Thomas Fuller
Thomas Fuller | |
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Aldwinkle St Peter's, Northamptonshire, England | |
Died | 16 August 1661 Covent Garden, London, England | (aged 52–53)
Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
Occupation(s) | Clergyman and historian |
Known for | Worthies of England |
Thomas Fuller (baptised 19 June 1608 – 16 August 1661) was an English churchman and historian. He is now remembered for his writings, particularly his Worthies of England, published in 1662, after his death. He was a prolific author, and one of the first English writers able to live by his pen (and his many patrons).[1][2]
Early life
Fuller was the eldest son of Thomas Fuller, rector of
Fuller's oratory soon attracted attention. In June 1631 his uncle gave him a
Civil War period
At Broadwindsor, early in 1641, Thomas Fuller, his curate Henry Sanders, the churchwardens, and five others certified that their parish, represented by 242 adult males, had taken the Protestation ordered by the speaker of the
In his Appeal of Injured Innocence Fuller says that he was once deputed to carry a petition to the king at Oxford. This has been identified with a petition entrusted to Sir Edward Wardour, clerk of the pells, Dr Dukeson, "Dr Fuller," and four or five others from the city of Westminster and the parishes contiguous to the Savoy. A pass was granted by the House of Lords, on 2 January 1643, for an equipage of two coaches, four or six horses and eight or ten attendants. On the arrival of the deputation at the Treaty of Uxbridge, on 4 January, officers of the Parliamentary army stopped the coaches and searched the gentlemen; and they found upon the latter "two scandalous books arraigning the proceedings of the House," and letters with ciphers to Lord Viscount Falkland and the Lord Spencer. A joint order of both Houses remanded the party; and Fuller and his friends were briefly imprisoned. The Westminster Petition reached the king's hands; and it was published with the royal reply.[4]
When it was expected, three months later, that a favourable result would attend the negotiations at Oxford, Fuller preached a sermon at Westminster Abbey, on 27 March 1643, on the anniversary of Charles I's accession, on the text, "Yea, let him take all, so my Lord the King return in peace." On Wednesday 26 July, he preached on church reformation, satirising the religious reformers, and maintaining that only the Supreme Power could initiate reforms.
He was now obliged to leave London, and in August 1643 he joined the king at Oxford, where he lodged in a chamber at
For the first five years of the war, he "had little list or leisure to write, fearing to be made a history, and shifting daily for my safety. All that time I could not live to study, who did only study to live." After the defeat of Hopton at
The Fear of Losing the Old Light (1646) was his farewell discourse to his Exeter friends. Under the Articles of Surrender Fuller made his composition with the government at London, his "delinquency" being that he had been present in the king's garrisons. In Andronicus, or the Unfortunate Politician (1646), partly authentic and partly fictitious, he satirised the leaders of the Revolution; and for the comfort of sufferers by the war he issued (1647) a second devotional manual, entitled Good Thoughts in Worse Times, abounding in fervent aspirations, and drawing moral lessons in beautiful language out of the events of his life or the circumstances of the time. In grief over his losses, which included his library and manuscripts (his "upper and nether millstone"), and over the calamities of the country, he wrote his work on the Cause and Cure of a Wounded Conscience (1647). It was prepared at
Under the Commonwealth
Amongst his benefactors was Sir
There is good reason to suppose that Fuller was at the Hague immediately before the Restoration, in the retinue of Lord Berkeley, one of the commissioners of the House of Lords, whose last service to his friend was to interest himself in obtaining him a bishopric. A Panegyrick to His Majesty on his Happy Return, one of the many contemporary poems celebrating the restoration of Charles II, was the last of Fuller's verse efforts.
After the Restoration
On 2 August 1660, by royal letters, he was admitted Doctor of Divinity at Cambridge. He resumed his lectures at the Savoy, where Samuel Pepys heard him preach; but he preferred his conversation or his books to his sermons. Fuller's last promotion was that of Chaplain Extraordinary to Charles II.
Death
In the summer of 1661 Fuller visited the West in connection with the business of his
Works
- David's Heinous Sinne, Heartie Repentance, Heavie Punishment (1631). Fuller published a poem on the subject of David and Bathsheba.
- The Historie of the Holy Warre (1639).[5] A history of the Crusades from the fall of Jerusalem under Titus in 70 AD through 1290. Includes critical commentary, a complete chronology, and bibliography. With an introduction by English classical scholar James Duport (1606–1679). The History of the Holy War[6] is an 1840 edition of the work.
- Joseph's party-coloured Coat (1640). His first published volume of sermons.
- The Holy State and the Prophane State(1642). This work describes the holy state as existing in the family and in public life, gives rules of conduct, model "characters" for the various professions and profane biographies. It was perhaps the most popular of all his writings.
- A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine and the confines thereof; with the history of the Old and New Testaments acted thereon (1650).[7] With facsimiles of all the quaint maps and illustrations of the original edition. Lionel Cranfield, 3rd Earl of Middlesex, who lived at Copt Hall, near Waltham, gave him what remained of the books of the lord treasurer his father; and through the good offices of the marchioness of Hertford, part of his own pillaged library was restored to him. Fuller was thus able to prosecute his literary labours, producing successively his descriptive geography of the Holy Land.
- Abel Redevivus: or The dead yet speaking. The lives and the deaths of the moderne divines. Written by severall able and learned men (whose names ye shall finde in the epistle to the reader.) And now digested into one volumne, for the benefit and satisfaction of all those that desire to be acquainted with the paths of piety and virtue. (1651). London, John Stafford.
