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The Manuscript Sermons of Archbishop John Williams

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2011

STEPHEN HAMPTON
STEPHEN HAMPTON
Affiliation:
Peterhouse, Cambridge CB2 1RD; e-mail: swph2@cam.ac.uk
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Abstract

Most of Archbishop Williams's manuscript remains were destroyed in a fire in 1695. However, the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge, contains a volume of manuscript sermons and sermon notes that have not been significantly studied. On closer examination, the sermons can all be dated to the 1640s, and several were delivered on significant occasions. They show that Williams was a far more committed preacher than has generally been acknowledged, and demonstrate his explicit and consistent adherence to Reformed theology. They therefore help in explaining his close links with godly communities and so his significance during the Long Parliament.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 62 , Issue 4 , October 2011 , pp. 707 - 725
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

1 Peter Heylyn, Observations on the history of the reign of King Charles, London 1656 (Wing H1727), 217.

2 Conrad Russell, The fall of the British monarchies, 1637–1642, Oxford 1991, 238–9; John Adamson, The noble revolt: the overthrow of Charles I, London 2007, 128.

3 Alan Ford, James Ussher: theology, history and politics in early modern Ireland and England, Oxford 2007, 248, 250.

4 C. S. Knighton, ‘The lord of Jerusalem: John Williams as dean of Westminster’, in C. S. Knighton and Richard Mortimer (eds), Westminster Abbey reformed, 1540–1640, Aldershot 2003, 245.

5 Ibid. 246.

6 Pepys Library, ms 1441, p. 277.

7 Ibid. p. 253.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid. p. 28.

10 Ibid. p. 25.

11 Ibid. p. 220.

12 John Hacket, Scrinia reserata: a memorial offered to the great deservings of John Williams DD, London 1693 (Wing H171), ii. 90. Knighton, ‘Lord of Jerusalem’, 250.

13 Peter McCullough, Sermons at court: politics and religion in Elizabethan and Jacobean preaching, Cambridge 1998, 134, and disk.

14 Pepys Library, ms 1441, p. 45.

15 TNA, LC5/134, passim.

16 Ibid. fo. 456.

17 Adamson, Noble revolt, 257–9.

18 Russell, British monarchies, 238–9.

19 Pepys Library, ms 1441, p. 28.

20 Adamson, Noble revolt, 299.

21 Pepys Library, ms 1441, p. 195.

22 Ibid. p. 221.

23 Ibid.

24 TNA, LC5/134, fo. 419. Bishops were invited to preach before the king by turns each week whilst parliament was in session.

25 Pepys Library, ms 1441, p. 169.

26 Ibid. p. 192.

27 Ibid. p. 179.

28 ‘House of Lords Journal volume 4: 9 September 1641’, Journal of the House of Lords, IV: 1629–42 (1802), 390–2Google Scholar.

29 ‘House of Lords Journal volume 4: 17 December 1641’, ibid. iv. 479–80.

30 Adamson, Noble revolt, 468–70.

31 Pepys Library, ms 1441, p. 178.

32 Ibid. p. 50.

33 Ibid. pp. 51, 57.

34 Ibid. p. 58.

35 Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. v/127, 5 June 1858, 453.

36 This is 10 April in the Julian calendar, the date which appeared in the fragment.

37 Pepys Library, ms 1441, p. 247.

38 ODNB s.v. ‘John Williams’.

39 Pepys Library, ms 1441, p. 151.

40 Ibid. p. 118.

41 Ibid. p. 2.

42 Ibid. p. 80.

43 Ibid. p. 85.

44 Ibid. p. 146.

45 Ibid. p. 163.

46 Ibid. p. 249.

47 Ibid. p. 250.

48 Ibid.

49 Ibid.

50 Ibid. pp. 80, 166.

51 Samuel Rutherford, Lex rex: the law and the prince, London 1644 (Wing R2386), 411.

52 Pepys Library, ms 1441, p. 89. He evinces similar concerns in another sermon, where he reminds (ibid. p. 251) his audience that ‘if a lay man have a caprice to leap unto a pulpit or tub to preach, it is not a motion of the Holy Ghost’.

