William Perkins (Puritan)

William Perkins (1558 - 1602) was a clergyman and Cambridge theologian who was one of the foremost leaders of the Puritan movement in the Church of England.

Early life

Perkins was born to Thomas and Anna Perkins at Marston Jabbett in the parish of Bulkington, Warwickshire, England in 1558, the year in which the Protestant Elizabeth I succeeded her Catholic sister Mary as Queen of England. Perkins lived his entire life under Elizabeth I, dying one year before the Virgin Queen's own death in 1603. Perkins' relationship with Elizabeth was ambiguous: on the one hand, she was Good Queen Bess, the monarch under whom England finally and firmly became a Protestant nation; on the other hand, Perkins and the other members of the Puritan movement were frustrated that the Elizabethan settlement had not gone far enough and pushed for further Reformation.

Little is known of Perkins' childhood and upbringing. His family was evidently of some means, since in June 1577, at age 19, Perkins was enrolled as a pensioner of Christ's College, Cambridge. He would receive his BA in 1581 and his MA in 1584. Perkins' early adulthood is often portrayed as being one of rampant immorality, although it is unclear how much of this portrait is influenced by the later slander of his enemies, on the one hand, and the general Puritan tendency to exaggerate their youthful depravity in order to make their subsequent conversion more dramatic, on the other hand. At any rate, there is the possibility that Perkins fathered a child out of wedlock during this period, and also some suggestions that he dabbled in astrology at this time.

According to an unverifiable story, Perkins was convicted of the error of his ways after he heard a Cambridge mother say to her child, "Hold your tongue, or I will give you to drunken Perkins yonder." Whether or not the story is true, it is clear that Perkins had a religious awakening sometime between 1581 and 1584.

Perkins thus began a lifelong association with the "moderate-puritan" wing of the Church of England, which, according to historian Peter Lake, held views similar to those of the continental Calvinist theologians Theodore Beza, Girolamo Zanchi, and Zacharias Ursinus. Perkins' circle at Cambridge included Laurence Chaderton and Richard Greenham.

Perkins as clergyman and Cambridge fellow

Following his ordination, Perkins preached his first sermons to the prisoners of the Cambridge jail. On one celebrated occasion, Perkins encountered a young man who was going to be executed for his crimes and who feared he was shortly going to be in hell: Perkins convinced the man that, through Christ, God could forgive his sins, and the formerly distraught youth faced his execution with manly composure as a result.

In 1584, after receiving his MA, Perkins was elected as a fellow of Christ's College, a post which he would hold until 1594. In 1585, he became rector of St. Andrew's Church in Cambridge, a post he would hold until his death.

Perkins's churchmanship

As a "moderate Puritan", Perkins was firmly opposed to non-conformists and other separatists who refused to conform to the Church of England. On the other hand, he also opposed the Elizabethan regime's program of imposing uniformity on the church. For example, when Archbishop of Canterbury John Whitgift imprisoned Francis Johnson for Johnson's support of a presbyterian form of church polity, Perkins loudly defended Johnson.

On January 13, 1587, Perkins preached a sermon denouncing the practice of kneeling to receive Communion, and was ultimately called before the Vice-Chancellor as a result.

During the final set of trials against Puritan ministers in 1590-91, Perkins confirmed that he had discussed the "Book of Discipline" with Puritan ministers, but claimed that he could not remember whom he had talked to.

Perkins married Timothye Cradocke of Grantchester on 2 July 1595. (He had previously resigned his fellowship at Christ's College, since only unmarried men could be fellows.) Eventually, the couple would have seven children, three stillborn.

Theological opinions

Perkins was a proponent of "double predestination" and was a major player in introducing the thought of Theodore Beza to England. He was responsible for the publication in English of Beza's famous chart about double predestination.

Influence

Perkins first gained international renown as a polemicist with the publication of "A Reformed Catholike" in 1597, in which he argued that Protestants were the real catholic Christians.

Perkins' views on double predestination made him a major target of Jacobus Arminius, the Dutch Reformed clergyman who opposed the doctrine of predestination.

In his lifetime, Perkins attained enormous popularity, with sales of his works eventually surpassing even Calvin's. His works were translated into Dutch, German, and Latin, and to a lesser extent into French, Czech, and Welsh.

