John Pordage

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John Pordage circa 1650s

John Pordage (1607–1681) was a

Behmenist group, which would later become known as the Philadelphian Society when it was led by his disciple and successor, Jane Lead
.

Early life

John Pordage was the eldest son of Samuel Pordage (d. 1626), grocer, by his wife Elizabeth (née Taylor), and was born in the parish of St Dionis Backchurch, London, and baptised on 21 April 1607. He matriculated as a pensioner at Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1623, and received his B.A. in 1626.[1]

Religious controversy and medical practice

On 18 January 1633, Pordage married the widow Mary Freeman at St Gregory by St Paul's Church, London.[2] In London, Pordage soon attracted notoriety for his unusual religious conceptions. In 1634, it was reported that “One Pordage broches new-fangled opinions concerning the signes, that No Man can trie himself by them, but was to stay by for an over-powring light.” In response, the famous puritan minister John Davenport reportedly “preacht against” Pordage, having “much taken against his tenents.”[3] This was an early sign of the mysticism and heterodoxy that would later make Pordage infamous. Possibly, Pordage's opinions owed something to furtive influence of the Familia Caritatis, followers of the sectarian prophet Henry Nicholis (alias H. N.). In 1637, Pordage's brother-in-law, Henry Faldo, was accused of Familism.[4] In the 1640s, Pordage would be described as one of those who had “taught the doctrine of H. N.” in London.[5] Despite allegations of heterodoxy, Pordage preached occasionally in London in the 1630s, acting as chaplain to Mary Lady Vere.[2] He also reportedly preached at St Lawrence Jewry.[6]

Meanwhile, he began to act as an unlicensed medical physician, bringing him into conflict with the

M.D. at Cambridge. In 1640 and 1641, he was again in trouble with the Royal College for unlicensed medical activity and malpractice.[2]

Behmenists

Pordage was

Behmenists', or English followers of the German theologian Jakob Böhme, knew of him through a young man, probably Abiezer Coppe, who in 1649 was living under Pordage's roof in a 'family communion', the members 'aspiring after the highest spiritual state' through 'visible communion with angels'. Baxter thought they tried to carry too far 'the perfection of a monastical life'. Among themselves this family went by scripture names; Pordage was 'Father Abraham', his wife was 'Deborah'.[7]

He was eventually charged before the

rectory by 2 February and clear out his barns by 25 March 1655.[7] Subsequent to the trial he published a pamphlet, Innocencie Appearing, in which he gave his account of the proceedings, and included a document, not presented at court, in which he confessed to frequent conversations with angels. These were probably summoned by magical means.[8]

Reinstatement

At the

theosophy was of the emotional order. In his will, he describes himself as 'doctor in physick.' It does not appear that he held the degree of MD, though it was assigned to him by others, and he was commonly called Dr Pordage.[7]

He died in 1681, and was buried in

Tenbury, Worcestershire, was buried at Bradfield on 25 August 1668. His second wife was Elizabeth, widow of Thomas Faldo of London. His son Samuel Pordage was a writer and poet; he had other sons: John, William, and Benjamin. His daughter Elizabeth was buried at Bradfield on 23 December 1663; other daughters were Mary, Sarah (married in Stisted), and Abigail. His brother Francis, who survived him, was rector of Stanford Dingley, Berkshire.[7]

In Theologia Mystica, Pordage describes a spiritual journey through the Boehmean cosmology of the three worlds of the "Dark-Fire" or wrath-world, the "Fire-Light" or severe world of common human experience, and the "Light-Fire World" or paradise.[citation needed]

Works

He published:[7]

1. Truth appearing through the Clouds of undeserved Scandal, &c., 1655,
2. Innocency appearing through the dark Mists of pretended Guilt, &c., 1655
3. A just Narrative of the Proceedings of the Commissioners of Berks ... against John Pordage, &c., 1655; reprinted in Stat Trials (Cobbett), 1810
4. The Fruitful Wonder ... By J. P., Student in Physic, &c., 1674, (account of four children at a birth, at Kingston upon Thames probably by Pordage).

Posthumous were

5. Theologia Mystica, or the Mystic Divinitie of the Eternal Indivisible ... By a Person of Qualitie, J. P., M.D. &c., 1683 (prefaced by Jane Lead, and edited by Dr. Edward Hooker)
6. Em griindlich philosophischei Sendschreiben, &c., Amsterdam, 1698, reprinted (1727) in F. Roth-Scholz's Deut sches Theatrum Chemicum, 1728
7. Vier Tractatlein, &c., Amsterdam, 1704

A two-page advertisement in Jane Lead's A Fountain of Gardens, 1697, gives full titles of the following works of Pordage, unpublished in English:

8. Philo sophia Mystica, &c.
9. The Angelical World, &c.
10. The Dark Fire World, &c.
11. The Incarnation of Jesus Christ, &c.
12. The Spirit of Eternity, &c.
13. Sophia, &c.
14. Experimental Discoveries, &c.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Ariel Hessayon, "Pordage, John (bap. 1607, d. 1681," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)
  2. ^ a b c Hessayon, "Pordage"
  3. ^ David R. Como, Blown by the Spirit: Puritanism and the Emergence of an Antinomian Underground in Pre–Civil-War England (Stanford: Stanford University Press), 2004), 71
  4. ^ David R. Como, “The Family of Love and the Making of English Revolutionary Religion: The Confession and ‘Conversions’ of Giles Creech,” The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 48 (2018), 562–65
  5. ^ John Etherington, A Brief Discovery of the Blasphemous Doctrine of Familisme (London, 1645), 45.
  6. ^ Anthony à Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, volume 2 (London, 1692), 450
  7. ^ a b c d e Gordon, Alexander (1896). "Pordage, John" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 46. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  8. ^ John Pordage, Innocencie Appearing (London, 1655); Joad Raymond, Milton's Angels: The Early-Modern Imagination (Oxford, 2010), ch. 5.

References

External links

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