53 Ibid. p. 251.

54 David Cressy, England on edge, Oxford 2006, 212ff.

55 Hugh Trevor-Roper, Archbishop Laud, 1573–1645, London 1988, 54.

56 Ibid. 56.

57 Ibid. 54.

58 Ibid. 179.

59 Ibid. 180.

60 Charles Carlton, Archbishop William Laud, London 1987, 28.

61 Kenneth Fincham, Prelate as pastor: the episcopate of James I, Oxford 1990, 57.

62 Knighton, ‘Lord of Jerusalem’, 233.

63 Ibid. 234. He cites Trevor-Roper's work in support of this view.

64 ODNB s.v. ‘John Williams’.

65 Hacket, Scrinia, ii. 26.

66 Ibid. ii. 69, 80, 89.

67 Christopher Wall, Haigh and Alison, ‘Clergy JPs in England and Wales, 1590–1640’, HJ xlvii (2004), 250–1Google Scholar.

68 Hacket, Scrinia, i. 55.

69 Ibid. i. 56.

70 John Prideaux, Fasciculus controversiarum theologicarum, Oxford 1649 (Wing P3428), 221.

71 Hacket, Scrinia, i. 86.

72 Ibid. i. 18.

73 Ibid. i. 34.

74 Ibid. i. 86.

75 Ibid. ii. 38.

76 Fincham, Prelate as pastor, 274.

77 Ibid.

78 Knighton, ‘Lord of Jerusalem’, 250.

79 Ibid.

80 B. Dew Roberts, Mitre and musket: John Williams, Lord Keeper, archbishop of York, 1582–1650, London 1938, 186.

81 Ibid. 194.

82 Adamson, Noble revolt, 170–1.

83 Hacket, Scrinia, ii. 38.

84 Pepys Library, ms 1441, pp. 107ff.

85 Ibid. pp. 5ff, 67ff.

86 Ibid. pp. 8, 76.

87 Ibid. p. 70.

88 Ibid. p. 91.

89 Ibid. p. 99.

90 Fincham, Prelate as pastor, 274.

91 H. R. Trevor-Roper, Catholics, Anglicans and Puritans: seventeenth century essays, London 1987, 50–1.

92 Idem, Laud, 182.

93 Helena Hajzyk, ‘The Church in Lincolnshire, c. 1595–c. 1640’, unpubl. PhD diss. Cambridge 1980, 105.

94 Knighton, ‘Lord of Jerusalem’, 233.

95 ODNB s.v. ‘John Williams’.

96 Pepys Library, ms 1441, p. 172.

97 Ibid. p. 173.

98 Ibid. p. 174.

99 Ibid. p. 188.

100 Ibid. p. 237.

101 Ibid. p. 181.

102 Ibid.

103 Ibid. p. 182.

104 Ibid. p. 183.

105 Ibid. p. 182.

106 Ibid.

107 Ibid. pp. 204–5.

108 Ibid. p. 205.

109 Ibid. p. 240.

110 Ibid. p. 243.

111 Ibid. p. 246.

112 Ibid. p. 41.

113 Ibid. p. 43.

114 Ibid.

115 Ibid.

116 Ibid. p. 64.

117 Ibid.

118 Ibid. p. 65.

119 Hacket, Scrinia, ii. 87.

120 Pepys Library, ms 1441, p. 81.

121 Ibid. p. 256.

122 Ibid.

123 Ibid.

124 Ibid. p. 152.

125 Daniel Doerksen, Conforming to the Word: Herbert, Donne and the English Church before Laud, Lewisburg 1997, passim.

126 Pepys Library, ms 1441, p. 166.

127 Ibid. p. 67.

128 Ibid. p. 6.

129 Ibid. p. 10.

130 Ibid.

131 Ibid. p. 12.

132 Ibid. p. 16.

133 Ibid. p. 68.

134 Ibid. p. 70.

135 Ibid. pp. 69, 72.

136 Ibid. p. 7.

137 Ibid. p. 75.

138 Ibid. p. 89.

139 Ibid. p. 154.

140 Ibid. p. 155.

141 Ibid. p. 219.

142 Ibid. p. 119.

143 Hacket, Scrinia, i.12.

144 Pepys Library, ms 1441, p. 178.

145 Ibid.