ABSTRACT
As elites established greater political pre-eminence in increasingly wealthy and socially differentiated but also stable colonies, and as imperial tensions eased after the Glorious Revolution, Protestant clergymen sermonized about character and good governance. Religious virtues were not only essential for their own sakes and to prevent the ‘Ruine of Cities and Countries’, but also for good day-to-day governance. Righteous rulers were supposed to be honest brokers in imperial as well as local matters, which, Cummings makes clear, was a complicated mediation. A governor had to respect both ‘those above him and those over whom he presides’, so ‘a righteous, subordinate Ruler, will be always careful to preserve his Duty and Allegiance to his Prince, in such a manner, as that it may not interfere with his Care of and Fidelity to the public Welfare’. As well as general principles, Cummings’s tract reflects the particularities of contemporary Pennsylvanian and imperial politics.
