The Holy State and the Profane State by Thomas Fuller

First published: 1642

Type of work: Moral discourse

Critical Evaluation:

Clergyman and moralist, Thomas Fuller was one of the most popular preachers of his age, even though he sided against the Puritans during the Commonwealth and died shortly after the Restoration. He was, in other words, popular despite his opposition to the emotionally charged Puritan overthrow of the monarchy. Such popularity was difficult to obtain, but as Thomas Fuller knew, it was even more difficult to keep. He was a prolific writer, and in his many books he always simplified his presentation of even the weightiest matter so that his books would have profitable sales. The result of this simplification is a style that is at once cogent and austere, instructive and entertaining.

But style is only one cause of his popularity. Fuller’s agile mind, quick to penetrate into the core of whatever problem was at hand and slow to embrace any tenet that did not withstand scrutiny, was one that would be rare in any age. Not only did he have discrimination of mind; he was also witty, and he was able to captivate his congregations by his balance of the profound and the humorous. In his writings he preserved this ability, so that THE HOLY STATE AND THE PROFANE STATE, his first book, is never weighty in spite of its didacticism or trite in spite of the detailed moral rules.

The four books of THE HOLY STATE and the one of THE PROFANE STATE are composed of three major types of prose. First, Fuller lists the traits that best illustrate a certain character. These maxims are pithy, easily remembered statements such as (for an advocate) “He is more careful to deserve, than greedy to take, fees,” or (for a statesman) “He refuseth all underhand pensions from foreign princes.” But Fuller knew that maxims alone are seldom read and even less frequently obeyed. When he gives a maxim, he immediately explains it with a clever anecdote or epigram. Second, after he has listed several of these maxims, he illustrates proper behavior in a “character” or a brief sketch exemplifying ideal types. In these “characters” lie the summations of character-types that were familiar to the Elizabethan theatergoer such as the favorite, the good schoolmaster, or the good servant. In terms of literary history, these “characters” were more than summations of the popular theatrical figures of an earlier age; as the prototypes of the descriptions later to be found in novels, they were influential in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as statements of ideal types for the novelist’s pen. Third, at times when a historical character will adequately illustrate one of the moral principles, Fuller inserts a terse, greatly stylized biography. In an age when the art of biography was still in its infancy, these biographical sketches helped to form the eulogy into a literary genre that would mature through Walton and Boswell into the psychologically probing biography of the twentieth century. The biographies in this book include such a broad selection of biblical and historical figures that few types of people are neglected.

In Book One of THE HOLY STATE, Fuller describes domestic relationships. The nine characters are conceived in their widest seventeenth century application so that the twentieth century reader can get a fairly good idea of what the people of that time thought constituted a harmonious home life. The good wife, for example, is properly obedient to her husband, and the good husband is cautioned not to tell secrets to her because she is too frail to sustain the strenuous responsibility of keeping secrets. The good parent is a combination of love and authority, and through his parents’ examples the good child can learn to honor and obey them. But Fuller is realistic and cynically adds, “If preserved from the gallows, they are reserved for the rack, to be tortured by their own prosperity.” Widening his view to other domestic relationships, Fuller proceeds to describe the good master and the good servant; the first should be stern but just, while the second should be quick to obey. The good widow and the constant virgin are special cases, each demands special consideration, even though Fuller believes that all women should marry and raise large families. The final two relationships, the elder brother and the younger brother, lead Fuller from the immediate family because they concern education and inheritance. Five biographies are inserted into the text to expand the lessons. St. Monica illustrates the good wife; Abraham, the good husband; Eliezer, Abraham’s servant, the good servant; Lady Paula, a legendary Christian martyr, the good widow; and Hildegardis, a founder of convents, the constant virgin. The fact that Fuller uses Catholic saints and heroines for his illustrations shows his tolerance in an age of Catholic persecutions, but the fact that none of his examples comes either from England or from contemporary history reveals the severe criticism of his times that makes a moralist concerned enough to take action.