- Church-History of Britain, from the birth of Jesus Christ until the year 1648 (1655). Church-History was printed with The History of the University of Cambridge since the Conquest and The History of Waltham Abbey. These works were furthered by his connection with George Berkeley, 1st Earl Berkeley (1628–1698), of Cranford House, Middlesex, whose chaplain he was, and who gave him Cranford rectory (1658). Fuller afterwards dedicated The Appeal of Injured Innocence (1659), his reply to Heylyn's Examen Historicum, to Berkeley. In An Alarum to the Counties of England and Wales (1660) Fuller argued for a free and full parliament—free from force, as he expressed it, as well as from abjurations or previous engagements. Mixt Contemplations in Better Times (1660), dedicated to Lady Monk, tendered advice in the spirit of its motto, "Let your moderation be known to all men: the Lord is at hand".
- 'Notes upon Jonah', (1657). John Stafford.
- History of the Worthies of England (1662).[8] Fuller's best-known work.
- The Poems and translations in verse, including fifty-nine hitherto unpublished epigrams of Fuller and his much-wished form of prayer for the first time collected and edited with introduction and notes, by rev. Grosart, 257 pp., Liverpool, printed for private circulation (1868).
A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine – Gallery
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Icon Tabernaculi
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Atria Templi Solominis
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Terra Moriath
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Terra Canaan
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Pisgah-sight of Palestine
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Tribe of Asher
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Tribe of Benjamin
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Tribe of Dan
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Tribe of Ephraim
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Tribe of Gad
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Tribe of Issacar
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Tribe of Judah
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Tribe of Manasse
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Tribe of Naphtali
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Tribe of Reuben
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Tribe of Simeon
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Tribe of Zebulon
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Terra Canaan and Tribes
Reception
Fuller's sense of humour kept him from extremes. "By his particular temper and management", said
Fuller retains the intimate tone of one who is in a little circle of friends. There is no attempt at the impartial dignity of history. If he tells what happens, he takes it for granted that we should like to know what he thinks about it.[10]
Family
In about 1640 Fuller married Eleanor, daughter of Hugh Grove of Chisenbury, Wiltshire. She died in 1641. Their son, John, baptised at Broadwindsor by his father on 6 June 1641, was afterwards of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, saw his father's Worthies of England through the press in 1662, and became rector of Great Wakering, Essex, where he died in 1687.
About 1652 Fuller married his second wife, Mary Roper, youngest sister of Thomas Roper, 1st Viscount Baltinglass, by whom he had several children.
Notes
- ^ Stephen, Leslie (1889). "Thomas Fuller". In Dictionary of National Biography. 20. London. pp. 315-320.
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Fuller, Thomas". Encyclopædia Britannica. 11. (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ a b "Thomas Fuller (FLR622T)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ See J. E. Bailey, Life of Thomas Fuller, pp. 245 el seq.
- ^ Fuller, T. (1647). The historie of the holy warre. The third edition Cambridge: Printed by Roger Daniel, and are to be sold by John Williams.
- ^ Fuller, T. (1840). The history of the holy war. London: W. Pickering.
- ^ Fuller, T. (1869). A Pisguh sight of Palestine and the confines thereof: with the history of the Old and New Testament acted thereon. London: W. Tegg.
- ^ Fuller, T., Nuttall, P. Austin. (1840). The history of the worthies of England. A new ed., London.
- ^ Literary Remains, vol. 2 (1836), pp. 389–90.
- ^ Samuel McChord, The Pleasures of an Absentee Landlord, p.107 (Boston and New York, 1916).
References
- Bailey, J. E. (1874) The Life of Thomas Fuller, with Notices of his Books, his Kinsmen and his Friends. 800 p. London: B. M. Pickering (with a detailed bibliography (pp. 713–762) of his works)
- Fuller, Thomas (1840) The History of the University of Cambridge: from the Conquest to the year 1634. Cambridge University Press (reissued by ISBN 978-1-108-00465-7)
- Fuller, Thomas (1811) The Worthies of England, reprinted by John Nichols (1811) and by P. A. Nuttall (1840) Vol.1 Vol.2 Vol.3 at books.google.
- Fuller, Thomas (1891) Collected Sermons; edited by J. E. Bailey; completed by W. E. A. Axon. 2 vols. London: Unwin Bros
- Attribution
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Fuller, Thomas". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
External links
- Works by Thomas Fuller at Post-Reformation Digital Library
- Thomae Fulleri Pharmacopoeia extemporanea oder die sichere, vollständige und auserlesene Apotheke : worinnen mehr als tausend Hülfsmittel zu finden, die bey allen dem Menschen zustossenden Krankheiten, sicher und mit Nutzen gebraucht werden können ; zum allgemeinen Besten derer, so auf dem Land und entfernten Orten wohnen. Basel : Im Hof, 1750. Digital edition by the University and State Library Düsseldorf
- Works by or about Thomas Fuller at Internet Archive
- Works by Thomas Fuller at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Thomas Fuller, The History of the Holy War (1840 edition, at the Internet Archive)
- Thomas Fuller, Joseph's Party-Coloured Coat (1867 edition)
- Texts on Wikisource:
- Bailey, John Eglington (1879). "Fuller, Thomas". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 9 (9th ed.). pp. 814–816.
- "New International Encyclopedia. 1906.
- "Fuller, Thomas". The Nuttall Encyclopædia. 1907.