John Penry (1559 - May 29, 1593), is
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
's most famous Protestant
martyrA martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce a belief, usually religious.-Meaning:...
.
He was born in
BrecknockshireBrecknockshire , also known as the County of Brecknock, Breconshire, or the County of Brecon is one of thirteen historic counties of Wales, and a former administrative county.-Geography:...
; Cefn Brith, a farm near
LlangammarchLlangammarch is a rural parish in Powys, mid Wales, through which flow the rivers Irfon and Cammarch. The main centre of population is the spa village of Llangammarch Wells.Llangammarch railway station serves the village Llangammarch Wells....
, is traditionally recognised as his birthplace. He matriculated at
Peterhouse, CambridgePeterhouse is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the oldest college of the University, having been founded in 1284 by Hugo de Balsham, Bishop of Ely...
, in December 1580, being then probably a Roman Catholic; but soon became a Protestant, with strong
PuritanA Puritan of 16th and 17th-century England was an associate of any number of religious groups advocating for more "purity" of worship and doctrine, as well as personal and group piety. Puritans felt that the English Reformation had not gone far enough, and that the Church of England was tolerant...
tendencies. Having graduated B.A., he moved to St Alban Hall, Oxford, and gained his M.A.
John Penry (1559 - May 29, 1593), is
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
's most famous Protestant
martyrA martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce a belief, usually religious.-Meaning:...
.
Early life
He was born in
BrecknockshireBrecknockshire , also known as the County of Brecknock, Breconshire, or the County of Brecon is one of thirteen historic counties of Wales, and a former administrative county.-Geography:...
; Cefn Brith, a farm near
LlangammarchLlangammarch is a rural parish in Powys, mid Wales, through which flow the rivers Irfon and Cammarch. The main centre of population is the spa village of Llangammarch Wells.Llangammarch railway station serves the village Llangammarch Wells....
, is traditionally recognised as his birthplace. He matriculated at
Peterhouse, CambridgePeterhouse is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the oldest college of the University, having been founded in 1284 by Hugo de Balsham, Bishop of Ely...
, in December 1580, being then probably a Roman Catholic; but soon became a Protestant, with strong
PuritanA Puritan of 16th and 17th-century England was an associate of any number of religious groups advocating for more "purity" of worship and doctrine, as well as personal and group piety. Puritans felt that the English Reformation had not gone far enough, and that the Church of England was tolerant...
tendencies. Having graduated B.A., he moved to St Alban Hall, Oxford, and gained his M.A. in July 1586. He did not seek ordination, but was licensed as University Preacher.
Career as a preacher and pamphleteer
There is not much evidence for his preaching tours in Wales; they could only have been made during a few months of 1586 or the autumn of 1587. In 1562 an act of parliament had made provision for translating the Bible into
WelshWelsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic spoken natively in Wales, in England by some along the Welsh border and in the Welsh immigrant colony in the Chubut Valley in Argentine Patagonia....
, and the
New TestamentThe New Testament is the name given to the second major division of the Christian Bible, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament, both terms being associated with Supersessionism...
was issued in 1567; but the number printed would barely supply a copy for each
parish churchA parish church, in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
. Indignant at this failure, Penry published, early in 1587,
The Æquity of an Humble Supplication "in the behalf of the country of Wales, that some order may be taken for the preaching of the Gospel among those people".
Archbishop WhitgiftJohn Whitgift was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to his death. Noted for his hospitality, he was somewhat ostentatious in his habits, sometimes visiting Canterbury and other towns attended by a retinue of 800 horsemen...
, angry at the implied criticism, had him brought before the High Commission and imprisoned for about a month. On his release Penry married a lady of
NorthamptonNorthampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. It is about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, and lies on the River Nene...
, and lived there for some years. With the assistance of Sir
Richard KnightleySir Richard Knightley , of Fawsley in Northamptonshire, was an English Member of Parliament and leading patron of the Puritans during the reign of Elizabeth I....
, he set up a
printing pressA printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a medium , thereby transferring an image. The mechanical systems involved were first assembled in Germany by the goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg around 1440, based on existing screw-presses used to press...
, which for nearly a year from
MichaelmasMichaelmas, the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel is a day in the Western Christian calendar which occurs on 29 September. Because it falls near the equinox, it is associated in the northern hemisphere with the beginning of autumn and the shortening of days...
1588 was in active operation. It was successively located at
East MoulseyMolesey is a town in the Elmbridge district of Surrey. Situated in the commuter-belt of London, approximately 13 miles from Charing Cross, it is a typical suburban area. There are two distinct areas in the town: West and East Molesey...
(
SurreySurrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire, and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford...
),
FawsleyFawsley is a hamlet in the Daventry district of the county of Northamptonshire, England. The population at the 2001 census was 32.The Domesday Book confirms the population of Fawsley as around 50, but the Knightley family of Fawsley Hall developed the sheep farming at the expense of their peasant...
(
NorthamptonshireNorthamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census...
),
CoventryCoventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham with a population of 300,848...
and other places in Warwickshire, and finally at
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. In 2007, the population of the city was estimated to be 458,100...
, where it was seized in August 1589. On it were printed Penry's
Exhortation to the governours and people of Wales, and View of... such publike wants and disorders as are in the service of God... in Wales; as well as the celebrated
Martin MarprelateMartin Marprelate was the name used by the anonymous author or authors of the Marprelate tracts. These circulated illegally in the years 1588 and 1589. Their principal focus was an attack on the episcopacy of the Anglican Church...
tracts.
In January 1590, his house at Northampton was searched and his papers seized, but he succeeded in escaping to
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. There he published several tracts, as well as a translation of a learned theological work known as
Theses Genevenses.
Return to England and death
Returning to England in September 1592, he joined the separatist congregation in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, in which he declined to take office, though after the arrest of the ministers,
Francis JohnsonFrancis Johnson was an English presbyterian separatist minister, pastor to an English exile congregation in the Netherlands.-Early life:...
and John Greenwood, he seems to have been the regular preacher. He was arrested in March 1593 following his recognition by the local vicar at
RatcliffRatcliff or Ratcliffe is a former hamlet lying by the north bank of the River Thames between Shadwell and Limehouse. It is now a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, and is located to the south of Stepney.-Etymology:...
and imprisoned in
Poultry CompterThe Poultry Compter was a small compter or prison run by a Sheriff in the City of London from medieval times until 1815...
while efforts were made to find some pretext for a capital charge. Failing this a charge of
seditionSedition is a term of law which refers to overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority as tending toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority...
was based on the rough draft of a petition to
Queen Elizabeth IElizabeth I was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called the Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
that had been found among his private papers; the language was harsh and offensive, but had been neither presented nor published. He was convicted by the Queen's Bench on May 21, 1593, and hanged on May 29 at the unusual hour of 4 p.m., without being granted permission to see his wife, Eleanor, or their four young daughters, Deliverance, Comfort, Safety and Sure-Hope before his death. The signature of his old enemy Whitgift was the first of those affixed to the death warrant.