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WILLIAM PRYNNE (1600-1669)

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 533 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WILLIAM See also:PRYNNE (1600-1669)  , See also:English parliamentarian, son of See also:Thomas See also:Prynne by See also:Marie Sherston, was See also:born at Swains-See also:wick near See also:Bath in 16o0 . He was educated at Bath See also:Grammar School, matriculated at See also:Oriel See also:College, See also:Oxford, in 1618, obtained his B.A. in 1621, was admitted a student of See also:Lincoln's See also:Inn the same See also:year, and was called to the See also:Bar in 1628 . He was Puritan to the core, with a tenacious memory, a strength of will bordering commissioners . On the 7th of See also:November 1648 Prynne was returned as member for See also:Newport in See also:Cornwall . He at once took See also:part against those who called for the See also:execution of See also:Charles, and on the 6th of See also:December delivered a speech of enormous length in favour of conciliating the See also:king . The result was his inclusion in " See also:Pride's Purge " on the See also:morning of the 6th, when, having resisted to military violence, he was imprisoned . After recovering his See also:liberty Prynne retired to Swainswick . On the 7th of See also:June 1649 he was assessed to the monthly contribution laid on the See also:country by See also:parliament . He not only refused to pay, but published A Legal Vindication of the Liberties of See also:England, arguing that no tax could be raised without the consent of the two houses . In the same year he began a See also:long See also:account of See also:ancient parliaments, intended to reflect on the one in existence, and in June 165o he was imprisoned in See also:Dunster See also:Castle, afterwards at See also:Taunton, and in June 1651 at Pendennis Castle . He was at last offered his See also:discharge on giving a See also:bond of £r000 to do nothing to the See also:prejudice of the See also:commonwealth . This he refused, and an unconditional See also:order for his See also:release was given on the 18th of See also:February 1653 .

After his release Prynne further expressed his feelings in See also:

defence of advowsons and patrons, an attack on the See also:Quakers (1655), and in a pamphlet against the See also:admission of the See also:Jews to England (A See also:Short See also:Demurrer to the Jews) issued in 1656 . On the occasion of the offer of the See also:crown to See also:Cromwell he issued King See also:Richard the Third Revived (1657), and on the creation of the new See also:House of Lords A Plea for the Lords (1658) . On the restoration of the Rump Parliament by the See also:army of the 7th of May 1659 fourteen of the secluded members, with Prynne among them, claimed admittance . The claim was refused, but on the 9th, through the inadvertence of the See also:door-keepers, Prynne, Annesly and See also:Hungerford succeeded in taking their seats . When they were observed the house purposely adjourned for See also:dinner . In the afternoon the doors were found guarded; the secluded members were not permitted to pass, and a See also:vote was at once taken that they should not again be allowed to enter the house . Wrathful at the failure of his protest and at the continuance of the republican See also:government, Prynne attacked his adversaries fiercely in See also:print . In England's Confusion, published on the 3oth of May 1659, in the True and Full Narrative, and in The Brief Necessary Vindication, he gave long accounts of the See also:attempt to enter the house and of his ejection, while in the Curtaine Drawne he held up the claims of the Rump to derision . In Shuffling, Cutting and Dealing, 26th of May, he rejoiced at the quarrels which he saw arising, for " if you all complain I See also:hope I shall win at last." See also:Concordia discors pointed out the absurdity of the See also:constant tendency to multiply oaths, while " remonstrances," " narratives," " queries," " prescriptions," " vindications," " declarations " and " statements " were scattered broadcast . Upon the cry of the " See also:good old cause " he is especially sarcastic and severe in The True Good Old Cause Rightly Stated and other See also:pamphlets . See also:Loyalty Banished explains itself . His activity and fearlessness in attacking those in See also:power during this eventful year were remarkable, and an ironical See also:petition was circulated in See also:Westminster See also:Hall and the • See also:London streets complaining of his indefatigable scribbling .

