ABSTRACT
In today's society, religion and politics are widely assumed to inhabit separate spheres, and leading bishops are sometimes ridiculed or patronised when they offer commentary on foreign affairs or even social policy. This chapter reviews that religion was the main agent in shaping the morals of the nation in the period, just as it also played a major role in prescribing social duties and responsibilities. Most ordinary people would have looked to the Church, or to their religious instructors, for guidance on notions of good and evil, or right and wrong, or their own responsibilities within the family. Jeremy Bentham believes that the amount of happiness or unhappiness produced is susceptible of calculation, and does not restrict his view to the self-interest of the agent: it is crucial to his formulation of utilitarianism that the interest of the wider community should be taken into account, and that no one's happiness is to be rated as more important than anyone else's.
