William Burton (priest)

Last updated October 02, 2019

William Burton (died 1616) was an English clergyman, known for his writings, an insider's view of the Puritan ascendancy at Norwich, and as an eyewitness to heresy executions.

Norwich City and non-metropolitan district in England

Norwich is a city in Norfolk, England. Granted historic city status, and situated on the River Wensum in East Anglia, it lies approximately 100 miles (160 km) north-east of London. It is the county town of Norfolk and is considered the capital of East Anglia, with a population of 141,300. From the Middle Ages until the Industrial Revolution, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important.

Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of such claims or beliefs. Heresy is distinct from both apostasy, which is the explicit renunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is an impious utterance or action concerning God or sacred things.

Life

He was born at Winchester (year unknown, but thought to have lived to past 70). He was educated at Winchester School and New College, Oxford, of which, after graduating B.A., he was admitted perpetual fellow on 5 April 1563. He left the university in 1565.

Winchester is a city and the county town of Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, at the western end of the South Downs National Park, on the River Itchen. It is 60 miles (97 km) south-west of London and 14 miles (23 km) from Southampton, the closest other city. At the 2011 Census, Winchester had a population of 45,184. The wider City of Winchester district, which includes towns such as Alresford and Bishop's Waltham, has a population of 116,800.

New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham, the full name of the college is St Mary's College of Winchester in Oxford. The name "New College", however, soon came to be used following its completion in 1386 to distinguish it from the older existing college of St. Mary, now known as Oriel College.

He was minister at Norwich for five years, taken to be the period 1584–9. But he seems to have been in Norwich or the immediate neighbourhood at least as early as 1576, perhaps as assistant in the free school. His name appears in 1583 among the Norfolk divines (over sixty in number) who scrupled subscription to John Whitgift's three articles. He left an account of Norwich during his time. The leaders of the Puritans were John More, vicar of St. Andrew's (died 1592), and Thomas Roberts, rector of St. Clements (died 1576). For many years there was daily preaching, attended by the magistrates and over twenty of the city clergy, besides those of the cathedral. It was the custom each day for one or other of the magistrates to keep open house for the clergy, whose advice was sought in the city council.

John Whitgift was the 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 horses. Whitgift's theological views were often controversial.

He saw the burning at Norwich, on 14 January 1589, of Francis Ket as an Arian. Burton testified to the apparent godliness of Ket's life and conversation, but is certain of his damnation. He also reports on the executions of Matthew Hamont (died 1579), John Lewes (died 1583) and Peter Cole (died 1587), all likewise burned.^[1] Burton took a Puritan line in rejecting ceremonies, but was firm against the Brownist separatists.

Arianism is a nontrinitarian Christological doctrine which asserts the belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who was begotten by God the Father at a point in time, a creature distinct from the Father and is therefore subordinate to him, but also divine. Arian teachings were first attributed to Arius, a Christian presbyter in Alexandria of Egypt. The term "Arian" is derived from the name Arius; it was not a self-chosen designation but bestowed by hostile opponents—and never accepted by those on whom it had been imposed. The nature of Arius's teaching and his supporters were opposed to the theological views held by Homoousian Christians, regarding the nature of the Trinity and the nature of Christ. The Arian concept of Christ is based on the belief that the Son of God did not always exist but was begotten within time by God the Father.

Matthew Hamont was a Norfolk ploughwright, accused of heresy, who was burnt at the stake in Norwich Castle by the Church of England. Hamont, who came from Hethersett, was a Unitarian.

The Brownists were a group of English Dissenters or early Separatists from the Church of England. They were named after Robert Browne, who was born at Tolethorpe Hall in Rutland, England, in the 1550s. A majority of the Separatists aboard the Mayflower in 1620 were Brownists, and indeed the Pilgrims were known for 200 years as the Brownist Emigration.

He left Norwich after troubles which befell him about some matters of his ministry. In later years it was reported that the civic authorities had driven him away; his enemies wrote to Norwich for copies of records which they expected would tell against him; but it seems that the mayor and council had done their best to retain him. On leaving Norwich he found a friend in Henry Wentworth, 3rd Baron Wentworth, who took him into his house, gave him books, and was the means of his resuming work as minister. Richard Fletcher, Bishop of Bristol, gave him some appointment in Bristol. Complaints were made about his teaching, and he published his ‘Catechism,’ 1591, which is a workmanlike presentation of Calvinism. In it he argues against bowing at the name of Jesus, and describes the right way of solemnising Christmas. He became vicar of St. Giles, Reading, on 25 November 1591. At some unknown date (after 1608) he came to London. He died intestate in the parish of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate. His wife, Dorothy, survived him; his son Daniel administered to his effects on 17 May 1616.

Richard Fletcher was a Church of England priest and bishop. He was successively dean of Peterborough (1583–89), bishop of Bristol (1589–93), bishop of Worcester (1593–95) and bishop of London (1595–96).

The Bishop of Bristol heads the Church of England Diocese of Bristol in the Province of Canterbury, in England.

