Abstract

Benjamin Hoadly's Original and Institution of Civil Government is a founding text for the American republic. Writing in 1710 this response to Tory High Church attempts to revive extreme monarchical theories of government, Hoadly, a Low Church Whig and Anglican clergyman, advanced new ideas of political authority. He was committed to the political settlement that followed the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the limited parliamentary monarchy it established in Great Britain; he was also responsible for popularizing John Locke's theories of government. In the Original and Institution of Civil Government, Hoadly challenged patriarchal political systems and denied that civil authority could be compared with a parent's authority over children. Instead, Hoadly argued that civil authority arose from the people and was conditionally given to a leader.