that he was papist enough to have "helpt the priest, for shift"-if there had been any occasion. But even this judgment the libeller neutralizes, by telling us in the next line, that he doubted not that Penry would do the same at that hour; or in other words, that he was a disguised papist, notwithstanding all his professions and his sufferings for the truth's sake. However it may have been with Penry when he went to Cambridge, it is evident that he soon after became imbued with puritan principles; which may explain what Wood could not understand Penry's sudden departure for Oxford; Cambridge being at that time a much less comfortable and attractive residence for a puritan than Oxford; Leicester, the chancellor, being friendly to them, and the celebrated puritan, Dr. Reynolds, being the divinity reader at Oxford.*

Although Mr. Penry was licensed by the university to preach after taking his second degree, he declined ordination, on the puritan ground that it was unlawful for a man to take on himself "an uncertain, vague ministry;" but that he must be ordained over 66 some certain church."† Neverthe

*Waddington's Life of Penry, p. 7.

That Penry's conversion to God and his adoption of puritan views occurred after he entered Cambridge, and were the fruits of the gospel there preached, is evident from his own words, when he says: "As for the Church of God, into which I have been begotten through the word preached by means of my abode in England in these peaceable days of her highness, I have wholly dedicated myself to seek the flourishing estate thereof, by laboring to beautify the same, both in plucking up by the roots these filthy

less, being a fluent and attractive speaker, as well as a learned, pious and zealous young man, he often preached with great acceptance, and might have had preferment, had not his conscientious scruples prevented, and his heart been set on doing the work of an evangelist in his beloved Wales.* His visits to his native land while a student, and subsequently, had not only made him familiar with the moral desolation of that country, but had afforded opportunities, in a quiet way, to disseminate the gospel among the people; and to this day, four churches in the neighborhood of Llangamarch are said to trace their origin to his self-denying and devoted labors. So engrossed was Penry with

Italian weeds, wherewith it is now miserably deformed, and planting therein whatsoever might be for the comeliness of God's Orchard." Waddington, 8; Neal, 1. 851.

-

See his Examination by Fanshaw and Young. · Harleian Miscellany, 11. 34, 36.

† Waddington, 8, 9.

Anthony Wood, after admitting what he very unwillingly did of any zealous puritan that Penry "was esteemed by many a tolerable scholar, an edifying preacher, and a good man"-adds, "but being a person full of Welch blood, of a hot and restless head, did upon some discontent, change the course of his life and became a most notorious Anabaptist (of which party he was at his time the coryphæus) and in some sort a Brownist, and the most bitter enemy to the church of England of any that appeared in the long reign of Elizabeth."-Ath. Oxon. 1. col. 592. Brook quotes Thomas' MS. History, as saying: “I am inclined to think that he [Penry] was the first who administered the ordinance by immersion and upon a profession of faith, in and about Oldchon, in the principality" of Wales. — Lives of Puritans, 11. 67. There is, however, no evidence from Penry's Confession of Faith, or any other source, that he ever espoused the sentiments of the Baptists.

this idea of evangelizing Wales, then enveloped in almost pagan ignorance and superstition, that he felt constrained to issue, in 1587, a modest, but most earnest appeal to "Her Gracious Majesty and the High Court of Parliament, in the behalf of the country of Wales, that some order may be taken for the preaching of the Gospel among those People." In this he says: "Thousands of our people know Jesus Christ to be neither God nor man priest nor prophet almost never heard of him." Preaching, he tells them, in many parts was quite unknown; and only superstition of the grossest kind kept the mass of the people from absolute atheism."

If he had, he never could have written what he did, in his "Appellation unto the High Court of Parliament, from the vile and injurious dealing of the Archbishop of Canterbury and other his colleagues." They give out that I am an Anabaptist, an underminer of the chair of the magistrate, a pestilent and dangerous subject many ways. These, and all such accusations laid against me and God's truth, shall be proved to be palpable slanders." Hanbury, 1. 72, note.

In "A Treatise" on Reformation, etc., Penry expresses his opinion of Archbishop Whitgift as follows: "John Cant.' as he writeth himself, both in respect of his antichristian prelacy over God's church, and for the notable hatred which he hath ever bewrayed the Lord and his truth, I think one of the dishonorablest creatures under heaven and accordingly do account of him. Desiring the Lord, if it be his will, to convert both him and all other the detected enemies of Sion, that their souls may be saved; or if he hath appointed them to damnation, and meaneth not otherwise to be glorified by them, speedily to disburden the earth of such reprobate cast-aways." — Hanbury, 1. 74.

* Waddington, 10-15.

This petition was not only printed as a treatise,* but the substance of it was presented in a petition to parliament by one of Penry's countrymen, who endorsed its statements. † These zealous efforts to promote the evangelization of Wales, instead of receiving a grateful response from the "fathers and brethren of the church of England," awakened the bitterest hostility. Whitgift, at that time, the ruling power in the church, immediately ordered Penry's arrest and incarceration; and after about a month's imprisonment, arraigned him on the charge of having asserted" that mere readers

meaning such as could not, or would not preach were not ministers; reading homilies, or any other books, was not preaching the word of God; and so the ordinary means of salvation was wanting." In the course of the examination which followed, the bishop of London asked Penry what he had to say against non-residents. He replied. "They are odious in the sight of God; because, to the utmost of their power, they deprive the people of the ordinary means of salvation, which is the word preached." The bishop then asked, whether preaching was the only means of salvation. Penry replied: "It is the only ordinary means "; quoting, "How shall they hear without a preacher?" and, "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believed."

* "At Oxford, by Joseph Barnes, to be sold at the Tiger's Head. 1587."

† Waddington, 15.

After discussing this point for some time, the bishop of Winchester pronounced this doctrine "an execrable heresy;" and the archbishop agreed with him. To this Penry replied: "I thank God that I ever knew that heresy." "I tell thee it is a heresy; and thou shalt recant it as a heresy," rejoined the bishop. "Never," responded Penry, "God willing, so long as I live." * At the close of this examination, Penry was severely repremanded for his impertinence and heresy, and remanded to prison. But after a while was released, without further punishment.

About this time Penry married Helen Godley. a modest, pious, excellent woman, who proved a true helpmeet—and settled near his father-in-law, at Northampton.† But John Penry was not a man to settle on his lees and enjoy domestic felicity while there was work to be done for the Master and though there is no record of his doings for some months subsequent to his release from prison, yet we may well believe that he was "most probably employed in the ministry," partly it may be in his native land, and in writing for the press.

In the summer of 1588, we find him at or near

* Brook's Lives, 11. 48. Strype's Annals, vol. 111. pt. 11. pp. 94-96. This passage between the bishop and Penry was reported, much to the annoyance of the bishop, who attempted to break the force of it, by saying, that he did not tell Penry that his declaration was "an execrable heresy," but said to his associates, that it was "not far from heresy." — Cooper's Admonition, p. 59.

↑ Waddington, 19; Brook, 11. 48.