CAMBRIDGE TEXTS IN THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT

Series editors

RAYMOND GEUSS

Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Cambridge

QUENTIN SKINNER

Regius Professor of Modem History in the University of Cambridge

Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought is now firmly established as the major student textbook series in political theory. It aims to make available to students all the most important texts in the history of Western political thought, from ancient Greece to the early twentieth century. All the familiar classic texts will be included but the series seeks at the same time to enlarge the conventional canon by incorporating an extensive range of less well-known works, many of them never before available in a modern English edition. Wherever possible, texts are published in complete and unabridged form, and translations are specially commissioned for the series. Each volume contains a critical introduction together with chronologies, biographical sketches, a guide to further reading and any necessary glossaries and textual apparatus. When completed, the series will aim to offer an outline of the entire evolution of Western political thought.

For a list of titles published in the series, please see end of book.


The English Levellers

EDITED BY

ANDREW SHARP

University of Auckland

CAMBRIDGE

UNIVERSITY PRESS

eng_lev1.jpg


PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street,
Cambridge CB2 IRP, United Kingdom

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge, CB2 2RU, United Kingdom
40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA
10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia

© in the selection, introduction and editorial matter
Cambridge University Press 1998

This book is in copyright.
Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 1998

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press,
Cambridge Typeset in Ehrhardt 9.5/12 pt [wv]
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data

The English Levellers

The English Levellers: political works/edited by Andrew Sharp. p. cm. —
(Cambridge texts in the history of political thought)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0 521 62402 9

1. Levellers.
2. Political science — Great Britain — Early works to 1800.
3. Great Britain — Politics and government — 1625-1649.
I. Sharp, Andrew. 1940- II. Series.
UN193.E54 1998 193.320.53'12-dc21 97-18473 CIP
ISBN 0 521 62402 9 hardback
ISBN 0 521 62511 4 paperback


Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought

Titles published in the series thus far

Aristotle The Politics and The Constitution of Athens (edited by Stephen Everson)

Arnold Culture and Anarchy and Other Writings (edited by Stefan Collini)

Astell Political Writings (edited by Patricia Springborg)

Austin The Province of Jurisprudence Determined (edited by Wilfrid E. Rumble)

Bacon The History of the Reign of King Henry VII (edited by Brian Vickers)

Bakunin Statism and Anarchy (edited by Marshall Shatz)

Baxter A Holy Commonwealth (edited by William Lamont)

Beccaria On Crimes and Punishments and Other Writings (edited by Richard Bellamy)

Bentham A Fragment on Government (introduction by Ross Harrison)

Bernstein The Preconditions of Socialism (edited by Henry Tudor)

Bodin On Sovereignty (edited by Julian H. Franklin)

Bolingbroke Political Writings (edited by David Armitage)

Bossuet Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture (edited by Patrick Riley)

The British Idealists (edited by David Boucher)

Burke Pre-Revolutionary Writings (edited by lan Harris)

Christine de Pizan The Book of the Body Politic (edited by Kate Langdon Forhan)

Cicero On Duties (edited by M. T. Griffin and E. M. Atkins)
Conciliarism and Populism (edited by J. H. Burns and Thomas M. Izbicki)

Constant Political Writings (edited by Biancamaria Fontana)

Dante Monarchy (edited by Prue Shaw)

Diderot Political Writings (edited by John Hope Mason and Robert Wokler)

The Dutch Revolt (edited by Martin van Gelderen)

Early Creek Political Thought from Homer to the Sophists (edited by Michael Gagarin and Paul Woodruff)

The Early Political Writings of the German Romantics (edited by Frederick C. Beiser)

The English Levellers (edited by Andrew Sharp)

Erasmus The Education of a Christian Prince (edited by Lisa Jardine)

Ferguson An Essay on the History of Civil Society (edited by Fania Oz-Salzberger)

Filmer Patriarcha and Other Writings (edited by Johann P. Sommerville)

Fletcher Political Works (edited by John Robertson)

Sir John Fortescue On the Lam and Governance of England (edited by Shelley Lockwood)

Fourier The Theory of the Four Movements (edited by Gareth Stedman Jones and lan Patterson)

