Historical Context

The Corruption and Deficiency of Lawes of England Soberly Discovered: or Liberty working up to Its Just Height, written by John Warr was a call for citizens to intervene in politics. The political chasm during the early 17^th century centered on ‘freedom’ and heavily influenced the writings of John Warr. Political and social extremists were among the popularly discussed topics of the day and their ideas led to Warr’s inspiration to encourage the purification of the common law and the degradation of unfair legal rights. This paper will show that John Warr’s writings were conditioned to his time, but his unique principles achieved longevity.

The historical context of Warr’s time includes economic distress and social inequality used as oppressive weapons against the majority of English individuals. Economically it appeared that the rich gained more money while the poor because more impoverished because of corrupt legislation. “Fortunes at every level do not seem to have risen markedly before 1660. The proportion of solvent London freemen with net personal estates of less than £500 fell from 58.63 percent in 1586-1614 to 39.32…”[1] The majority of people were losing money while prices for necessities – such as food – climbed to new heights. “Composite food prices, however, between the 1490s and the 1650s increased by 687 percent, and though industrial prices increased more slowly, it is doubtful whether the charitable middling tradesmen improved their positions.”[2] The economic crisis led to a social polarization between the poor and rich.

The rich would segregate themselves from people they considered to be from a lower class than themselves. “The ‘poor inhabitants’ were set against opponents who were variously described as ‘some of the wealthier sort’; ‘men of great estate’ and as ‘some persons that have bene of the Richar sort’…we see the identification of social polarities feeding into the definition of community interests, and the identification of enemies of plebeian community.”[3] Social segregation turned political sides against one another and encouraged clash amongst citizens.

Within commonplace discussions, there was a social theme of constitutional rights and the necessity for social and political change. Dr. Paul Raffield’s[4] research of early modern legal profession during the formulation of the English constitution discusses the effect of politics on familiar places such as the theater. Plays were required to be written for reading only and not performance if the play related to political strife in early modern England. An example – given by Dr. Paul Raffield – is an edition of a performance in which “The author invokes the constitutional supremacy of ‘the safety of the people’ enshrined in the Twelve Tables of Roman Law, Salus Populi est suprema lex: ‘The oath taken by the Members acknowledgeth a politique power in the King (governing according to his Oath at the Coronation) for the safety of the people.”[5] Dr. Paul Raffield relates the common social places to the political discussion further when he said: “The political models suggested both by the above pamphlet and by Brathwait’s play of the same name resemble most closely those in which power vests in the community rather than a sovereign body.”[6] The research of Dr. Raffield demonstrates how popularly discussed the fundamental beliefs of the Levellers were and maybe why John Warr felt compelled to write his political pamphlets.

The Leveller movement

The Leveller movement of the early 17^th century was considered radical socially and politically because they sought to break the traditional segregation measured by currency and make life fair in legal consideration. Dr. Philip Baker – Ph.D. and Research Assistant of the History of the Parliament Trust – wrote, “The Leveller movement was a distinctly urban phenomenon, a metropolitan cause that recruited its most persistent supporters from the capital. For these men (and women), the city and its suburbs served as the center of their printing and petitioning activities and as the scene of their greatest demonstrations.”[7] The proletariats of cities were the founders and members of the Leveller movement and urged societal reform against the nobility and royals of English society. Dr. Baker wrote, “The Levellers have been regarded as the most forward-looking and ‘modern’ of the so-called radical groups of the mid-seventeenth-century English Revolution. Their views on the innate equality of man, on freedom of religious conscience, on the right to vote, and on the need to entrench these principles in a written constitution are frequently cited as a ‘program…filter for the twentieth century than for their own.’”[8]

The growth of extremism and communism from the Levellers led to acts such as the first agreement of the people. Dr. Ann Hughes wrote, “In the Agreement of May 1649: Lastly, from Levelling they proceed to introduce an absolute Community. And though neither the Athenian nor Roman Levellers, ever arrived at this high pitch of madnesse; yet we see there is a new Faction started up out of ours, known by the name of Diggers; who, upon this ground, That God is our common-Father, the earth our Common-Mother, and that the Original of Propriety was the mens pride and Covetousnesse, have framed a new plea for a Returne of all men ad Tuguria, that like the old Parthians, Scythian Nomades, and other wild Barbarians, we might renounce Townes and Cities, live at Rovers, and enjoy all in common.”[9] The Diggers were the extremist that formed from the Leveller movement, and they embraced the antithetical arguments to tradition.

The Agreement of the People in 1647 represented the political desires of the Levellers in England. The campaign that produced and preached the words of the Agreement led to the creation of the radical Leveller.[10] England’s politics went from simple to being extremist, classing, and climaxing in aggression. Constant oppositions unsettled the nation and set the tone for the civil war to come and the writing of John Warr.

Liberty Working up to Its Just Height

In The Corruption and Deficiency of Lawes of England Soberly Discovered: or Liberty Working up to Its Just Height, Warr argues for preservation and purification of common law. Warr sympathized with the Leveller movement and recognized the corruption of laws that could return to their original glory. He stated that the nature of “law reduced to its original state…is the protection of the poor against the mighty.”[11] Warr believed that ideal laws would balance the power of rulers and the powers of proletariats. He wrote the “laws are the manacles of princes and the guards of private men.”[12] During the early 17^th century laws did not appear to achieve their intended purpose. The common law of England provided “bondage instead of freedom, and instead of safety, danger…the law of England is so full of uncertainty, nicety, ambiguity, and delay that the poor people are ensnared, not remedied, thereby.”[13] The expected effect of laws was righteous, but the results were skewed.