On the 27th of December Prynne made another fruitless attempt to take his seat . In obedience to the popular See also:

voice, however, on the 21st of February 1660, the ejected members of 1648, led in See also:triumph by Prynne, wearing a See also:basket-hilt See also:sword, re-entered the house . He supported the Restoration in this parliament, and in the See also:Convention Parliament, which met on the 25th of See also:April 1660, and in which he sat for Bath, he urged severe See also:measures against the regicides, and the exclusion of several individuals from the See also:Act of See also:Indemnity . He was foremost in support of the claims of the Presbyterians and against the bishops; advocated the indiscriminate infliction of penalties, and demanded that the officials of the commonwealth should be compelled to refund their salaries . He was nominated a See also:commissioner for disbanding the army, and was appointed keeper of the records in the See also:Tower, a See also:post in which he performed useful services . Prynne was again returned as member for Bath on the 8th of upon obstinacy, and a want of sympathy with human nature . His first See also:book, The See also:Perpetuity of a Regenerate See also:Man's See also:Estate (1627), defended one of the See also:main Calvinistic positions, and The Unloveliness of Love-locks and See also:Health's Sickness (1628) attacked prevailing fashions without any sense of proportion, treating follies on the same footing as scandalous vices . In 1629 Prynne came forward as the assailant of Arminianism in See also:doctrine and of ceremonialism in practice, and thus See also:drew down upon himself the anger of See also:Laud . Histrio-mastix, published in 1633, was a violent attack upon See also:stage plays in See also:general, in which the author pointed out that See also:kings and emperors who had favoured the See also:drama had been carried off by violent deaths, which assertion might easily be interpreted as a warning to the king, - and applied a disgraceful epithet to actresses, which, as Henrietta Maria was taking part in the See also:rehearsal of a See also:ballet, was supposed to apply to the See also:queen . After a year's imprisonment in the Tower Prynne was sentenced by the See also:star chamber on the 17th of February 1634 to be imprisoned for See also:life, and also to be fined £5000, expelled from Lincoln's Inn, rendered incapable of returning to his profession, degraded from his degree in the university of Oxford, and set in the See also:pillory, where he was to lose both his ears . The latter portion of the See also:sentence was carried out on the 7th of May, and the See also:rest of his See also:punishment inflicted except the exaction of the See also:fine . There is no See also:reason to suppose that his punishment was unpopular .

Phoenix-squares

In 1637 he was once more in the star chamber, together with See also:

Bastwick and See also:Burton . In A Divine Tragedy lately acted he had attacked the See also:Declaration of See also:Sports, and in See also:News from See also:Ipswich he had assailed See also:Wren and the bishops generally . On the 3oth of June a fresh sentence, that had been delivered on the 14th, was executed . The stumps of Prynne's ears were shorn off in the pillory, and he was branded on the cheeks with the letters S.L., meaning " seditious libeller," which Prynne, however, interpreted as " stigmata laudis." He was removed to See also:Carnarvon Castle, and thence to Mont Orgueil Castle in See also:Jersey, where he occupied himself in See also:writing against popery . Immediately upon the See also:meeting of the Long Parliament in 1640 Prynne was liberated . On the 28th of November he entered London in triumph, and on the 2nd of See also:March 1641, reparation was voted by the See also:Commons, at the expense of his persecutors . Prynne now attacked the bishops and the See also:Roman Catholics and defended the taking up of arms by the parliament . The words " See also:Touch not mine anointed," he declared in the Vindication of See also:Psalm cv. ver . 15 (1642), only commanded kings not to oppress their subjects . In 1643 he took an active part in the proceedings against Nathaniel See also:Fiennes for the surrender of See also:Bristol, and showed a vindictive See also:energy in the See also:prosecution of See also:Archbishop Laud . He manipulated the See also:evidence against him, and having been entrusted with the See also:search of Laud's papers, he published a garbled edition of the archbishop's private " See also:Diary," entitled A Breviate of the Life of Archbishop Laud . He also published Hidden See also:Works of Darkness brought to See also:Light in order to prejudice the archbishop's See also:case, and after his execution, See also:Canterbury's See also:Doom .

