Memorials of the Independent Churches in Northamptonshire: with biographical notices of their pastors, and some account of the puritan ministers who laboured in the county. — John Shaqi
Memorials of the Independent Churches in Northamptonshire: with biographical notices of their pastors, and some account of the puritan ministers who laboured in the county.Coleman, Thomas
History
Memorials of the Independent Churches in Northamptonshire: with biographical notices of their pastors, and some account of the puritan ministers who laboured in the county.
Coleman, Thomas
Clergy -- England -- Northamptonshire; Independent churches -- England -- Northamptonshire; Puritans -- England -- Northamptonshire
William Prandlove was a respectable Puritan minister, who about the year
1562 became vicar of Fawsley, in Northamptonshire, and in 1577 he became
rector of Lamport, in the same county. He united with his brethren in
their private associations, and took an active part in promoting the
desired ecclesiastical discipline, for which, in the year 1590, he was
apprehended and cast into prison, where he remained a long time. He was
after carried before the High Commission and the Star Chamber, where he
underwent the severe scrutiny of his ecclesiastical inquisitors.
In connexion with these statements relating to Puritan ministers who
maintained and suffered for their principles in the county town of
Northamptonshire and its immediate vicinity, it may not be considered
unsuitable to state that a Sir Richard Knightley, at Fawsley in this
county, who received the honour of knighthood from the Earl of
Leicester, at Fotheringay, in the 8th of Elizabeth, 1566, was one of the
earliest and most zealous patrons of the Puritans, or opposers of the
new Act for the Uniformity of Worship, who assumed the importance of an
organized party in 1568. Their publications, principally from the pen of
John Ap-Henry, better known by the assumed name of Martin Mar-Prelate,
were industriously though secretly disseminated by means of a travelling
printing press, conducted by one Walgrave. To elude detection, the
scene of its operations was frequently changed. It was first set up at
Mousley, in Surrey, from whence it was removed to Fawsley, and worked in
a private upper room, approached only by a winding staircase. Its next
stage was to Norton, another of Sir Richard's seats. It was subsequently
conveyed to Coventry, Woolston, in Warwickshire, and finally to
Manchester, where it was seized by the Earl of Derby. For these
clandestine proceedings Sir Richard and his associates were summoned
before the Court of Star Chamber, and heavily fined; but Archbishop
Whitgift, though one of the most prominent objects of their attack, with
a truly Christian spirit obtained by his intercession a remission of
their sentence. In the succeeding reign, Sir Richard ventured, with Sir
Edward Montague, Sir Francis Hastings, and 60 or 80 other gentlemen, to
petition the King on behalf of the Puritan clergy of this county; but
they were severely rebuked in the Star Chamber and at the Council Table
for their presumption, and Sir Richard was dismissed both from the
lieutenancy and the commission of the peace.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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