William Prynne Research Articles

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REVIEWS

William Prynne: A Study in Puritanism

William Prynne: A Study in Puritanism

Documents relating to the proceedings against William Prynne in 1634 and 1637

Documents relating to the proceedings against William Prynne in 1634 and 1637

Chapter II. William Prynne's Home and Education

The home of William Prynne was one well suited for the nourishment of an earnest, serious spirit. That his father was a religious man is unquestionable. It is equally certain, from the explicit avowal of his theological opinions contained in the preface to his will, that, in the disputes of those days, he took the Puritan, or, as some people term it, the Calvinistic side. Such a man would be careful to teach his children and household to worship God in the way which he deemed right.

III. Sentence of the University of Oxford Upon William Prynne

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Biographical Fragment

IT is not because WILLIAM PRYNNE stands in our literature as one of our most voluminous authors, nor because he is conspicuous in our history as a sufferer for conscience' sake, that I desire to interest the great body of English readers in his biography. His works, and the circumstances of his personal history, considered simply by themselves, deserve the attention ofthe scholar and the historian, but taken in connection with the general incidents of the times in which he lived they acquire a much higher importance and have a far more extensive application. Viewed in that relation, they enlarge our knowledge of the momentous transactions which occurred in England between 1625 and 1660; they give us views of men and events, nearer and more distinct than can be derived from the wide survey of the general historian; and they enable us—which is more valuable than anything else—to drink deep into the general spirit of that eventful period. It is of the greatest importance that the history of that birth-time of our modern freedom and our consequent greatness should be thoroughly understood I hope that the life of William Prynne, which 1 have endeavoured to write upon the principle I have indicated, will conduce in some slight degree to their being so.

II. Petition of William Prynne, February, 1634

II. Petition of William Prynne, February, 1634

Chapter IV. Prynne's First Book

In the time of William Prynne there was no stronger feeling in the minds of the people of England than a dread of a return of the dominion of Eome. In the estimation of our forefathers of that period popery was a conspiracy against the just liberties and the right reason of mankind. The evils connected with it as a conjoint system of belief, and of spiritual government, were deemed intolerable. In its former character, degrading superstitions seemed interwoven into its very essence; in the latter, it was seen and known to be the enemy, in every possible form, of freedom of thought, and speech, and pen; in both it was looked upon as handing over its subjects to the domination of a priesthood, who were foreigners in their hearts, whose chief allegiance was given to a foreign power, who used the people for their own purposes, kept them in ignorance as a means of perpetuating their dominion, and strove, heart and soul, by the publication of wicked libels, by secret conspiracy and open war, for the restoration of that temporal supremacy which they had lost. Many people now-a-days entertain the same opinions of the Church of Eome, but there is a marked distinction between the impression produced by these opinions upon the minds of our ancestors and upon those of our contemporaries. But there is a marked distinction between Eomanism as it existed then, and now. Then, it was not merely a form of faith.

Chapter I. William Prynne'S Ancestors

The family from which William Prynne descended derived both its name and origin from the county of Salop. Looking down from Wenlock Ridge on the broad and fertile expanse which spreads for many miles towards the west, the eye is attracted at the distance of a few miles by several gentle eminences, just raised above the level of the surrounding country. These grassy knolls were anciently designated “Preens.” On one of them the Lords of Castle Holgood erected, in the old times, a house of religion devoted to the Cluniac monks—a cell to the magnificent Priory at Wenlock. But all traces of this modest establishment have long since disappeared. A “Great Preen” and a “Little Preen,” the names of which may also be discovered in the records, are not now to be found on the map. “Church Preen” remains alone to fix the locality and indicate the nature of these ancient pointed hillocks.