Radical Puritans in England 1550 - 1660 (Seminar Studies) [1 ed.] 058235515X, 9780582355156

Table of contents :
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Introduction to the Series
Acknowledgements
Preface
Part One: The Background: The Radical Tradition
The first English separatists?
Part Two: Analysis
1 ‘The Blood of the Martyrs is the Seed of the Church’: The Marian Persecution and the Growth of Separatism
Conclusion
2 Religious Separatism in the Reign of Elizabeth I
Familism
Conclusion
3 Religious Divisions in Jacobean England
The Jacob church
Provincial separatism by 1625
Conclusion
4 ‘The Two Smoaking Firebrands’: Laud and the Growth of Religious Separatism
London separatism 1625-1643
Provincial separatism
The Stranger churches
Conclusion
5 The Disciplining of Dissent: Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Baptists 1640-1660
Introduction
The Presbyterians
Congregationalism
The General Baptists
The Particular Baptists
6 ‘Happy Seeker, Happy Finder’: The Seekers
7 ‘All Manner of Filthiness’: The Ranters
8 ‘The Truth of Light Within’; The Quaker Movement
Part Three: Assessment
9 The Radical Legacy
Part Four: Documents
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

SEMINAR STUDIES IN HISTORY

General Editor: Roger Lockyer

Radical Puritans in England

1550-1660

R. J. Acheson

First published 1990 by Longman Group Limited Third impression 1994 Published 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, :VIiIton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OXI4 4R.\f 71 I Third Avenue, New York, 1\Y 10017, CSA Routledge Ü an imprint (1' ,he Tfl)'/or & FmnLi'l GTOlljJ, an ir!fhnna business

Copyright © 1990, Taylor & Francis. All rights rcscrvcd. J\o part 01' this book may bc reprintcd or rcproduced or utiliscd in any form or by any elecLronic, Dlechanical, or oLher means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and rccording, or in any inf(>rmation storage or rctricval system, without permission in writing from thc publishcrs. J\Olices Knowledge and best praetice in this ficld are constantly changing. As new research and expcricncc broadcn our undcrstanding, changes in research mCLhods, proft:ssionaI practiccs, or tnedical treatment may becoDle necessary. Pracritioncrs and research crs must aLways rcly on their O\V11 cxpcricncc and kno\vlcdgc in evaluating and using any inf(lrmation, methods, eompounds, or experiments dcseribed herein. In using such införmatio!l or methods they should be mindful 01' their own safCty and the safCty of others, including panies f,)r whom they ha\'e a professional responsibility.

'n) the fullest extent of the law,

neither the Publisher nor the authors, eontributors, or editors, assume any liability f()r any injury and/or damage to persons or propcrty as a malter üf products liability, ncgligcncc or othcrwisc or from any usc or operation of any mcthods, products instructions, or idcas contained in the material herein. 1

1

ISBJ\ 13: 978-0-582-35515-6 (Pbk)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Acheson, R J. (Robert]) Radical puritans in England, 1550-1660, - (Seminar studies in his tory ). I, England, Puritanism, his tory L Tide Ir. Series 285' .9'0942

Library of Congress CataIoging-in-Publication Data Acheson, R]. Radical Puritans in England, 1550-1660/Rj. Acheson. p. cm, - (Seminar studies in history) Bibliography: p. Includes index. ISBN 0-582-35515-X I. Separatists - England - History - 16th century. 2. SeparatistsEngland - History - 17th century, 3. Puritans - England History - 16th century. 4. Puritans - England - History - 17th century. 5. England - Church history - 16th century. 6, England Church his tory - 17th century, r. Tide. Ir. Series. BX5203.2,A28 1989 274.2'06 - dc20

Set in 10/11 point Bas/rmJille (linotron)

89-8058 CIP

Contents

INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PREFACE

Part One: The Background: The Radical Tradition

I

3

4

1

2

Part Two: Analysis

5

'THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYRS IS THE SEED OF THE CHURCH': THE MARIAN PERSECUTION AND THE GROWTH OF SEPARATISM

RELIGIOUS SEPARATISM IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH I

Familism Conclusion RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS IN JACOBEAN ENG LAND

The Jacob church Provincial separatism by 1625 Conclusion 'THE TWO SMOAKING FIREBRANDS': LAUD AND THE GROWTH OF RELIGIOUS SEPARATISM

London separatism 1625-1643 Provincial separatism The Stranger churches Conclusion 5

Vll

The first English separatists?