From his position at Cambridge, Perkins was able to influence a whole generation of English churchmen. His pupils include:

*William Ames, an extreme Puritan who eventually left England to become professor of theology at Franeker
*John Robinson, the founder of congregationalism in Leiden and pastor on the "Mayflower"
*Thomas Goodwin
*Paul Baynes
*Samuel Ward, master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
*Phineas Fletcher, a poet
*Thomas Draxe
*Thomas Taylor
*James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh
*Richard Montagu, master of Sidney Sussex and later bishop of Winchester

Death

In 1602, Perkins suffered from the stone. After several weeks of suffering, he died on October 22, 1602, at age 44.

James Montagu preached his funeral sermon, taking as his text Joshua 1.2, ‘Moses my servant is dead’. He was buried in St. Andrew's, the church which he had pastored for eighteen years.

Publications by Perkins

*"Libellus de Memoria, Verissimaque Bene Recordandi Scientia" (1584)
*"Antidicsonus Cuiusdam Cantabrigiensis" (1584)
*"Foure Great Lyers, Striuing Who Shall Win the Siluer Whetstone: Also, A Resolution to the Count" (1585)
*"A Treatise Tending Vnto a Declaration Whether a Man be in the Estate of Damnation or in the Estate of Grace: And If he be in the First, How he may in Time Come out of it: if in the second, how he maie discerne it, and perseuere in the same to the end. The points that are handled are set downe in the page following" (1590)
*"Armilla aurea, id est, Miranda series causarum et salutis & damnationis iuxta verbum Dei: Eius synopsin continet annexa tabula" (1590)
*"A golden chaine, or the description of theologie: containing the order of the causes of saluation and damnation, according to Gods woord. A view of the order wherof, is to be seene in the table annexed" (1591)
*"The foundation of Christian religion : gathered into sixe principles. And it is to bee learned of ignorant people, that they may be fit to hear sermons with profit, and to receiue the Lords Supper with comfort" (1591)
*"Prophetica, sive, De sacra et vnica ratione concionandi tractatus" (1592)
*"A case of conscience : the greatest that euer was; how a man may know whether he be the child of God or no. Resolued by the word of God. Whereunto is added a briefe discourse, taken out of Hier. Zanchius" (1592)
*"An exposition of the Lords prayer : in the way of catechising seruing for ignorant people" (1592)
*"Tvvo treatises·: I. Of the nature and practise of repentance. II. Of the combat of the flesh and spirit" (1593)
*"An exposition of the Lords praier : in the way of catechisme" (1593)
*"A direction for the government of the tongue according to Gods word" (1593)
*"An exposition of the Symbole or Creed of the Apostles : according to the tenour of the Scriptures, and the consent of orthodoxe Fathers of the Church" (1595)
*"A salve for a sicke man, or, A treatise containing the nature, differences, and kindes of death : as also the right manner of dying well. And it may serue for spirituall instruction to 1. Mariners when they goe to sea. 2. Souldiers when they goe to battell. 3. Women when they trauell of child" (1595)
*"A declaration of the true manner of knowing Christ crucified" (1596)
*"A reformed Catholike, or, A declaration shewing how neere we may come to the present Church of Rome in sundrie points of religion, and wherein we must for euer depart from them : with an advertisment to all fauourers of the Romane religion, shewing that the said religion is against the Catholike principles and grounds of the catechisme" (1597)
*"De praedestinationis modo et ordine : et de amplitudine gratiae diuinae Christiana & perspicua disceptatio" (1598)
*"Specimen digesti, sive Harmoniæ bibliorum Veteris et Novi Testamneti" (1598)
*"A warning against the idolatrie of the last times : And an instruction touching religious, or diuine worship" (1601)
*"The true gaine : more in worth then all the goods in the world" (1601)
*"How to liue, and that well: in all estates and times, specially when helps and comforts faile" (1601)

