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JOHN COTTON (1585–1652)

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 256 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOHN See also:COTTON (1585–1652)  , See also:English and See also:American Puritan divine, sometimes called " The See also:Patriarch of New See also:England," See also:born in See also:Derby, England, on the 4th of See also:December 1585 . He was educated at Trinity See also:College, See also:Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1603 and M.A. in 16o6, and became a See also:fellow in See also:Emmanuel College, Cambridge, then a stronghold of See also:Puritanism, where, during the next six years, according to his friend and biographer, Rev . See also:Samuel See also:Whiting, he was " See also:head lecturer and See also:dean, and Catechist," and " a dilligent See also:tutor to many pupils." In See also:June 1612 he became See also:vicar of the See also:parish See also:church of St Botolphs in See also:Boston, See also:Lincolnshire, where he remained for twenty-one years and was extremely popular . Becoming more and more a Puritan in spirit, he ceased, about 1615, to observe certain ceremonies prescribed by the legally authorized See also:ritual, and in 1632 See also:action was begun against him in the High See also:Commission See also:Court . He thereupon escaped, disguised, to See also:London, See also:lay in concealment there for several months, and, having been deeply interested from its beginning in the colonization of New England, he eluded the See also:watch set for him at the various English ports, and in See also:July 1633 emigrated to the See also:colony of See also:Massachusetts See also:Bay, arriving at Boston See also:early in See also:September . On the loth of See also:October he was chosen " teacher " of the First Church of Boston, of which See also:John See also:Wilson (1588–1667) was pastor, and here he remained until his See also:death on the 23rd of December 1652 . In the newer, as in the older Boston, his popularity was almost unbounded, and his See also:influence, both in ecclesiastical and in See also:civil affairs, was probably greater than tnat of any other See also:minister in theocratic New England . According to the contemporary historian, See also:William Hubbard, " Whatever he delivered in the See also:pulpit was soon put into an See also:order of court, if of a civil, or set up as a practice in the church, if of an ecclesiastical concernment." His influence, too, was generally beneficent, - though it was never used to further the cause of religious freedom, or of See also:democracy, his theory of See also:government being given in an oft-quoted passage: " Democracy, I do not conceyve that ever See also:God did ordeyne as a fitt government eyther for church or See also:common-See also:wealth . . . . As for See also:Monarchy and See also:aristocracy they are both for them clearly approved, and directed in Scripture yet so as (God) referreth the sovereigntie to himselfe, and setteth up See also:Theocracy in both, as the best See also:form of government." He naturally took an active See also:part in most, if not all, of the See also:political and theological controversies of his See also:time, the two See also:principal of which were those concerning Antinomianism and the See also:expulsion of See also:Roger See also:Williams . In the former his position was somewhat equivocal—he first supported and then violently opposed See also:Anne See also:Hutchinson in the latter he approved Williams's expulsion as "righteous in the eyes of God," and subsequently in a pamphlet discussion with Williams, particularly in his Bloudy Tenent, Washed and made See also:White in the Bloud of the See also:Lamb (1647), vigorously opposed religious freedom . He was a See also:man of See also:great learning and was a prolific writer .

His writings include: The Keyes to the See also:

Kingdom of See also:Heaven and the See also:Power thereof (1644), The Way of the Churches of See also:Christ in New England (1645), and The Way of Congregational Churches Cleared (1648), these See also:works constituting an invaluable exposition of New England See also:Congregationalism; and See also:Milk for Babes, See also:Drawn out of the Breasts of Both Testaments, Chiefly for the Spirituall Nourishment of Boston Babes in either England, but may be of like Use for any See also:Children (1646), widely used for many years, in New England, for the religious instruction of children . See the See also:quaint See also:sketch by See also:Cotton See also:Mather, John Cotton's See also:grandson, in Magnalia (London, 1702), and a sketch by Cotton's contemporary and friend, Rev . Samuel Whiting, printed in See also:Alexander See also:Young's See also:Chronicles of the First Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay from 1623 to 1636 (Boston, 1846); also A . W . McClure's The See also:Life of John Cotton (Boston, 1846), a See also:chapter in See also:Arthur B . See also:Ellis's See also:History of the First Church in Boston (Boston,1881) and a chapter in Williston See also:Walker's Ten New England Leaders (New See also:York, 19o1) . (W .

End of Article: JOHN COTTON (1585–1652)
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