Bristol is a city and county in South West England with a population of 463,400. The wider district has the 10th-largest population in England. The urban area population of 724,000 is the 8th-largest in the UK. The city borders North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, with the cities of Bath and Gloucester to the south-east and north-east, respectively. South Wales lies across the Severn estuary.

Works

He calls his ‘Catechism,’ 1591, his ‘first fruites.’ Of Burton's publications, the earliest written was a single sermon preached at Norwich on 21 December 1589 from Jer. iii. 14, but it was probably not published till later. He subsequently published several sets of sermons which had been delivered in Bristol. Anthony Wood enumerates eight subsequent collections of sermons and seven treatises, including ‘An Abstract of the Doctrine of the Sabbath,’ 1606. The little volume of sermons entitled ‘Dauids Evidence’ was reprinted in 1596, and in 1602.

Anthony Wood, who styled himself Anthony à Wood in his later writings, was an English antiquary.

Burton translated seven dialogues of Erasmus, published to prove ‘how little cause the papists haue to boast of Erasmus, as a man of their side.’ This was issued in 1606.

Notes

↑ "Hamont, Matthew" . Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

Related Research Articles

Lancelot Andrewes was an English bishop and scholar, who held high positions in the Church of England during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. During the latter's reign, Andrewes served successively as Bishop of Chichester, of Ely, and of Winchester and oversaw the translation of the King James Version of the Bible. In the Church of England he is commemorated on 25 September with a Lesser Festival.

Joseph Hall was an English bishop, satirist and moralist. His contemporaries knew him as a devotional writer, and a high-profile controversialist of the early 1640s. In church politics, he tended in fact to a middle way.

Thomas Morton was an English churchman, bishop of several dioceses. Well-connected and in favour with James I, he was also a significant polemical writer against Roman Catholic views. He rose to become Bishop of Durham, but despite a record of sympathetic treatment of Puritans as a diocesan, and underlying Calvinist beliefs shown in the Gagg controversy, his royalism saw him descend into poverty under the Commonwealth.

Samuel Harsnett schoolmaster, priest, archbishop

Samuel Harsnett, born Samuel Halsnoth, was an English writer on religion and Archbishop of York from 1629.

Tobias Matthew, was an English nobleman and bishop who was President of St John's College, Oxford from 1572 to 1576, before being appointed Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University from 1579 to 1583, and Matthew would then become Dean of Durham from 1583 to 1595. All three positions, plus others, were appointed to Matthew by Elizabeth I. Eventually, he was appointed Archbishop of York in 1606 by Elizabeth's successor, James I.

Matthew Hutton (1529–1606) was archbishop of York from 1595 to 1606.

Robert Browne was the founder of the Brownists, a common designation for early Separatists from the Church of England before 1620. In later life he was reconciled to the established church and became an Anglican priest.

John Overall (1559–1619) was the 38th bishop of the see of Norwich from 1618 until his death one year later. He had previously served as Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, as Dean of St Paul's Cathedral from 1601, as Master of Catharine Hall from 1598, and as Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University from 1596. He also served on the Court of High Commission and as a Translator of the King James Version of the Bible.

Henry Smith was an English clergyman, widely regarded as "the most popular Puritan preacher of Elizabethan London." His sermons at St. Clement Danes drew enormous crowds, and earned him a reputation as "Silver Tongued" Smith. The collected editions of his sermons, and especially his tract, "God's Arrow Against Atheists" were among the most frequently reprinted religious writings of the Elizabethan age.

Richard Cosin was an English jurist. He became prominent as an ecclesiastical lawyer in the service of Archbishop John Whitgift, active against the Puritans in the Church of England.

Francis Marbury (1555–1611) was a Cambridge-educated English cleric, schoolmaster and playwright. He is best known for being the father of Anne Hutchinson, considered the most famous English woman in colonial America, and Katherine Marbury Scott, the first known woman to convert to Quakerism in the United States.

Thomas White (c.1550–1624) was an English clergyman, founder of Sion College, London, and of White's professorship of moral philosophy at the University of Oxford. Thomas Fuller in Worthies of England acquits him of being a pluralist or usurer; he made a number of other bequests, and was noted in his lifetime for charitable gifts.

William Greenhill (1591–1671) was an English nonconformist clergyman, independent minister, and member of the Westminster Assembly.

John Stockwood was an English clergyman, preacher, translator of Protestant texts and school-master.

Richard Greenham (1535?–1594?) was an English clergyman of Puritan views, well known for his strong Puritan doctrine of the Sabbath. His many sermons and theological treatises had a significant influence on the Puritan movement in England.

John Frewen (1558–1628) was an English Puritan divine.

Thomas Rogers was an English Anglican clergyman, known as a theologian, controversialist and translator.

Oliver Pigg was an English Puritan clergyman.

Erasmus Webb B.D. was a Canon of Windsor, England from 1590 to 1614

References

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : "Burton, William (d.1616)". Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "Hamont, Matthew" . Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.