Peter Sterry

Peter Sterry (1613-1672) was an English Independent theologian. He was chaplain to Parliamentarian general Robert Greville, 2nd Baron Brooke and then Oliver Cromwell, a member of the Westminster Assembly [ [http://www.reformed.org/books/hetherington/west_assembly/index.html?mainframe=/books/hetherington/west_assembly/chapter_2.html] , [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=6331] , as Sterrey.] , and a leading radical Puritan preacher attached to the Council of State. He was made fun of in "Hudibras" [ [http://www.sterryworldwide.com/petester.htm] ; Canto I of Book III.] .

Life

He went to St. Olave's Grammar School, Southwark [ [http://www.saintolaves.net/?page=distinguished St Olave's London - Founded 1571 ] ] . He was a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, from 1636, where he had studied since 1629 [Concise Dictionary of National Biography.] ; but gave up the fellowship quite soon [Christopher Hill, "Milton and the English Revolution", p. 42.] .

He preached to Parliament on important occasions: in 1649 after the surrender of Drogheda and Waterford [Hill, "A Nation of Change and Novelty (1990), p. 188. [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=25761] ] , in 1651 after the battle of Worcester. His sermons, widely allusive ["Reverend Peter Sterry, a chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, regularly used pagan mythology, especially Ovid, in his sermons and was known to carry Aquinas, Boehme, Shakespeare and Ovid with him when he traveled." [http://newmedia.alma.edu/english/420/cannon/sb/sb-vsp.html] ] were considered opaque: David Masson ["The Life of John Milton", [http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/4/3/8/14380/14380.htm online] ] quotes a contemporary opinion:

After the Restoration, he retired to a community in East Sheen [ [http://seop.leeds.ac.uk/archives/win2004/entries/cambridge-platonists/#culverwell The Cambridge Platonists (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Winter 2004 Edition) ] ] . He took part in preaching, for example at Hackney [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=22714 Hackney - Protestant Nonconformity | British History Online ] ] and conventicles [CDNB] .

He is commemorated by a stained glass window in the chapel of Emmanuel College [ [http://www.emma.cam.ac.uk/collegelife/chapel/windows/display.cfm?id=6] .] , which has an archive of unpublished writings.

Views

Described as a ‘Platonizing Puritan’ [M. H. Abrams, "The Mirror and the Lamp", p. 60.] , as well as a Behmenist [ [http://www.exlibris.org/nonconform/engdis/behmenists.html] ; Hill, Milton, p. 330.] , he was a follower of leading Cambridge Platonist Benjamin Whichcote [Richard Popkin, "Pimlico History of Western Philosophy", p. 366.] [ [http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/themes/94/94274.html DNB page on Cambridge Platonists] ] . As a mystic, he spoke of ‘hidden music’ [ [http://orders.anglican.org/tssf/chrn04w/makemusic.html Make Music for the Lord to hear ] ] . A millenarian, he expected in the early 1650s the Second Coming shortly, with 1656 a decisive year. ["Peter Sterry, John Tillinghast and John Rogers concurred in Archer's opinion that 1656 or 1666 were likely dates for the commencement of the Reign of the Saints." [http://www.uq.edu.au/access_history/two-two/monarchists.pdf PDF] , p.2; Hill, Milton, p. 283, p. 301.] .

He with William Erbery ‘had difficulty in distinguishing themselves from Ranters.’ [Hill, Milton, p. 315.] ; but he wrote against Ranter ‘errors’ [Hill, Nation of Change and Novelty, p. 214.] . He was a sympathiser with early Quakerism [Mentioned (with Giles Randall, Francis Rous, William Dell, John Saltmarsh) in connection with inner light: [http://www.gwyneddfriends.org/fox.htm online extract from biography of George Fox] .] [Jon Parkin (1999), "Science, Politics and Religion in Restoration England", p.77.] .

Family

The Oxford academic Nathaniel Sterry was his younger brother [CDNB] .

Works

*"The Spirit Convincing of Sinne", fast sermon for Parliament, November 26 1645
*"England's Deliverance from the Northern Presbytery, Compared with its Deliverance from the Roman Papacy" (1652) sermon on the Battle of Worcester
*" Way of God with his people in these nations", sermon for Parliament 5 November 1656
*"Free Grace Exalted" (1670)
*"A Discourse of the Freedom of the Will" (1675)
*"The Rise, Race, and Royalty of the Kingdom of God in the Soul" (1683)
*"The Appearance of God to Man in the Gospel" (1710)

References

* F. J. Powicke, "Peter Sterry: A Puritan Mystic." Primitive Methodist Quarterly Review 47 (1905): 617-25.
*Vivian de Sola Pinto (1968) Peter Sterry, Platonist and Puritan, 1613-1672;: A biographical and critical study with passages selected from his writings
*V. de Sola Pinto, Peter Sterry and His Unpublished Writings, The Review of English Studies, Vol. 6, No. 24 (Oct., 1930), pp. 385-407
*Nabil I. Matar (1994), Peter Sterry: Select Writings
*Matar, "Peter Sterry and the Comenian Circle: Education and Eschatology in Restoration Nonconformity," The Journal of the United Reformed Church History Society, 5 (1994): 183-192.
*Matar, "Aristotelian Tragedy in the Theology of Peter Sterry," Literature and Theology, 6 (1992): 310-20.
*Matar, "'Oyle of Joy': The Early Prose of Peter Sterry," Philological Quarterly, 71 (1992): 31-46.
*Matar, "John Donne, Peter Sterry and the ars moriendi," Exploration in Renaissance Culture, 17 (1991): 55-71.
*Matar, "Peter Sterry and the Puritan Defense of Ovid in Restoration England," Studies in Philology, 88 (1991): 110-121.
*Matar, "Peter Sterry and the 'Paradise Within': A Study of the Emmanuel College Letters," Restoration, 13 (1989): 76-85.
*Matar, "Peter Sterry and Jacob Boehme," Notes and Queries, 231 (1986): 33-36.
*Matar, "Peter Sterry and the First English Poem on the Druids," National Library of Wales Journal, 24 (1985): 222-243.
*Matar, "Peter Sterry and the Ranters," Notes and Queries, 227 (1982): 504-506.
*Matar, "Peter Sterry and the 'lovely Society' at West Sheen," Notes and Queries, 227 (1982): 45-46,
*Matar, "Peter Sterry, the Millennium and Oliver Cromwell," The Journal of the United Reformed Church History Society, 2 (1982): 334-343.
*Matar, "A Note on George Herbert and Peter Sterry," George Herbert Journal, 5 (1982): 71-75.
*Matar, "Peter Sterry and Morgan Llwyd," The Journal of the United Reformed Church History Society, 2 (1981): 275-279.
*Matar, "The Peter Sterry MSS at Emmanuel College, Cambridge," Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 8 (1981): 42-56. With P. J.Croft.

Notes