Immaterial evidence: Piety and proof in early modern England (Aemilia Lanyer, John Donne, George Herbert, John Milton)

This dissertation examines the quest for spiritual certainty in the works of Aemilia Lanyer, John Donne, George Herbert, and John Milton. My governing assertion is that these seventeenth-century poets strive to mitigate the destructive effects of doubt produced by the explosive religious, political, and academic debates ignited in the century preceding theirs. I contend that they seek to lessen their own and their readers' preoccupation with their heavenly (and earthly) standing by countering a Calvinist tendency to overvalue the subjective experience of certitude as a criterion of religious knowledge. These poets attempt to alleviate in a counterintuitive way the anguish many believers suffered as they sought to achieve certainty about their spiritual status. By cultivating their readers' experience of uncertainty, these poets enable them to surmount its debilitating hold through faith. Moreover, by advocating ethical behavior as a more reliable guide to spiritual status than inner sentiment, these poets see sustained participation in just community as fuller proof of genuine piety than fleeting experiences of ordered selfhood. My purpose, then, is to consider the political consequences of spiritual transformation.; My study illustrates that moving readers from considerations of selfhood to concerns of community involves teaching them to read religious verse aright. The poets I treat are highly invested in their readers' intellectual and moral development, for they utilize a range of strategies to sharpen their readers' perception. Although they appreciate the merits of a given approach to proof, whether based on observation (Lanyer), reasoning (Donne), or a combination of the two (Herbert), they also realize ultimately (Milton most adamantly) that the foundation for certitude is God. Consequently, their verse dramatizes the limits of proof so as to advocate a principled uncertainty that is nonetheless faithful. By registering their evaluations of evidentiary procedures in their formal choices, these poets help their readers grasp what is at stake morally in seeking certainty. In probing the problem of knowledge from a literary angle and with an emphasis on religion, I contribute to our understanding of the evolution of evidence, the history of skepticism, and the myths of secularization in early modern England.