A “Carkass” of “Mere Dead Paper”: The Polemical Career of Francis Rous, Puritan MP

Abstract

Francis Rous (1581-1659), a gentleman from Devonshire and a prolific writer of devotional and polemical treatises, was John Pym's stepbrother. This article argues that he was also Pym's politico-religious alter ego and that a study of his writings can deepen our understanding of the development of Pym's ideology. It examines a sharp polemical exchange between the Catholic Sir Tobie Mathew, the Laudian Christopher Potter, and the Puritan Rous that began in the early 163OS and analyzes Rous's writings up to the time he wrote his answer to Mathew.