John Bastwick
John Bastwick (1593–1654) was an English
Early life
He was born at Writtle, Essex. He entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, on 19 May 1614, but remained there only a very short time, and left the university without a degree.[1] He travelled and served for a time as a soldier, probably in the Dutch army. He then studied medicine abroad, and took the degree of M.D. at Padua. Back in England in 1623, he settled at Colchester, where he practised as a physician.[2]
Career
He was a Latin stylist, and began a career as controversial with Latin works. In 1634 he published in the Netherlands two anti-Catholic Latin treatises: Elenchus Religionis Papisticae, an answer to a Catholic called Richard Short; and Flagellum Pontificis, an argument in favour of Presbyterianism. The latter came under the notice of William Laud. He had Bastwick brought before the Court of High Commission, where he was convicted of a "scandalous libel", was condemned to pay a fine of £1,000 and costs, and was imprisoned in the Gatehouse Prison adjoining Westminster Abbey until he should recant. In 1636 Bastwick published Πράξεις τῶν επισκόπων, sive Apologeticus ad Praesules Anglicanos, written in the Gatehouse against the high commission court.
In 1637 he produced in English the four parts of his Letanie of Dr. John Bastwicke, in which
Similar proceedings were taken against
Bastwick was afterwards moved to Star Castle, Isles of Scilly. From there in November 1640 he was released by order of the Long Parliament, and in December entered London in triumph. Reparation to the amount of the fines imposed was ordered to be made to him (2 March 1641). In 1642, as the First English Civil War broke out, Bastwick was a captain of the Leicester trained bands, and on 22 July he was taken prisoner by the royalists at Leicester, and sent prisoner to York.[2]
Soon at liberty again, he published in 1643 a Declaration demonstrating ... that all malignants, whether they be prelates, &c., are enemies to God and the church. The Parliamentary success in the war brought by 1645 a new relationship into being between the Presbyterians and other Protestant groups, classified as Independents, such as the emerging
Bastwick with Colonel Edward King arranged for Lilburne to be arrested on 19 July 1645 for words he had said against the Speaker of the House of Commons; he was in custody until October.[6] In 1648 Bastwick published two bitter tracts against the Independents, and in defence of himself against Lilburne.
Death
Bastwick died in 1654. Richard Smith, in his "Obituary," gives 6 October 1654 as the date of his burial.[2]
Private life
Bastwick married
See also
Notes
- ^ "Bastwick (BSTK614J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ a b c d s:Bastwick, John (DNB00)
- ^ Pauline Gregg, Free-born John: The Biography of John Lilburne (1961), pp. 47–50.
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1659. Retrieved 10 February 2023. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Gregg, p. 112, p. 125.
- ^ Gregg, pp. 120–3.
References
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Bastwick, John". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.