Render Unto Caesar

An innovative analysis of the role of the Church in the political disputes of Queen Anne’s reign. Before Queen Anne’s reign had even begun, rival factions in both Church and State were jostling for position in her court. Attempting to follow a moderate course, the new monarch and her advisors had to be constantly wary of the attempts of extremists on both sides to gain the upper hand. The result was a see-saw period of alternating influence that has fascinated historians and political commentators. In this engaging new study, Barry Levis shows that although both parties claimed to be in support of the Church, their real aim was advancing their respective political positions. Uniting close analysis of Queen Anne’s changing policies towards dissenters, occasional conformity and church appointments with studies of the careers of several prominent churchmen and politicians, Levis paints a gripping picture of competing religious values and political ambitions. Most significantly, he shows that, far from being restricted to the church and political elites, these conflicts were to have a cascading influence on the division of the country long after the Queen’s reign ended.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Introduction 1. Prologue, 1698–1702 2. The Tory Ascendancy, 1702–4 3. The Shifting Balance of Power, 1705–6 4. Strife in the North: A Case Study of Local Ecclesiastical Politics 5. The Whig Supremacy, 1706–9 6. The Sacheverell Trial, 1709–10 7. The Return of the Tories, 1710–14 8. Epilogue Bibliography Index

Review :
Render Unto Caesar is a remarkable study of the religious politics of the reign of Queen Anne, rooted in a profound knowledge of manuscript sources. Barry Levis has revealed how central the Church was to the period of the rage of Party. It is further evidence that the Church was a source of passionate controversy in the early eighteenth century. Using an impressive range of archival and printed sources, Levis details the high politics of ecclesiastical policy politics in the early eighteenth century. Render Unto Caesar offers a reliable guide to the complex debates about the relationship between church and state in post-revolutionary England. R.B. Levis grounds this first deep-dive regnal analytical narrative of Queen Annes struggle to rule with moderation in a thorough exploitation of the extant sources, making especially effective use of the surviving fragments of the diary and correspondence of Annes figurative confessor, the embattled Anglican moderate John Sharp, Archbishop of York. The result is a definitive study of Church-State politics for Annes reign for our times and, one anticipates, for many years to come. Leavis, by contrast, considers the Church of England through the machinations involved in its governance. Render unto Caesar is to be commended for its exceptionally close reading of the personalities at the court of Queen Anne. But one cannot help wondering whether politics, even ecclesiastical politics, is bigger than that.