John Austin (1613–69)

Last updated October 05, 2019

John Austin or Austen (born 1613 at Walpole, Suffolk, England; died London, 1669) was an English lawyer, controversial writer, and one of the founding Fellows of the Royal Society.

Walpole is a small village and civil parish in the district of Suffolk Coastal in Suffolk, England. Walpole has a parish church, a redundant chapel, but the primary school has closed. The village is on the River Blyth. Nearby settlements include the town of Halesworth and the village of Cookley. It is in the hundred of Blything. It had a population of 238 according to the 2011 census.

The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national Academy of Sciences. Founded on 28 November 1660, it was granted a royal charter by King Charles II as "The Royal Society". It is the oldest national scientific institution in the world. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, recognising excellence in science, supporting outstanding science, providing scientific advice for policy, fostering international and global co-operation, education and public engagement. It also performs these roles for the smaller countries of the Commonwealth.

Life

He was a student of St. John's College, Cambridge, and of Lincoln's Inn, and about 1640 became a Catholic.^[1] He was well regarded in his profession and was looked on as a master of English style.

His time was entirely devoted to books and literary pursuits. He enjoyed the friendship of such scholars as the antiquary Thomas Blount, Christopher Davenport (Franciscus a Santa Clara), John Sergeant, and others.

Thomas Blount (lexicographer) English antiquarian and lexicographer

Thomas Blount (1618–1679) was an English antiquarian and lexicographer.

Francis Davenport, O.M.R., also known as Father Francis of Saint Clare, was an English Catholic theologian, a Recollect friar and royal chaplain.

John Sergeant was an English Roman Catholic priest, controversialist and theologian.

Works

The Christian Moderator; or Persecution for Religion condemned by the Light of Nature, by the Law of God, the Evidence of our Principles, but not by the Practice of our Commissioners for Sequestrations—In Four Parts (London, 1652, 4to.) Published under the pseudonym of William Birchley, and in it he disclaims the papal deposing power. "In his work, Austin assuming the disguise of an independent, shows that Catholics did not really hold the odious doctrines vulgarly attributed to them, and makes an energetic appeal to the independents to extend to the adherents of the persecuted church such rights and privileges as were granted to other religious bodies"^[2]
The Catholique's Plea; or an Explanation of the Roman Catholik Belief, concerning their Church, Manner of Worship, Justification, Civil Government, Together with a Catalogue of all the Poenal Statutes against popish Recusants, all which is humbly submitted to serious consideration, By a Catholick Gentleman (London, 1659, 18mo.) also under the pseudonym of William Birchley.
Reflections upon the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance; or the Christian Moderator, The Fourth Part, By a Catholick Gentleman, an obedient son of the Church and loyal subject of his Majesty (London, 1661)
A Punctual Answer to Doctor John Tillotson's book called 'The Rule of Faith'. (unfinished)
Devotions, First Part: In the Ancient Way of Offices, With Psalms, Hymns, and Prayers for every Day in the Week, and every Holiday in the Year. It is not known when and where the first edition appeared; the second, a duodecimo, is dated 1672. An edition printed at Edinburgh, 1789, contains a life of the author, presumably by Charles Dodd. This work was adapted to the uses of the Anglican Church in George Hickes's Harmony of the Gospels, etc., (London, 1701), and was often reprinted as a stock book as "Hicks' Devotions".
Devotions, Second Part, The Four Gospels in one, broken into Lessons, with Responsories, To be used with the Offices, Printed Anno Domini 1675 (2 vols.,Paris, 12mo), a posthumous work, divided into short chapters with a verse and prayer at the end of each. The prayers, says Joseph Gillow, "gave rise to offense under the impression that they favoured Blackloe's doctrine concerning the middle state of souls, and on account of this the work was not republished". A third part of the "Devotions" was never printed; it contained, according to the author's own statement "Prayers for all occasions framed by an intimate friend according to his (Austin's) directions, and overlooked by himself".

The papal deposing power was the most powerful tool of the political authority claimed by and on behalf of the Roman Pontiff, in medieval and early modern thought, amounting to the assertion of the Pope's power to declare a Christian monarch heretical and powerless to rule.

George Hickes was an English divine and scholar.

Joseph Gillow was an English Roman Catholic antiquary and bio-bibliographer, "the Plutarch of the English Catholics".

Austin also wrote several anonymous pamphlets against the theologians who sat in the Westminster Assembly.

The Westminster Assembly of Divines was a council of divines (theologians) and members of the English Parliament appointed from 1643 to 1653 to restructure the Church of England. Several Scots also attended, and the Assembly's work was adopted by the Church of Scotland. As many as 121 ministers were called to the Assembly, with nineteen others added later to replace those who did not attend or could no longer attend. It produced a new Form of Church Government, a Confession of Faith or statement of belief, two catechisms or manuals for religious instruction, and a liturgical manual, the Directory for Public Worship, for the Churches of England and Scotland. The Confession and catechisms were adopted as doctrinal standards in the Church of Scotland and other Presbyterian churches, where they remain normative. Amended versions of the Confession were also adopted in Congregational and Baptist churches in England and New England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Confession became influential throughout the English-speaking world, but especially in American Protestant theology.

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References

↑ "Austin, John (ASTN631J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
↑ Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1885). "Austin, John (1613-1669)" . Dictionary of National Biography . 2. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 264.

External links

Works by or about John Austin in libraries ( WorldCat catalog)

WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of 17,900 libraries in 123 countries and territories that participate in the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. The subscribing member libraries collectively maintain WorldCat's database, the world's largest bibliographic database. OCLC makes WorldCat itself available free to libraries, but the catalog is the foundation for other subscription OCLC services. WorldCat is used by the general public and by librarians for cataloging and research.

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "John Austin" . Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton.

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[1] "Austin, John (ASTN631J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

[2] Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1885). "Austin, John (1613-1669)" . Dictionary of National Biography . 2. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 264.