ABSTRACT
Popular notions of politics underwent a seismic shift in the early modern period. In the early 1500s political understanding could not be separated from religious belief and was conceived primarily in terms of symbols of allegiance – most significantly the banner of the five wounds of Christ that accompanied the major revolt, The Pilgrimage of Grace (1536–7). 1 By the time of the Civil War (1640s) literacy levels had undoubtedly improved and so had the technology that enabled pamphlets to be printed quickly and in significant numbers leading to a vast explosion in printed material. 2 Politics was still inextricably linked to religion and it was invariably conceived in terms of images, but it was also clear that a developed public sphere was now emerging that would lead to more modern conceptions of political culture. 3 Milton argued in Areopagitica (1644) that public life and civil society could not function without the freedom of the press, an argument that would have made little sense in 1500. 4