Warr witnessed the majority of civilians suffering from unequal favoring under laws. Warr pointed to two basic corruptions of the law. The first corruption was that “the rulers of the world…make their design to subdue laws as well as a person, and enforce both to do homage to their wills.”[14] Warr’s statement reflects the political disagreements between the poor and the rich during the 1640s. The second corruption of laws is the “compliance” of the common people to obey these laws instead of fighting for their freedoms. Warr states “’Tis better to be ravished of our freedoms than to give them up as a free-will offering to the lusts of great men.”[15] The nation of England, before the 1640s choose to obey laws that enhanced inequality in representation instead of fighting to correct polluted legislations.

The source of corruption in the written laws of England was not the fault of rulers at the time but flowed from the customs that favored conquerors. Warr described “fundamental laws” as the eldest customs that were written by conquerors of English land. He wrote, “Upon every conquest, our very laws have been found transgressors, and, without any judicial process, have undergone the penalty of abrogation.” Warr then recounts the past subjugators of England, going as far back as Rome victory over the Greeks. He prescribes the people of England the tasks to comb through legislation and to purify it of any victors’ bias custom. “If former ages have taken advantage to mix some wheat with the tares, and to insert some mites of freedom into our laws, why should we neglect to double our file, and to produce the perfect image of freedom, which is therefore neglected, because not known?” The citizenry of England may not know the exact pollution of regulation, but they should still strive to correct past mistakes of compliance.

On the second corruption of the laws, neglecting to correct the laws in the past led to political strife reaching a climax in Warr’s era. Warr recognized both the higher powers that corrupted the statutes and the failures of the ordinary people to reject the debauchery. The freedoms that the English people enjoyed during the 1500s through the 1600s were won through battle, according to Warr. He wrote, “These freedoms were granted to the people not out of any love to them, but extorted from princes by the fury of war, or incessantness of address.”[16] The people of England previously fought and must – during Warr’s time – fight for the defense of common law’s objective.

Warr justifies the populace’s noncompliance and purification of legislation by appealing to the rational purpose of the law. He wrote, “Laws of freedom on behalf of people are more useful because directed to a more general good.”[17] John Warr views political activism as not only a right but also an obligation of the people to maintain a thriving commonwealth.

Interpretations of John Warr’s The Corruption and Deficiency of Lawes of England Soberly Discovered: or Liberty Working up to Its Just Height, has linked his arguments to other dominant religious and political representation of the early 17^th century.

David Mulder wrote on the interpretation of Warr’s writings that “[His] pamphlets show first of all that John Warr possessed an original mind that was much influenced by his contemporaries, but which was dominated by none of them. He absorbed something of almost every radical religious or political trend of his time, but he put his special spin on each.” [18] Warr was politically active and aware of the English sphere. Mulder wrote, “For example, from the Levellers, he borrowed the idea that corrupt laws historically had been introduced into England by conquerors, but he rejected the Leveller’s idea that only the Norman Conquest was significant in this regard. To him, even the Roman conquest of Celtic Britain had introduced corrupt laws. Similarly, like Gerrard Winstanley, he believed that reason grew up in the minds of men because of the indwelling spirit of God. However, he did not believe that this process would lead to communism, as Winstanley believed, but rather would lead to the spreading to all people of the spirit of liberty and equity.” Warr was original in his interpretations of specific arguments, but the fundamental points he made in his writings were derived from or very similar to other bureaucratic criticizers. He agreed with the overall scheme of Levellers but would disagree with minor points.

Conclusion

The impact of Warr’s writing would later lead to revolutions but was far ahead of its time in the 17^th century. “The most interesting aspect about Warr’s writings to modern people probably is that, with the ideas he drew out of the radical atmosphere of his time, he produced something that is disarmingly modern in appearance: a libertarian philosophy based on the idea that the proper role of the law is to protect the ruled from the ruler. When we read passages like ‘the end of just laws is the safety and freedom of a people,’ we cannot help but think of the men who made the American Revolution.”[19] Mulder makes the point that Warr might have been a very early inspiration for the American revolutionaries in the late 18^th century.

Even Warr’s belief in written law’s ability to create equality in the commonwealth pioneered into later political theories. Mulder writes, “his distinctly early-modern belief in consensus politics, the notion that party and faction are not only evil but avoidable…He asserted that there was one common principle of freedom which (if discovered) would reconcile all.”[20] This infatuation of freedom is homogeneous to the revolutions and civil wars in France and the Americas.

Warr was heavily influenced and inspired by the current events of the 1640s but developed political ideals that would father greater revolutions than the civil wars of England. Political strife between the rich and the poor and movements such as the Levellers was among the major influences on Warr’s work. Warr believed that the common law of England should be preserved but should also be purified of corruption inherited from conquerors customs of the past. The thesis of John Warr’s The Corruption and Deficiency of Lawes of England Soberly Discovered: or Liberty Working up to Its Just Height, is the call for the people to fight for freedom and defend the virtuous intents of the common law.