Vavasor Powell

Vavasor (or Vavasour) Powell (1617 - October 27, 1670), was a Welsh Nonconformist Puritan preacher, evangelist, church leader and writer.

He was born in Knucklas, Radnorshire and was educated at Jesus College, Oxford. He returned to Wales as a schoolmaster (1638-9) during which time he was converted to the Puritan understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ under the preaching of the Puritan Walter Cradock and through the writings of Richard Sibbs (1577-1635) and William Perkins (1558-1602). In about 1639 he became an itinerant preacher and for preaching in various parts of Wales he was twice arrested. In 1640, however, he was not punished and during the Civil War he preached in and around London. In 1646, when Parliament's victory was certain, Powell returned to Wales having received a "certificate of character" from the Westminster Assembly, although he had refused to be ordained by the Presbyterians. With a salary granted to him by parliament he resumed his itinerant preaching in Wales.

In 1650 parliament appointed a commission for the better propagation and preaching of the gospel in Wales with Powell acting as one of the principal advisers of this body. For three years he was actively employed in removing from their parishes those ministers whom he regarded as incompetent. In 1653 he returned to London to preach at Blackfriar's church after the death of their pastor, William Gouge, and having denounced Cromwell for accepting the office of Lord Protector he was imprisoned.

At the Restoration in 1660 he was arrested for preaching, after a short period of freedom he was once again seized and incarcerated, remaining in prison for seven years. He was set free in 1667, however, in the following year he was again imprisoned and was in custody until his death on 27 October 1670. Powell is buried at Bunhill Fields cemetery. Powell wrote eleven books and some hymns but his chief gifts were those of a preacher. During his ministry he preached before the Lord Mayor of London (1649), Parliament (1650) and as an ardent defender of Calvinism held disputations with popular Arminians of his day. While remaining a relatively minor figure in Seventeenth Century Puritan history since his death, Powell's place in the Puritan movement has been reassessed in recent years. The Twentieth century Welsh theologian R. Tudur Jones wrote of Powell:

Vavasor Powell deserves better of historians than to be dismissed as a millenarian enthusiast. In many ways, Powell was the most striking personality amongst the Welsh Puritans.

References

See "The Life and Death of Mr Vavasor Powell (book)" (1671), attributed to Edward Bagshaw the younger; "Vavasoris Examen et Purgamen" (1654), by E Allen and others; Daniel Neal, "History of the Puritans" (1822); and T Rees, "History of Protestant Nonconformity in Wales" (1861). "Vavasor Powell" (1971) and "Vavasor Powell a'r Bedyddwyr" (1949) by R. Tudur Jones; "The Application of the Theology of the Westminster Assembly in the Ministry of the Welsh Puritan, Vavasor Powell (1617-1670)" (1998) by Michael A. Milton (Doctor of Philosophy dissertation, University of Wales), and "The Pastoral Predicament of Vavasor Powell (1617-1670): Eschatological fervor and its relationship to the pastoral ministry," The Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, September 2000..----