Background
Thomas Fuller was the eldest son of Thomas Fuller, rector of Aldwincle St Peter's, Northamptonshire. He was born in 1608 at his father's rectory.
Thomas Fuller was the eldest son of Thomas Fuller, rector of Aldwincle St Peter's, Northamptonshire. He was born in 1608 at his father's rectory.
At thirteen Thomas Fuller was admitted to Queens' College, Cambridge, then presided over by Dr John Davenant.
Thomas Fuller published in 1631 a poem on the subject of David and Bathsheba, entitled David's Hainous Sinne, Heartie Repentance, Heavie Punishment. The rectory of Broadwindsor, Dorsetshire, then in the diocese of Bristol, was his next preferment (1634); and on the 11th of June 1635 he proceeded B. D. He was in 1640 elected proctor for Bristol in the memorable convocation of Canterbury, which assembled with the Short Parliament.
That opinion was overruled; and the assembly continued to sit by virtue of a royal writ.
Fuller has left in his Church History a valuable account of the proceedings of this synod, for sitting in which he was fined £200, which, however, was never exacted.
His first published volume of sermons appeared in 1640 under the title of Joseph's рапу-coloured Coat, which contains many of his quaint utterances and odd conceits.
At Broadwindsor, early in the year 1641, Thomas Fuller, his curate Henry Sanders, the church wardens, and others, nine persons altogether, certified that their parish, represented by 242 grown-up male persons, had taken the Protestation ordered by the speaker of the Long Parliament.
For a short time he preached with success at the Inns of Court, and thence removed, at the invitation of the master of the Savoy (Dr Balcanqual) and the brotherhood of that foundation, to be lecturer at their chapel of St Mary Savoy.
In one he set forth with searching and truthful minuteness the hindrances to.
In his A ppeal of Injured Innocence Fuller says that he was once deputed to carry a petition to the king at Oxford.
A pass was granted by the House of Lords, on the 2nd of January 1643, for an equipage of two coaches, four or six horses and eight or ten attendants.
On the arrival of the deputation at Uxbridge, on the 4th of January, officers of the Parliamentary army stopped the coaches and searched the gentlemen; and they found upon the latter " two scandalous books arraigning the proceedings of the House, " and letters with ciphers to Lord Viscount Falkland and the Lord Spencer.
Ultimately a joint order of both Houses remanded the party; and Fuller and his friends suffered a brief imprisonment.
The Westminster Petition, notwithstanding, reached the king's hands; and it was published with the royal reply (see J. E. Bailey, Life of Thomas Fuller, pp. 245 et seq. ).
He lived in a hired chamber at Lincoln College for 17 weeks.
Thence he put forth a witty and effective reply to John Saltmarsh, who had attacked his views on ecclesiastical reform.
Fuller subsequently published by royal request a sermon preached on the ioth of May 1644, at St Mary's, Oxford, before the king and Prince Charles, called Jacob's Vow. The spirit of Fuller's preaching, always characterized by calmness and moderation, gave offence to the high royalists, who charged him with lukewarmness in their cause.
To silence unjust censures he became chaplain to the regiment of Sir Ralph Hopton.
All that time I could not live to study, who did only study to live. "
Thomas Fuller was married to Eleanor. About 1652 Fuller married to his second wife, Mary Roper, by whom he had several children.