Gramsci Pre-Prison Writings (edited by Richard Bellamy)

Guicciardini Dialogue on the Government of Florence (edited by Alison Brown)

Harrington A Commonwealth of Oceana and A System of Politics (edited by J. G. A. Pocock)

Hegel Elements of the Philosophy of Right (edited by Allen W. Wood and H. B. Nisbet)

Hobbes Leviathan (edited by Richard Tuck)

Hobhouse Liberalism and other Writings (edited by James Meadowcroft)

Hooker Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (edited by A. S. McGrade)

Hume Political Essays (edited by Knud Haakonssen)

John of Salisbury Policraticus (edited by Cary Nedennan)

Kant Political Writings (edited by H. S. Reiss and H. B. Nisbet)

King James VI and I Political Writings (edited by Johann P. Sommerville)

Knox On Rebellion (edited by Roger A. Mason)

Kropotkin The Conquest of Bread and Other Writings (edited by Marshall Shatz)

Lawson Politica sacra et civilis (edited by Conal Condren)

Leibniz Political Writings (edited by Patrick Riley)

Locke Political Essays (edited by Mark Goldie)

Locke Two Treatises of Government (edited by Peter Laslett)

Loyseau A Treatise of Orders and Plain Dignities (edited by Howell A. Lloyd)

Luther and Calvin on Secular Authority (edited by Harro Höpfl)

Machiavelli The Prince (edited by Quentin Skinner and Russell Price)

de Maistre Considerations on France (edited by Isaiah Berlin and Richard Lebrun)

Malthus An Essay on the Principle of Population (edited by Donald Winch)

Marsiglio of Padua Defensor minor and De translatione Imperii (edited by Cary Nederman)

Marx Early Political Writings (edited by Joseph O'Malley)

Marx Later Political Writings (edited by Terence Carver)

James Mill Political Writings (edited by Terence Ball)

J. S. Mill On Liberty, with The Subjection of Women and Chapters on Socialism (edited by Stefan Collini)

Milton Political Writings (edited by Martin Dzelzainis)

Montesquieu The Spirit of the Laws (edited by Anne M. Cohler, Basia Carolyn Miller and Harold Samuel Stone)

More Utopia (edited by George M. Logan and Robert M. Adams)

Morris News from Nowhere (edited by Krishan Kumar)

Nicholas of Cusa The Catholic Concordance (edited by Paul E. Sigmund)

Nietzsche On the Genealogy of Morality (edited by Keith Ansell-Pearson)

Paine Political Writings (edited by Bruce Kuklick)

Plato Statesman (edited by Julia Annas and Robin Waterfield)

Price Political Writings (edited by D. O. Thomas)

Priestley Political Writings (edited by Peter Miller)

Proudhon What is Property? (edited by Donald R. Kelley and Bonnie G. Smith)

Pufendorf On the Duty of Man and Citizen According to Natural Law (edited by James Tully)

The Radical Reformation (edited by Michael G. Baylor)

Rousseau The Discourses and Other Early Political Writings (edited by Victor Gourevitch)

Rousseau The Social Contract and Other Later Political Writings (edited by Victor Gourevitch)

Seneca Moral and Political Essays (edited by John Cooper and John Procope)

Sidney Court Maxims (edited by Hans W. Blom, Eco Haitsma Mulier and Ronald Janse)

Spencer Man versus the State and The Proper Sphere of Government (edited by John Offer)

Stirner The Ego and its Own (edited by David Leopold)

Thoreau Political Writings (edited by Nancy Rosenblum)

Utopias of the British Enlightenment (edited by Gregory Claeys)

Vitoria Political Writings (edited by Anthony Pagden and Jeremy Lawrance)

Voltaire Political Writings (edited by David Williams)

Weber Political Writings (edited by Peter Lassman and Ronald Speirs)

William of Ockham A Short Discourse on Tyrannical Government (edited by A. S. McGrade and John Kilcullen)

William of Ockham A Letter to the Friars Minor and Other Writings (edited by A. S. McGrade and John Kilcullen)

Wollstonecraft A Vindication of the Rights of Men and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (edited by Sylvana Tomaselli)