ABSTRACT

This chapter outlines elements of the Protestant account of conscience, as it stood in the early decades of the seventeenth century. It makes sense to consider what might be called pre-Civil War Protestant conscience and post-Civil War Protestant conscience. The chapter focuses how the Protestant account might have impacted on conscience as an objective concept. It shows how classifications of the objects of conscience given by an account might suggest guidelines for defining the scope of juristic conscience. The chapter emphasizes explicitly many religious writers. Writers on conscience sometimes explicitly highlight its relationship to justice. The perceived connection between conscience in general and Chancery conscience is evidenced in a number of particular ways. The distinction canonist conscience versus Protestant conscience tends to suggest a clear-cut difference, or at least a discontinuity. Christopher St. German's insistence is that conscience must always be based upon a law, the law of God, the law of reason, or human law.