Conclusion

2

v VI

THE DISCIPLINING OF DISSENT: PRESBYTERIANS, CONGREGATIONALISTS AND BAPTISTS 1640-1660

Introduction The Presbyterians

5 9

10 14 17 19 22 23 26

28 33 35 41 43 45 45 46

Contents

Congregationalism The General Baptists The Particular Baptists

50 56 57

6

'HAPPY SEEKER, HAPPY FINDER': THE SEEKERS

61

7

'ALL MANN ER OF FILTHINESS': THE RANTERS

65

8

'THE TRUTH OF LIGHT WITHlN'; THE QUAK ER MOVEMENT

69

9

THE RADICAL LEGACY

75 75

Part Four: Documents

80

Part Three: Assessment

GLOSSARY BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX

IV

101 105 109

Seminar Studies in History Founding Editor: Patrick Richardson

Introduction The Seminar Studies series was conceived by Pa trick Richardson, whose experience of teaching history persuaded hirn of the need for something more substantial than a textbook chapter but less formidable than the specialised full-Iength aeademic work. He was also convinced that such studies, although limited in length, should provide an up-to-date and authoritative introduetion to the topie under diseussion as weil as a seleetion of relevant doeuments and a eomprehensive bibliography. Patriek Riehardson died in 1979, but by that time the Seminar Studies se ries was firmly established, and it continues to fulfil the role he intended for it. This book, like others in the series, is therefore a living tribute to a gifted and original teacher.

Note on the System 01 Refirences: A bold number in round brackets (5) in the text refers the reader to the corresponding entry in the Bibliography seetion at the end of the book. A bold number in square brackets, preceded by 'doc.' [doc. 6] refers the reader to the corresponding item in the seetion of Documents, wh ich follows the main text. A word followed by an asterisk, for example, 'Baptist*', indieates that the term is defined in the Glossary. ROGER LOCKYER General Editor

v

Acknowledgements

Cover: Radical Puritans in England 1550-1660 pamtmg of a Quaker meeting by Egbert van Heemskirk (1645-1704) showing a woman preaching. By courtesy of the Religious Society of Friends, London.

VI

Preface

This study attempts to guide the student of religious tensions in Early Modern England through the complexities of radical thought and action associated with that period. Naturally, in a study of this length, oversimplification will occur and the use of the word 'Puritan' in the title of this book exemplifies this. This volume concentrates upon religious separatists; it would be true to say that whilst most separatists prior to the Civil War were either Puritan or, at the very least, shared a common Puritan ancestry, not all Puritans were or be ca me separatists. It is normal to claim responsibility for all errors and omissions and this I gladly do. Likewise, due credit should be given to those who have helped me avoid many more. John Faulkner first started me on the path of separatist study and Patrick Collinson lit the way, opened perspectives, and always encouraged; I am deeply grateful to them both. My former colleague, Richard Wright, proved an excellent and critical 'sounding board', whilst my last 'A' Level set at the Duke of York's RMS in Dover kindly and patiently put up with my early ramblings on this theme. The staff of various libraries - particularly those of the British Library, the Cathedral Library at Canterbury, the Dr Williams' Library, and the Society of Friends' Library at Euston - all proved indispensable. The editor of this series, Roger Lockyer, has made a telling contribution to both the content of this volume and to the way in which it has been presented. To hirn I owe much and from hirn I have learnt a great deal. Finally, I am indebted to my wife, who has placidly lived with religious radicalism for nearly. a decade. To Jill, and her tolerance, this volume is dedicated. Robert Acheson 1988

VB

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Part One: The Background: The Radical Tradition

Throughout this volume, the term 'separatist' is frequently employed. As a definition, however, it is open to misuse, and in this study it will be applied strictly only to those individuals or communities whose ideas about how the religious life of the nation should be organised differed from 'official' views. In other words, separatists did not, for a variety of reasons, regard the Established Church as a 'true' church. This being so, they felt impelled to separate themselves both physically and spiritually from what was for them a 'Church of confusion, where the Lord's people may not tarry' (17). This is a crucial distinction; there were many who regarded the services and even the theological position of the Church during the period in question with distaste, but not all such took the momentous step of total separation. The chronider of the Broadmead separatist church notes this as late as 1640: These few being thus joined, confirmed and separated, they began very much to increase ... But divers that were grave, sincere, and godly people, that had gone all along with them step by step until this, would not enter into church fellowship at that time, standing offfor many years (18). This whole issue of attitudes was an important one, dividing nonconforming Puritans from semi-separatists, and both these from separatists as such. It drew a thin but very real dividing line between these respective groups which, in the face of the enforcement of episcopal discipline, might otherwise have been logical allies. Indeed, to anticipate one ofthe arguments put forward in this study (see Chapter 4), it may be that the real achievement of Archbishop Laud's policy was for abrief but seminal time to forge an alliance between these sharply disparate elements. Given this strict definition, the evidence for separatism before 1550 remains elusive. It is tradition al in any study of the development of religious tension in early modern England to analyse the contribution of later LoUardy to the English Reformation, particularly within the context of the inftuence of continental

1

The Background radicalism in the shape ofLutheranism in the 1520s or Anabaptism in the 1530s and 1540s. Such an approach has its adherents: in a relatively recent essay, Christopher HilI has gone so far as to suggest that there may have been a continuous tradition of dissent linking the Lollards of the fifteenth century with the LevelIers* of the late 1640s (81). Yet it can equally be argued that the Lollards have no direct relevance to a study of separatism. Whilst it cannot be denied that their assault on 'priestly' authority was a telling blow at one of the fundamental pillars of the pre-Reformation Church, and that their rejection of the efficacy of sacraments was instrumental in laying the foundations for later popular scepticism, there is no hint of adesire to set up an alternative ecclesiastical system in LoIlard activities or demands. God may weIl have been 'in no place made by men's hands', but that does not mean that the Lollards saw their secret assemblies or conventicles as 'gathered' churches. By and large, Lollards were quick to recant when press ure was applied, 'turned' rather than 'burned', and on the whole were content to practise a kind of Nicodemism*. Some of them, like John Grebill of Tenterden, found no conftict of interests in holding Lollard beliefs and the position of churchwarden at one and the same time (61,

77).