. . an unfinished account of the trial commissioned by the House of Commons . Prynne sup-ported a See also:

national See also:church controlled by the See also:state, and issued a See also:series of tracts against independency, including in his attacks See also:Henry Burton his former See also:fellow sufferer in the pillory, See also:John See also:Lilburne and John See also:Goodwin [e.g . See also:Independence Examined (1644); 'Brief Animadversions on Mr John Goodwin's Theomachia (1644), &c.] . He denounced See also:Milton's See also:Divorce at See also:Pleasure, was answered in the Colasterion, and contemptuously referred to in the See also:sonnet " On the Forcers of See also:Conscience." He also opposed violently the Presbyterian See also:system, and denied the right of any Church to excommunicate except by leave of the state [e.g . Four Short Questions (1645); A Vindication of Four Serious Questions (1645)] . He was throughout an enemy of individual freedom in See also:religion . Prynne took the See also:side of the parliament against the army in 1647, supported the cause of the eleven impeached members, and visited the university of Oxford as one of the See also:parliamentary May 1661, in spite of the vehement efforts of the Royalists headed by See also:Sir T . See also:Bridge . This parliament was See also:bent upon the humiliation of the Presbyterians, and Prynne appears in his See also:familiar See also:character of protester . On the 18th of this See also:month he moved that the Engagement, with the See also:Solemn See also:League and See also:Covenant, should be burned by the hangman . About the same See also:time he published a pamphlet advocating the reform of the See also:Prayer Book, while a See also:tract issued on the 15th of See also:July, Sundry reasons against the new intended See also:Bill for governing and reforming Corporations, was declared illegal, false, scandalous and seditious; Prynne being censured, and only escaping punishment by sub-See also:mission . The continued attacks upon the Presbyterians led him to publish his Short, Sober, Pacific Examination of Exuberances in the See also:Common Prayer, as well as the See also:Apology for See also:Tender Consciences touching Not Bowing at the Name of Jesus .

In 1662 there appeared also the Brevia parliamentaria rediviva, possibly a portion of the Brief See also:

Register of Parliamentary Writs, of which the See also:fourth and concluding See also:volume was published in 1664 . During 1663 he served constantly on committees, and was chairman of the See also:committee of See also:supply in July, and again in April 1664 . In the third session Prynne was once more, on the 13th of May 1664, censured for altering the draft of a bill See also:relating to public-houses after See also:commitment, but the house again, upon his submission remitted the offence, and he again appears on the committee of privileges in November and afterwards . In 1665 and 1666 he published the second and first volumes respectively of the Exact See also:Chronological Vindication and See also:Historical Demonstration of the supreme ecclesiastical See also:jurisdiction exercised by the English kings from the See also:original planting of See also:Christianity to the See also:death of Richard I . In the latter year especially he was very busy with his See also:pen against the See also:Jesuits . In See also:January 1667 he was one of three appointed to See also:manage the evidence at the See also:hearing of the See also:impeachment of See also:Lord Mordaunt, and in November of the same year spoke in defence of See also:Clarendon, so far as the See also:sale of See also:Dunkirk was concerned, and opposed his banishment, and this appears to have been the last time that he addressed the house . In 1668 was published his Aurum reginae or Records concerning Queen-See also:gold, the Brief Animadversions on See also:Coke's Institutes in 1669, and the See also:History of King John, Henry III. and See also:Edward I., in which the power of the Crown over ecclesiastics was maintained, in 167o . The date of the Abridgment of the Records of the Tower of London, published 1689, is doubtful, though the See also:preface is dated 1656-1657 . Prynne died unmarried, in his lodgings at Lincoln's Inn, on the 24th of See also:October 1669, and was buried in the walk under the See also:chapel there . He See also:left one portion of his books to Lincoln's Inn and another to Oriel College . His works number about 200 and occupy, together with the replies which they excited, twenty-four columns in the See also:catalogue of the See also:British Museum . Lists of them are given in See also:Wood's Athenae Oxonienses (ed .

P . See also:

Bliss), vol. iii., and in Documents relating to the Proceedings against See also:William Prynne .

End of Article: WILLIAM PRYNNE (1600-1669)
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