- Roger Crab
Roger Crab (
1621 -September 11 1680 ) was a political writer and ethical vegetarian.Life
He served in
Oliver Cromwell 's army for seven years, during which time he spent two years in prison. Crab began life after soldiering as ahaberdasher , making hats atChesham in his nativeBuckinghamshire , from 1649 to about 1652. He then disposed of almost all his possessions, and settled as ahermit on a plot of landed rented atIckenham . He built up a practice as aherbal doctor . [Christopher Hill, "Puritanism and Revolution", p.304.] .He moved to
Bethnal Green in 1657. There he joined thePhiladelphians , a group founded byJohn Pordage [Hill, "Puritanism", p. 305.] .Having restricted his diet, he lived on three
farthings a week for food, with a diet of "bran, herbs, roots, dock-leaves, mallows, and grass".Crab was imprisoned four times for "being a wizard".
Views
He was an
anti-sabbatarian . He did not observe Sunday as a non-working day, and was put in thestocks for it [Hill, "Society and Puritanism", p. 206.] He was apacifist , and had radical views on the evils of property, the Church and universities [Hill, Puritanism, p. 307.] .Works
He published "The English Hermite" (1655) [ [http://www.nla.gov.au/pub/nlanews/2003/dec03/article5.html] , page with image of title page.] , and "Dagons-Downfall" (1657), in which he declared that the Sabbath had been turned into an idol [Hill, "The English Bible and the Seventeenth-Century Revolution" (1993), p. 262.] . [Reprinted 1990, ISBN-13: 9780948518607, ISBN 094851860X.] Also in 1659 "Gentle Correction for the High-flown Backslider", and "A Tender Salutation".
Epitaph
His tombstone has the following epitaph::Tread gently, reader, near the dust:Committed to this tomb-stone's trust::For while 'twas flesh, it held a guest: With universal love possest::A soul that stemmed opinion's tide,:Did over sects in triumph ride;:Yet separate from the giddy crowd,:And paths tradition had allowed.:Through good and ill reports he past,:Oft censured, yet approved at last.:Wouldst thou his religion know?:In brief 'twas this: to all to do:Just as he would be done unto.: So in kind Nature's law he stood,:A temple, undefiled with blood,:A friend to everything that 's good.:The rest angels alone can fitly tell;: Haste then to them and him; and so farewell!' [Hill, Puritanism, p. 310.]
Notes
External links
* [http://www.eastlondonhistory.com/mad%20hatter.htm Roger Crab article] at eastlondonhistory.com
* [http://www.seslisozluk.com/search/hermit Hermit] from "Seslisozluk.com free online Turkish dictionary"
*Chambers' Book of Days [http://www.thebookofdays.com/months/sept/11.htm September 11th]
*
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