John Penry

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John Penry

John Penry (* 1563 in Brecknockshire , Cefn Brith near Llangammarch ; † May 29, 1593 ) was a Protestant and martyr of Wales .

Life

He was born in Brecknockshire near Llangammarch and matriculated with Christopher Marlowe in December 1580 in Peterhouse , Cambridge, and was probably a Catholic at that time ; but he soon became a staunch Protestant with strong Puritan tendencies. After completing his BA , he moved to St Alban's Hall , Oxford, to receive his MA in July 1586 . He did not seek ordination there, but was licensed as a " University Preacher ".

Few references are known about his preaching trips in Wales; most likely they must have occurred within a few months of 1586 to autumn 1587. Because of his ability to preach, he is also known as Telyn Cymru (the Welsh Harp). In 1562 a “parliamentary law” obtained permission that the Bible may be translated into the Celtic language ; the New Testament came out in 1567, but the print run had remained small and there were hardly any copies for each parish. Enraged by this fact, Penry published in 1587 on behalf of the County of Wales A Treatise containing The Æquity of an Humble Supplication , that the Gospel was celebrated in Celtic ( that some order may be taken for the preaching of the Gospel among those people ). Archbishop Whitgift , angry at this criticism, had him cited before the High Commission and imprisoned him for a month. After his release from prison, Penry married a woman from Northampton , where he lived for a few years. With the assistance of Sir Richard Knightley , he helped set up Robert Waldegrave's printing press, which worked for about a year (1588). As a result, the printing press was at various locations in Warwickshire a . a. in East Moulsey ( Surrey ), Fawsley ( Northamptonshire ), Coventry and finally came to Manchester in August 1589 . This printing press printed both Penry's Exhortation to the governors and people of Wales, and View of ... such publike wants and disorders as are in the service of God ... in Wales and Martin Marprelate's tracts. Some authors have suspected John Penry to be behind " Martin Marprelate ". Today, however, Throkmorton is seen by the majority as the author of this pamphlet.

In January 1590, his home in Northampton was searched and manuscripts confiscated. Penry managed to escape to Scotland . There he published various tracts and the translation of a well-known theological work Theses Genevenses . After a stay of about three years in Scotland, he decided to return to England in 1592, in particular to preach the Gospel in Celtic. There he met the Independents and joined the Separatist Church in London under Henry Barrowe , to whom he initially refused his priestly service, although he apparently became a regular preacher after the arrest of Minister Francis Johnson and John Greenwood .

Arrest and execution

In March 1593 he was arrested and thrown into Poultry Compter Prison, where efforts were made to "invent" grounds for a capital crime against him. After this was unsuccessful, an indictment of seduction ( Sedition ) was constructed on the basis of a found harsh and accusing draft petition to Queen Elizabeth I , which was found among his private papers, but which had never been published or presented anywhere.

On May 25, 1593, he was sentenced by the Queen's Bench. His end, postponed by several days, came unexpectedly when he was informed during lunch on May 29 that he would be hanged that same day at the unusual hour of 5 p.m., with the signature of his old enemy, Archbishop of Canterbury John Whitgift, along with the Messrs. John Puckering and Popham, the Lord Keeper and Lord Chief Justice, appeared on this Letter of Authorization. Penry had written letters to Lord Burghley and Essex before he died from prison .

.... in the midst of his meal, Penry without ceremony was hurried on to his hurdle and dragged to St. Thomas a Watering, where a gallows stood waiting its next victim. Having arrived there, Penry found no friend among the sprinkling of people who saw the grim cortege pass, and were drawn to the scene by their morbid curiosity. It was part of [Whitgift's] mean design to have none of the condemned man's friends present; and in any case, peremptory orders were issued to deny him the ordinary courtesy of the times, an opportunity at the gallows to bid farewell to the world, profess his innocence and loyalty .... (Details of Pierce) .

His chains were removed and he was dragged on a wattle through the narrow streets of St Thomas at Watering (a few miles from Deptford , the place where Christopher Marlowe died the following day, May 30, 1593) and hanged in the open air. Neither his wife Eleanor nor his four daughters " Deliverance, Comfort, Safety and Sure-Hope ", to each of whom he finally handed over a Bible, were allowed to be present. Nobody knows where he was buried. In his memory, a statue of John Penry was erected in the churchyard of St. Cadmark, Llangammarch Wells by the local sculptor Elisabeth Yeomans .

The unexplained postponement of the execution (May 29, 1593), delayed by four days, the unusually late time of the execution in the afternoon (5 p.m.), the death of Christopher Marlowe within 24 hours (May 30, 1593), the absolute secrecy of the public execution without the family being present and the official responsibility for both corpses (Penry and Marlowe) by William Danby, The Coroner of the Queens Houshold , contributed to the development of the scientifically unaccepted so-called Marlowe theory . The biographer of Lord Burghley Conveyer Read believes that Burghley not only reprimanded Archbishop John Whitgift , but tried everything in his power to save the life of John Penry (as well as that of Henry Barrowe and John Greenwood ).

Fonts

  • Biographical List of the Writings of John Penry. In: John Penry: The Aequity of an humble supplication (1587). Reprinted from the copy in the British Museum and edited with a preface by Alexander J. Grieve. Congregational Historical Society, London 1905, pp. XIII – XV .
  • A treatise containing the aequity of an humble supplication. Barnes, Oxford 1587.
  • An Exhortation of the Gouernours and People of her Maiesties countrie of Wales. Printed by Robert Waldegrave, London 1588.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Katherine S. Van Eerde: Robert Waldegrave: The Printer as Agent and Link Between Sixteenth-Century England and Scotland. In: Renaissance Quarterly. Vol. 34, No. 1, 1981, pp. 40-78, doi : 10.2307 / 2861161 .
  2. ↑ Donald J. McGinn: John Penry and the Marprelate Controversy. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick NJ 1966.
  3. ^ Leland H. Carlson: Martin Marprelate, Gentleman. Master Job Throkmorton Laid Open in his Colors. Huntington Library, San Marino CA 1981, ISBN 0-87328-112-8 .
  4. ^ Conyers Read: Lord Burghley and Queen Elizabeth. Cape, London 1960, p. 470.

Bibliography

  • John Penry: The Notebook of John Penry (= Camden Third Series. Vol. 67, ISSN  2042-1699 ). Edited for the Royal Historical Society from the Original in the Huntington Library by Albert Peel. Offices of the Royal Historic Society, London 1944.
  • John Penry: Three Treatises concerning Wales. With an introduction by David Williams. University of Wales Press, Cardiff 1960.
  • Champlin Burrage: John Penry the so-called martyr of Congregationalism as revealed in the original record of his trial and in documents related. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1913, ( digitized version ).
  • William Pierce: John Penry. His life times and writings. Hodder & Stoughton, London 1923, ( digitized version ).
  • John Waddington: John Penry, the Pilgrim Martyr, 1559–1593. W. & FG Cash et al., London 1854, ( digitized ).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Penry, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Welsh Protestant and Martyr
DATE OF BIRTH 1563
PLACE OF BIRTH Brecknockshire , Cefn Brith
DATE OF DEATH May 29, 1593