Book Two deals with the citizen, the professional man, and the man of the world. As a moralist, Fuller knew that what began in the home must be extended to society as a whole; therefore the same division into roles and into mutual dependences that he so carefully outlined for the home, he preserves for the business world. The good advocate and the good physician should be servants, not masters; they should think of their clients, not of their purses. But the controversial divine and the true church antiquary should think first of the dogmas rather than pursue far-fetched personal or sectarian ideas. This was especially cogent advice at the time when the Puritans were attempting to justify their recent execution of King Charles I, and Fuller’s opinion of such an uncivilized action is clearly, though tactfully, presented. The general artist and the faithful minister are ideal mixtures of learning, moderation, and humility. In these Fuller shows his sensitive awareness of the responsibilities of those men who are in a position to sway public opinion. The good parishioner, the good patron, and the good landlord are also leaders, and since they are closer to the people, their roles are much more important for the maintenance of a “godly” society. The rest of the good citizens—master of a college, schoolmaster, merchant, yeoman, handicraftsman, soldier and sea captain—represent the majority of British wage earners in the 1640’s. Their responsibilities can be summed up into a simple dictum: be obedient to your betters and live a Christian life of prayer, industry, and uprightness. The last two citizens are the good herald and the true gentleman, positions that occupy the amorphous gulf between the middle class and the aristocracy and thereby provide the transition to Fuller’s discussion of the highest class.

Book Three interrupts the natural progress of the discussion because Fuller thought that it should balance the halves of his folio. This book, subtitled “General Rules,” gives moral and social rules that are true for all men regardless of class. Here Fuller covers such broadly different topics as hospitality, self-praising, and tombs. His purpose in this book is to describe the life of moderation in which the individual is neither too proud nor too humble. According to Fuller either extreme in any trait, even religious zeal, is bad; the fully developed Christian gentleman should seek the way of harmony. He should be neither profligate nor unrealistically saintly. The six maxims that Fuller lists in the chapter “Of Moderation” form the philosophical basis to the entire folio: “Moderation is not a halting betwixt two opinions, when the thorough believing of one of them is necessary to salvation. Nor is it a lukewarmness in those things wherein God’s glory is concerned. But it is a mixture of discretion and charity in one’s judgment. Yet such moderate men are commonly crushed betwixt the extreme parties on both sides. Violent men reel from one extremity to another. Pride is the greatest enemy to moderation.” With this enlightened view of moderation, Fuller is almost Aristotelian in his accounts of the general rules that should govern all men.

In Book Four, Fuller treats the aristocracy, and in contrast to Book One most of the biographies are of Elizabethan courtiers and nobles. Also, most of the principles are pointed, for the book was published after the fall of the English monarchy. Fuller discusses ten characters and eleven biographies, each worded in a way that points skillfully to the moral decadence of his own contemporaries. The favorite or court parasite opens Fuller’s discussion on the conduct of this class, and his disreputable character is illustrated by the lives of Haman, Cardinal Wolsey, and Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. Fuller’s treatment is sarcastic and bitter, for this is one social position with which he has little patience. The wise statesman, on the other hand, is exemplified by William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, Queen Elizabeth’s trusted adviser; he is a man who is constant, loyal, and shrewd in the affairs of his monarch. The good judge (Sir John Markham) and the good bishop (St. Augustine and Bishop Ridley) are men who must maintain the laws and authority of the State and the Church; they must be wise, perceptive, and just. The true nobleman and the court lady are persons of the nobility, but blood alone does not give them their superior graces. That must come from their behavior, for a noble person must act in a noble way. Because the nobility forms the backbone of the nation, it must seek the very best life, or the country will collapse from within. The good ambassador and the good general, the prince and the heir apparent, have the responsibility of holding the country’s place in the balance of power both between countries and within the state. Finally, Fuller describes the king, the man who must be virtuous and gentlemanly if the rest of the people are to be the same. Only if the highest member of society is spotless, will the rest be spotless.

The last book is THE PROFANE STATE. Here Fuller describes the behavior that inevitably leads to social, moral, and religious anarchy. The harlot, the witch, the atheist, the hypocrite, the heretic, the liar—these are the types of people whose behavior is sinful and vicious. The traitor and the tyrant, Fuller’s last characters, are the two whose actions lead to the end of peaceful Christian society and represent the establishment of Satan’s kingdom. This final book shows that, if the moral maxims outlined in the first four books are not obeyed, the result will be a state that no one would willingly choose.