Posthumously:
*"The works of that famous and worthie minister of Christ, in the Universitie of Cambridge, M.W. Perkins : gathered into one volume, and newly corrected according to his owne copies. With distinct chapters, and contents of euery book, and a generall table of the whole (1603)
*"The reformation of couetousnesse: Written vpon the 6. chapter of Mathew, from the 19. verse to the ende of the said chapter" (1603)
*"A commentarie or exposition, vpon the fiue first chapters of the Epistle to the Galatians: penned by the godly, learned, and iudiciall diuine" (1604)
*"Lectures vpon the three first chapters of the Reuelation: preached in Cambridge anno Dom. 1595" (1604)
*"Gvilielmi Perkinsi Problema de Romanæ fidei ementito Catholicismo. : Estq´; Antidotum contra Thesaurum Catholicum Iodoci Coccij. Et [propaidoia] iuventutis in lectione omnium patrum" (1604)
*"The first part of The cases of conscience : Wherein specially, three maine questions concerning man, simply considered in himselfe, are propounded and resolued, according to the word of God" (1604)
*"Satans sophistrie ansuuered by our Sauiour Christ: and in diuers sermons further manifested" (1604)
*"Hepieíkeia: or, a treatise of Christian equitie and moderation" (1604)
*"M. Perkins, his Exhortation to repentance, out of Zephaniah: preached in 2. sermons in Sturbridge Faire. Together with two treatises of the duties and dignitie of the ministrie: deliuered publiquely in the Vniuersitie of Cambridge. With a preface præfixed touching the publishing of all such workes of his as are to be expected: with a catalogue of all the perticulers [sic] of them, diligently perused and published, by a preacher of the word" (1605)
*"Works newly corrected according to his owne copies" (1605)
*"Of the calling of the ministerie two treatises, discribing the duties and dignities of that calling" (1605)
*"The combat betweene Christ and the diuell displayed, or A commentarie upon the temptations of Christ" (1606)
*"A godlie and learned exposition vpon the whole epistle of Ivde..." (1606)
*"A C [hristian] and [plain] e treatise of the manner and order of predestination : and of the largenes of Gods grace" (1606)
*"The arte of prophecying, or, A treatise concerning the sacred and onely true manner and methode of preaching" (1607)
*"A cloud of faithfull witnesses, leading to the heauenly Canaan, or, A commentarie vpon the 11 chapter to the Hebrewes" (1607)
*"A treatise of mans imaginations : Shewing his naturall euill thoughts: His want of good thoughts: The way to reforme them" (1607)
*"A discourse of the damned art of witchcraft: so farre forth as it is revealed in the Scriptures and manifest by true experience ..." (1608)
*"The vvhole treatise of the cases of conscience : distinguished into three bookes" (1608)
*"Christian oeconomie: or, A short survey of the right manner of erecting and ordering a familie : according to the scriptures" (1609)
*"A graine of musterd-seede: or, the least measure of grace that is or can be effectuall to saluation" (1611)
*"A resolution to the countryman prooving it utterly unlawfull to buy or use our yeerely prognostications" (1618)
*"Deaths knell: or, The sicke mans passing-bell : summoning all sicke consciences to pr [e] pare themselues for the coming of the grea [t] day of doome, lest mercies gate be shut against them: fit for all those that desire to arriue at the heauenly Ierusalem. Whereunto are added prayers fit for housholders." The ninth edition. (1628)
*"The works of William Perkins", ed. Ian Breward (1970)

References

*"The rise of Puritanism; or, The way to the New Jerusalem as set forth in pulpit and press from Thomas Cartwright to John Lilburne and John Milton, 1570-1643" by William Haller (1938)
*"Reformation and reaction in Tudor Cambridge" by H. C. Porter (1958)
*"William Perkins, 1558-1602: English Puritanist: his pioneer works on casuistry: "A discourse of conscience" and "The whole treatise of cases of conscience" edited with an introduction by Thomas F. Merrill (1966)
*"The heart prepared: grace and conversion in Puritan spiritual life by Norman Pettit (1966)
*"Moderate Puritans and the Elizabethan church" by Peter Lake (1982)
*"The religion of Protestants: the church in English society, 1559-1625" by Patrick Collinson (1982)
*"Anglicans and Puritans?: Presbyterianism and English conformist thought from Whitgift to Hooker" by Peter Lake (1988)
*"The Puritan ordeal" by Andrew Delbanco (1989)
*"The culture of English Puritanism, 1560-1700", ed. Christopher Durston and Jacqueline Eales (1996)
*"English puritanism, 1603–1689" by John Spurr (1998)

Further Reading

*Christy Desmet, "William Perkins," "The Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 281: British Rhetoricians and Logicians, 1500-1660, Second Series", Detroit: Gale, 2003, pp. 215-28.
*Donald McKim, "Ramism in William Perkins' Theology", New York: Peter Lang, 1987.
*Ceri Sullivan, "The Rhetoric of the Conscience in Donne, Herbert, and Vaughan", Oxford University Press, 2008, ISBN: 9780199547845.