Moreover, although Irving Horst has argued powerfully for Anabaptism as an important inftuence in England during the 1530s and 1540s, and has rescued its followers from the shadows, he has been able to produce litde evidence to suggest that these individuals drew themselves apart into consciously separatist churches, in stark contrast to their continental precursors (45). Indeed, although there is plenty of evidence for the existence of Anabaptist ideas in England at this time, there is very little for that of separatist congregations before 1553 (83). A direct relationship between fifteenthcentury Lollardy and sixteenth-century Anabaptism on the one hand, and seventeenth-century separatism on the other therefore remains unproven. But there is litde doubt that the seeds of the separatism and sectarianism which were to shatter the fabric of the national Church from the 1620s onwards were indeed sown in the latter half of the sixteenth century, and it is upon this period that the first part of this study concentrates (65).

The first English separatists? Over 150 years ago, the pioneering historian John Strype referred to the group of men and women arrested at Bocking in Essex in

2

The Radical Tradition 1550 at a large conventicle as 'the first that made separation from the Reformed Church of England'. Much ink has since been spilt concerning this group, which was led by the elusive figure of Henry Hart, but it would seem that Strype's original analysis is probably correct. In April 1538, Cranmer wrote to Thomas Cromwell in defence of a handful of parishioners from the Weald of Kent indicted for unlawful assembly. As far as the Archbishop was concerned, their only offen ce was that they were 'fauters [that is favourers] ofthe new doctrine' and he was anxious that the progress of the Reformation at provincial level should not be hamstrung in this instance by conservative officialdom. Of this group, the most interesting is the figure of Henry Hart of Pluckley; if there are doubts about his ecclesiological* attitudes at this stage, there are none by the time of the discovery of the conventicle at Bocking in Essex twelve years later in which Hart was a principal figure. Present at this assembly was a group from Kent who regarded Hart as their inspiration and themselves as separatists. Not only did some of them admit that they had refused to attend the communion service for over two years, but two of their number revealed that behind this action lay a doctrine of segregation or 'shunning' which was to reappear in the same Wealden area during later heresy investigations in Mary's reign [doc. I]. The last statement in this extract (see below p. 8 I) is of so me significance in that it precisely foreshadows the irreconcilable divide wh ich was later to distinguish separatists from semiseparatists. It would thus appear that at a relatively early date there is evidence for the belief in the necessity for the godly to hold themselves literally apart from the ungodly, carrying with it the rejection of the 'permixt' congregation, that is one 'which is mingled with all sorts of people, profane and wicked'. One ofthe Bocking congregation, a Maidstone schoolmaster, was made to preach a recantation sermon by Cranmer in 1553. Thomas Cole preached at length against 'the stinkyng floure of separation or segregation from others' and concluded that if the established authorities would not root out the evil and the godless, then 'must the private man commit the matter to God' and receive the sacrament without separation, a view prefiguring the 'wheat and tares' approach of the semi-separatists of the early seventeenth century (6). . Henry Hart remained aseparatist for the rest of his life. Areport by one of Bishop Bonner's informers, Stephen Morris, refers to Hart's activities in London prior to his arrest by the Marian auth-

3

The Background orities. Apart from stressing Hart's opposition to the doctrine of predestination*, Morris reports that Hart had drawn up certain articles 'to be observed amongst his company', and this is suggestive of so me form of covenant*, wh ich was the essential feature of the gathered separatist churches of the seventeenth century (16). Nothing confirms the depths of Hart's separatism more than the dispute he had in prison with John Bradford and other Edwardian Protestams. Hart was offended by the others gambling and refused to worship with them even in the face of a common enemy and persecutor. This quarrel, normally referred to as the 'King's Bench' dispute (after the prison where it took place), shocked many of Bradford's followers, and none more so than John Careless, who became deeply upset when these divisions were thrown back in his face by his Catholic interrogators. Careless was moved to say of Hart that 'it had been good for that man if he had never been born' and he concluded with the wish that 'all men that be godly-wise, beware of that man, whose opinions on many points are very noisome and wicked' (16). It remains something of a mystery that Hart escaped the stake, given Bradford's martyrdom: he died in 1557, possibly back in his own parish of Pluckley (19). The dominance of free-will or predestinarian theology in Hart's group has led at least one writer to see Hart as an Anabaptist, whilst another refers to his f