position. William Lamont, "The Religion of Andrew Marvell: Locating the 'Bloody Horse,'" in Condren and Cousins, eds., pp. eISBN: 978-1-84615-844-5. “To His Coy Mistress” is a love poem in which the poet has applied the ‘carpe diem’ theory. In Mr. Smirke, however, Marvell comes close to stating his rejection of Arminianism as a belief. Milton had proclaimed prominently at the end of his epic’s first verse paragraph that his purpose was to “justify the ways of God to men” (Paradise Lost, I, 26). Marvell goes on to cite Bishop Davenant’s Latin, which he translates as: God did not make the reprobate any worse (and did not exercise a determinative concurrence over their sinful actions) and so could not be said to be the author of sin. Marvell was a talented statesman and worked as an assistant to John Milton when Milton was Oliver Cromwell’s Latin secretary for foreign affairs. This seems to have been Davenant’s belief, and Lamont tells us that Baxter too believed that those who did not benefit from election, though not predestined to damnation, lacked the ability to avail of the atonement that Christ had made for all. Andrew Marvell's wit and humor make this English metaphysical poet’s work memorable. Marvell is one of the most critically acclaimed and studied poets of the seventeenth century, and his work is often associated with the Metaphysical Poets. JSTOR®, the JSTOR logo, JPASS®, Artstor®, Reveal Digital™ and ITHAKA® are registered trademarks of ITHAKA. 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