Intellectual Exiles: Viewpoint Diversity Then & Now
THE YEAR IS 1649. KING CHARLES THE FIRST HAS BEEN TAKEN INTO CUSTODY AND AWAITS EXECUTION. OLIVER CROMWELL AND HIS ROUNDHEADS HAVE TAKEN CONTROL OF THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT. THE DAY OF THE PROTECTORATE HAS ARRIVED. THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND HAS BEEN DISESTABLISHED, AND THE FOLLOWERS OF THE LATE ARCHBISHOP WILLIAM LAUD HAVE FLED IN DISARRAY TO THE CONTINENT, SCATTERED BY THEIR ERSTWHILE AND ZEALOUS CALVINIST RIVALS. FOR THE NEXT DECADE, ENGLAND WILL HAVE NO CROWN. THE INTERREGNUM IS HERE. ACROSS THE CHANNEL, THE LAUDIANS AWAIT A RESTORATION…
For most university students today, the English Civil War will be encountered as, at most, a piece of historical trivia, likely revolving around Cromwell’s brutal persecution of the Irish. It may seem laughable to suggest that events taking place four centuries ago across the sea contain any pertinent lessons for Americans today, much less on a relevant topic like ideological diversity in education. Here at the Blue Ridge Center, we take great pride in promoting viewpoint diversity and civil dialogue at the University of Virginia (whose mascot, the Cavalier, is itself a callback to Cromwell’s most persistent rivals), and the events of the 17th-century Interregnum provide great evidence for the value of our mission.
The English Civil War was motivated by a combination of factors, but one of the main instigators was a conflict over religion. It is not a coincidence that the supporters of the Crown tended to belong to the established Church of England, and the followers of Cromwell were largely nonconformists and Presbyterians. Military conflict was presaged by ecclesial conflict: the Church of England, whose Elizabethan settlementhad established a moderate Calvinism in doctrine, was rocked in the first half of the seventeenth century by the rise of Laudianism, a high-church and anti-Calvinist movement named for William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury. Radical Calvinists in the Church of England and the various nonconformist sects accused the Laudians of resurrecting pre-Reformation Catholicism, and this discontent was one factor that led to the outbreak of war in the 1640s.
Cromwell’s triumph and installation as Lord Protector was followed by the disestablishment of the Church of England, after which many leaders of the Laudian party fled to continental Europe. From 1649 to the Restoration of 1660, the Laudians continued a kind of Church-of-England-in-exile on the continent, where they quickly used their proximity to the exiled monarch, Charles II, to solidify an influence that had still been contested on the island. With the return of the king and Restoration of the Stuart line in 1660, the Church of England was a thoroughly Laudian church, with members of the Laudian party appointed to major bishoprics across the kingdom.
With this summary out of the way, let’s return to the question: what does this have to do with the Blue Ridge Center? Here at the Blue Ridge Center, we believe that open discourse and ideological diversity are key to a healthy educational environment. The triumph of the Laudian party in the interregnum serves as a negative example. Prior to the Civil War, the Church of England was split between Laudian and anti-Laudian factions. Their rivalry, an outgrowth of real ideological diversity, ensured that neither party would gain the upper hand, and that they would be forced to contend with each other. The 20th-c. philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre wrote in his classic After Virtue that internal conflict is essential to the health of an intellectual tradition: without the dynamism generated by debate and dialogue, an intellectual environment inevitably petrifies.
By aligning themselves with Cromwell, the anti-Laudians initially gained the upper hand by forcing the Laudians out - but for those anti-Laudian Anglicans, the disestablishment of the Church of England was just the first curl of the monkey’s paw. In isolation from ideological opponents, the Laudians were able to achieve a level of dominance that would not have been otherwise possible. Upon the re-establishment of the monarchy, the Crown was firmly in the Laudian camp.
Today, echoing the Interregnum, many Americans find themselves isolated in intellectual ghettoes. A contributor to our fever-pitch polarization is, in part, that Americans no longer consume the same media or read the same news as theirneighbors, and many only rarely interact with their ideological opposites. The negative impacts of these trends are well-documented. Like the Laudians, a positive feedback loop develops whereby ideological isolation only strengthens ideological commitment in the absence of challenge.
Unfortunately, university campuses have not been immune to these broader trends. Here at the Blue Ridge Center, we have made it our mission to ensure that college students are exposed to the best of what all sides have to offer-combating ideological isolation, stoking debate and dialogue, and doing what we can to enable a thriving intellectual environment. In the heart of Cavalier country, we are determined to learn from the lessons of the past.