Izvestiya of Saratov University.
ISSN 1819-4907 (Print)
ISSN 2542-1913 (Online)


American revolution

English Dissenters in Discussion on Matters of American Independence

The article deals with the problem of relations of the English «rational» dissenters to the American Revolution and independence. Analysis is based on works of the key figures of dissenter’s movement, who had a great influence on English and American social and religious life in the late XVIII century.

The Freemasons: Mystics, Enlighteners, Revolutionaries

The focus of the author are the events of the European Masonic movement in the XVII – XVIIIth centuries. Analysis of sources helped to illuminate the causes the course of the reform of “old masonry” in Britain in the Modern history. It is shown that the change agents were the intellectuals, members of the Royal Society. Their aim was wide-ranging reforms society in the spirit of the concepts of the Enlightenment. As the author proves, new Grand Lodge actively exported their practices to Europe and North American colonies.