Background
John Cotton was born in Derby, England, on the 4th of December 1585.
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John Cotton
Edit ProfileEducation
John Cotton was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating B. A. in 1603 and M. A. in 1606, and became a fellow in Emmanuel College, Cambridge, then a stronghold of Puritanism, where, during the next six years, according to his friend and biographer, Rev. Samuel Whiting, he was " head lecturer and dean, and Catechist, " and " a dilligent tutor to many pupils. "
Career
Becoming more and more a Puritan in spirit, John Cotton ceased, about 1615, to observe certain ceremonies prescribed by the legally authorized ritual, and in 1632 action was begun against him in the High Commission Court.
He thereupon escaped, disguised, to London, lay in concealment there for several months, and, having been deeply interested from its beginning in the colonization of New England, he eluded the watch set for him at the various English ports, and in July 1633 emigrated to the colony of Massachusetts Bay, arriving at Boston early in September.
According to the contemporary historian, William Hubbard, " Whatever he delivered in the pulpit was soon put into an order of court, if of a civil, or set up as a practice in the church, if of an ecclesiastical concernment. "
He naturally took an active part in most, if not all, of the political and theological controversies of his time, the two principal of which were those concerning Antinomianism and the expulsion of Roger Williams.
In the former his position was somewhat equivocal-he first supported and then violently opposed Anne Hutchinson, -in the latter he approved Williams's expulsion as " righteous in the eyes of God, " and subsequently in a pamphlet discussion withWilliams, particularly in his Bloudy Tenent, Washed and made White in the Blond of the Lamb (1647), vigorously opposed religious freedom.
Achievements
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John Cotton was a man of great learning and was a prolific writer. His writings include: The Keyes to the Kingdom of Heaven and the Power thereof (1644), The Way of the Churches of Christ in New England (1645), and The Way of Congregational Churches Cleared (1648), these works constituting an invaluable exposition of New England Congregationalism; and Milk for Babes, Drawn out of the Breasts of Both Testaments, Chiefly for the Spirituall Nourishment of Boston Babes in either England, but may be of like Use for any Children (1646), widely used for many years, in New England, for the religious instruction of children
Connections
Cotton married widow Sarah (Hawkred) Story on 6 April 1632.
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Born
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Died
February 23, 1652 (aged 67) -
Nationality
British -
Religion
Puritan