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The Campaign against The Humble Proposals of 1632

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Carolyn Polizzotto
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Extract

Early in 1652 the leading Independent divine John Owen, with a group of other ministers, published a plan for the reform of the Church entitled The Humble Proposals. The scheme aroused antagonism and opposition. The existence of petitions against it, one of them published by Roger Williams under the title The Fourth Paper (1652), was noted by David Masson in his Life of Milton. The protest was more intense, and went on longer, than Masson suggests. Petitions were soon followed by a number of tracts, some of them anonymous, others raising the issues in an introductory epistle or an appendix to material with a wider reference. Taken together, they clearly indicate a well-organised campaign behind the scenes.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , October 1987 , pp. 569 - 581
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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References

1 Owen, John, Goodwin, Thomas, Nye, Philip, Simpson, Sidrach et al., The Humble Proposals, London 1652.Google Scholar For his invaluable assistance and for his encouragement, I wish to thank Dr Geoffrey Nuttall. I am grateful to the Rothmans University Endowment Fund for a postdoctoral fellowship and a further grant-in-aid.

2 Masson, D., Life of John Milton, Cambridge-London 1859-1890, iv. 390–8.Google Scholar

3 Polizzotto, C., ‘Liberty of conscience and the Whitehall Debates of 1648-9’, this Journal xxvi (1975), 69–82.Google Scholar

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5 For Butler, see Greaves and Zaller, op. cit. For Charles Vane, see Masson, op. cit. index. For Danvers, see Greaves, R. L., ‘The tangled careers of two Stuart radicals: Henry and Robert Danvers’, in Baptist Quarterly xxix (1981), 32–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For Goad, see , J. and Venn, J. A., Alumni Canlabrigienses, Cambridge 1922-1954, I. ii. 225Google Scholar.

6 They left New England on 10 November 1651, Rowe, V. A., Sir Henry Vane the Younger: a study in political and administrative history, London 1970, 199.Google Scholar For Clarke, see Greaves an d Zaller, op. cit.

7 For Calvert, sec ibid.; see also Terry, A. E., ‘Giles Calvert, mid-seventeenth-century English bookseller and publisher: an account of his publishing career’, unpubl. MSc diss., Columbia University 1937,Google Scholar who draws attention to the possibility that he published a number of tracts which bear no printer's name (such as some which attacked The Humble Proposals).

8 , Rowe, op. cit. 25, 198–200.Google Scholar

9 Greenhill, William et al., A Declaration of divers Elders and Brethren of Congregational Societies, in and about the City of London, London 1651.Google Scholar

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18 Severall Queries, 17. The unlikely presence of John Goodwin's name among the subscribers to The Humble Proposals was obtained by a manoeuvre: see Goodwin, J., The Apologist Condemned, London 1653, 4–5Google Scholar.

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20 Williams, Fourth Paper, Epistle to Reader.

21 Owen, G. D., ‘The conspiracy of Christopher Love’, Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, session 1966, i. 99.Google Scholar

22 Norwood, Robert, The Form ofan Excommunication made by Mr. Sympson, [London] 1651;Google Scholaridem, A Declaration or Testimony made after Excommunication, [London] 1651;Google Scholaridem, Proposals for Propagation of the Gospel, [London 1652];Google Scholaridem, A Brief Discourse, London 1652Google Scholar.

23 Severall Queries, 19.

24 Williams, R., The Hireling Ministry None of Christs, London 1652,Google Scholar dedicatory epistle, sig. A2V.

25 Commons Journals vii. 130, 137, 190.

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27 Ibid. Epistle to Reader.

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29 , Masson, John Milton, iv. 432–3; DNB.Google Scholar

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31 , French, op. cit. ii. 355;Google Scholar Masson, op. cit. index (Charles Vane).

32 DNB, as Biddle; , Rowe, Sir Henry Vane, 197–8;Google ScholarMcLachlan, H. J., Socinianism in Seventeenth-century England, Oxford 1951, 190–3;Google ScholarCommons Journals vii. 144.

33 Wolfe, D. M., Complete Prose Works of John Milton, New Haven-London 1966, iv. 1,Google Scholar introduction 89.

34 zeal Examined, Epistle to Reader.

35 Baxter, Richard, Reliquiae Baxterianae, ed. Sylvester, M., London 1696, I. i. 75.Google Scholar

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37 zeal Examined, 45-6.

38 Ibid. 27, Epistle to Reader.

39 Owen, ‘Conspiracy’, passim.

40 , McLachlan, Socinianism 234–9;Google ScholarMassachusetts Historical Society Collections, III. i. 35-7.

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43 Zeal Examined, 47, note on errata; , Rowe, Sir Henry Vane, 200Google Scholar.

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45 ‘The Publishers of the First’ also presented a tract with the same title ‘to the Lord Protector and the Parliament’, but this was in 1654 and was answered by the Quakers and by John Goodwin: apart from its origins, it is another story, or at least (since several of the dramatis personal are the same) another instalment, beginning with the Nominated Parliament and its collapse, continuing with the conference of ministers called to define the ‘Fundamentals of Religion’ and ending with the prosecution of the Quaker James Nayler for blasphemy.

46 Commons Journals vii. 190.

47 Owen, John, A Sermon preached to the Parliament, Oxford 1652, 36.Google Scholar

48 John Durie to Richard Baxter, 29 Oct. 1652, in Nuttall, G. F., ‘Presbyterians and Independents: some movements for unity 300 years ago’, Presbyterian Historical Society Journal X (1952), 7Google Scholar.

49 White, B. R., ‘William Erbery (1604-1654) and the Baptists’, Baptist Quarterly xxiii (1969-1970), 116.Google Scholar

50 Commons Journals vii. 259.