William Prynne

After arguing that the custom of drinking healths was sinful, he asserted that for men to wear their hair long was "unseemly and unlawful unto Christians", while it was "mannish, unnatural, impudent, and unchristian" for women to cut it short.[2][3] Like many Puritans abhorring decadence, Prynne strongly opposed religious feast days, including Christmas, and revelry such as stage plays.Histriomastix has over a thousand pages, in which he presents plays as unlawful, incentives to immorality, and condemned by the Scriptures, Church Fathers, modern Christian writers, and pagan philosophers.In A Divine Tragedy lately acted, or a Collection of sundry memorable Examples of God's Judgment upon Sabbath-breakers he introduced Noy's recent death as a warning.The House of Commons declared the two sentences against him illegal, restored him to his degree and to his membership of Lincoln's Inn, and voted him pecuniary reparation (as late as October 1648 he was still trying to collect it).Together with his ally Clement Walker, he presented articles of accusation against Fiennes to the House of Commons (15 November 1643), managed the case for the prosecution at the court-martial, which took place in the following December, and secured a condemnation of the offending officer.He collected and arranged evidence to prove the charges against him, bore testimony himself in support of many of them, hunted up witnesses against the archbishop, and assisted the counsel for the prosecution in every way.[9] After Laud's execution, Prynne was charged by the House of Commons (4 March 1645) to produce an account of the trial;[10] other controversies prevented him from finishing the book.[3] In the rapidly shifting climate of opinion of the time, Prynne, having been at the forefront of radical opposition, soon found himself a conservative figure, defending Presbyterianism against the Independents favoured by Oliver Cromwell and the army.In April 1648 Prynne accompanied Philip Herbert, 5th Earl of Pembroke when he came as chancellor of Oxford to expel recalcitrant heads of houses.He urged the Commons to declare them rebels, and argued that concessions made by Charles in the recent treaty were a satisfactory basis for a peace.Prynne was arrested by Colonel Thomas Pride and Sir Hardress Waller, and kept prisoner first at an eating-house (called Hell), and then at the Swan and King's Head inns in the Strand.He was finally offered his liberty on giving security to the amount of £1,000 that he would henceforward do nothing against the government; but, refusing to make any promise, he was released unconditionally on 18 February 1653.[24] The proposal to lift the thirteenth-century ban on the residence of Jews, being promoted then in England by Manasseh ben Israel, among others, inspired him with a pamphlet against the scheme, called in brief the Short Demurrer.[28] Similarly, when the Protector, as Cromwell then was styled, set up a House of Lords, Prynne expanded the tract in defence of their rights which he had published in 1648 into an historical treatise of five hundred pages.[30] On 27 December when the parliament was again restored after its interruption by John Lambert, Prynne and his friends made a fresh attempt to enter, but were once more excluded.He also helped to forward the Restoration by accelerating the passing of the Militia Bill, which placed the control of the forces in the hands of the king's friends.On constitutional subjects and points of procedure his opinion had weight, and in 1667 he was privately consulted by the king on the question whether a parliament which had been prorogued could be convened before the day fixed for its resumption.[3] He became the Keeper of Records in the Tower of London; as a writer his most lasting works belong to that period, for the amount of historical material they contain.
Illustration of Prynne by Wenceslaus Hollar
The title page of Prynne's The First and Second Part of a Seasonable, Legal, and Historicall Vindication, and Chronological Collection of the Good, Old, Fundamentall Liberties, Franchises, Rights, Laws of All English Freemen [...] (2nd ed., 1655), [ 21 ] one of the works published when Prynne was in Swainswick
The title page of Prynne's The First Part of a Brief Register, Kalendar and Survey of the Several Kinds, Forms of All Parliamentary VVrits (1st ed., 1659). [ 33 ] Prynne went on to publish another three parts in 1660, 1662 and 1664.
Wenceslaus HollarpolemicistPuritanWilliam LaudArchbishop of CanterburyPresbyterianErastianSwainswickBath, SomersetOriel College, OxfordLincoln's Inncalled to the barAnthony WoodJohn PrestonArminianismCalvinistSynod of DortHistriomastixHenrietta MariaChurch FathersWalter MontaguThe Shepherd's ParadiseCharles IWilliam Noyattorney-generalStar-chamberTower of LondonpilloryArchbishop LaudBook of SportsJohn BastwickprelatesMatthew WrenBishop of NorwichJohn FinchbrandedHenry BurtonCarnarvon CastleMont OrgueilJerseyPhilippe de Carteret IILong ParliamentEnglish Civil WarBristolNathaniel FiennesClement Walkercourt-martialLord Maguiretrial of William LaudPresbyterianismIndependentsOliver CromwellJohn GoodwinJohn LilburneremoraRobert BaillieexcommunicatesacramentSamuel RutherfordWilliam M. LamontJohn MiltonColasterioneleven presbyterian leadersVisitation of the University of OxfordPhilip Herbert, 5th Earl of Pembrokechancellor of OxfordNewportrecent treatyPride's PurgeThomas PrideHardress WallerStrandLord FairfaxKing CharlesDunster CastleTaunton CastlePendennis CastleQuakerismManasseh ben IsraelWhitehall ConferenceRichard IIIHouse of LordsRichard CromwellArthur HaslerigSir Henry VaneJohn LambertRump ParliamentMarchamont NedhamHenry StubbeJohn RogersGeorge Monckbasket-hilted swordWestminster HallSir William WallerCharles II of EnglandRestorationConvention ParliamentregicidesAct of IndemnityCharles FleetwoodFrancis ThorpeThirty-nine ArticlesCavalier ParliamentLord MordauntClarendonCotton librarySir Thomas CottonEdward IIRichard III of EnglandWilliam LeakeEnglish Renaissance theatreAnthony à WoodDictionary of National BiographyLittle BritainWikisourceEncyclopædia BritannicaEnciclopedia ItalianaIstituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana