(The classic treatise "No Cross, No Crown" was first writt...)
The classic treatise "No Cross, No Crown" was first written while William Penn was imprisoned for his faith in the Tower of London in 1668 when only twenty-four years of age. Later in life, Penn greatly enlarged upon the original publication, treating exhaustively upon the particular sins of pride, avarice, and luxury, and adding two lengthy collections of testimonies from other authors in order to further substantiate his position. This edition is unique in that it offers the reader a careful modernization of Penn's beautiful but somewhat archaic English, and has been abridged to contain only the principal and indispensable chapters of the treatise, wherein Penn clearly presents the nature, power, and experience of the daily cross of Christ, explaining what it is, where and how it is to be taken up, and the manner of its working in the true disciples of Christ.
(After he was deprived of his leadership role, William Pen...)
After he was deprived of his leadership role, William Penn determined to put down in his retirement such Maxims on different subjects as he thought he could warrant as substantial, and, when thus collected, to publish them. This book he accordingly completed after no small labor, and brought it out under the title of "Some Fruits of Solitude, in Reflections and Maxims relating to the Conduct of human Life." Penn writes that "he has now had some time he could call his own, a property he was never so much master of before, in which he has taken a view of himself and the world, and observed wherein he has hit or missed the mark; what might have been done; what mended and what avoided in human conduct; together with the omissions and excesses of others, as well societies and governments as private families and persons. And he verily thinks, were he to live over his life again, he could not only with God's grace serve him, but his neighbor and himself, better than he hath done, and have seven years of his time to spare. And yet perhaps he hath not been the worst or the idlest man in the world, nor is he the oldest. And this is the rather said, that it might quicken thee, Reader, to lose none of the time that is yet thine." Penn describes this book quite accurately when he says it contains "Hints that may serve the reader for texts to preach to himself upon."
(William Penn (1644–1718) played a crucial role in the art...)
William Penn (1644–1718) played a crucial role in the articulation of religious liberty as a philosophical and political value during the second half of the seventeenth century and as a core element of the classical liberal tradition in general. Penn was not only one of the most vocal spokesmen for the liberty of conscience in Restoration England, but he also oversaw a great colonizing endeavor that attempted to instantiate his tolerationist commitments in practice. His thought has relevance not only for scholars of English political and religious history, but also for those who are interested in the foundations of American religious liberty, political development, and colonial history. This volume illuminates the origins and development of Penn’s thought by presenting, for the first time, complete and annotated texts of all his important political works. Penn’s early political writings illuminate the Whig understanding of English politics as guided by the ancient constitution (epitomized by Magna Charta and its elaboration of English native rights).
William Penn was an English Quaker leader and advocate of religious freedom. He oversaw the founding of the American Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a refuge for Quakers and other religious minorities of Europe.
Background
William Penn was born in London, England on October 14, 1644, to the family of Admiral Sir William Penn Sr. and Margaret Jasper. Penn Sr. served in the parliamentary navy during the Puritan Revolution. Although rewarded by Cromwell and given estates in Ireland, he fell into disfavor and took part in the restoration of Charles II. An intimate of the Duke of York, Admiral Penn was knighted by Charles II. With so influential a father, there seemed little doubt that William Penn's prospects were attractive.
Education
William Penn acquired the foundations of a classical education at the Chigwell grammar school in the Essex countryside, where he came under Puritan influences. After Admiral Penn’s naval defeat in the West Indies in 1655, the family moved back to London and then to Ireland. In Ireland, William heard Thomas Loe, a Quaker itinerant, preach to his family at the admiral’s invitation, an experience that apparently intensified his religious feelings. In 1660 Penn entered the at Christ Church, Oxford, where he rejected Anglicanism and was expelled in 1662 for his religious Nonconformity. Determined to thwart his son’s religiosity, Admiral Penn sent his son on a grand tour of the European continent and to the Protestant college at Saumur, in France, to complete his studies. Summoned back to England after two years, William entered Lincoln’s Inn and spent a year reading law. This was the extent of his formal education.
In 1666 Admiral Penn sent William to Ireland to manage the family estates. There he crossed paths again with Thomas Loe and, after hearing him preach, decided to join the Quakers (the Society of Friends), a sect of religious radicals who were reviled by respectable society and subject to official persecution.
After joining the sect, Penn would eventually be imprisoned four times for publicly stating his beliefs in word and print. He published 42 books and pamphlets in the seven years immediately following his conversion. In his first publication, the pamphlet Truth Exalted (1668), he upheld Quaker doctrines while attacking in turn those of the Roman Catholics, the Anglicans, and the Dissenting churches. It was followed by The Sandy Foundation Shaken (1668), in which he boldly questioned the Trinity and other Protestant doctrines. Though Penn subsequently qualified his anti-Trinitarianism in Innocency with Her Open Face (1669), he was imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he wrote his most famous book, No Cross, No Crown (1669). In this work he expounded the Quaker-Puritan morality with eloquence, learning, and flashes of humour, condemning the worldliness and luxury of Restoration England and extolling both Puritan conceptions of ascetic self-denial and Quaker ideals of social reform. No Cross, No Crown stands alongside the letters of St. Paul, Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy, and John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress as one of the world’s finest examples of prison literature. Penn was released from the Tower in 1669.
It was as a protagonist of religious toleration that Penn would earn his prominent place in English history. In 1670, he wrote The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience Once More Debated and Defended, which was the most systematic and thorough exposition of the theory of toleration produced in Restoration England. Though Penn based his arguments on theological and scriptural grounds, he did not overlook rational and pragmatic considerations; he pointed out, for example, that the contemporary prosperity of Holland was based on "her Indulgence in matters of Faith and Worship."
That same year Penn also had an unexpected opportunity to strike another blow for freedom of conscience and for the traditional rights of all Englishmen. On August 14, 1670, the Quaker meetinghouse in Gracechurch Street, London, having been padlocked by the authorities, he preached in the street to several hundred persons. After the meetings, he and William Mead were arrested and imprisoned on a trumped-up charge of inciting a riot. At his trial in the Old Bailey, Penn calmly and skillfully exposed the illegality of the proceedings against him. The jury, under the leadership of Edward Bushell, refused to bring in a verdict of guilty despite threats and abusive treatment. For their refusal, the jurymen were fined and imprisoned, but they were vindicated when Sir John Vaughan, the lord chief justice, enunciated the principle that a judge "may try to open the eyes of the jurors, but not to lead them by the nose." The trial, which is also known as the "Bushell’s Case," stands as a landmark in English legal history, having established beyond question the independence of the jury. A firsthand account of the trial, which was a vivid courtroom drama, was published in The People’s Ancient and Just Liberties Asserted (1670).
Admiral Penn died in 1670, having finally become reconciled to his son’s Quakerism. Young Penn inherited his father’s estates in England and Ireland and became, like his father, a frequenter of the court, where he enjoyed the friendship of King Charles II and his brother, the Duke of York (later James II). In the 1670s Penn was tirelessly active as a Quaker minister and polemicist, producing no fewer than 40 controversial tracts on religious doctrines and practice. In 1671 and 1677 he undertook preaching missions to Holland and northern Germany, where the contacts he established would later help him in peopling Pennsylvania with thousands of Dutch and German emigrants. The later years of the decade were also occupied with political activities. In 1679 Penn supported the Parliamentary candidacy of the radical republican Algernon Sidney, going on the hustings twice - at Guildford and later at Bramber - for his friend. During these years he wrote a number of pamphlets on behalf of the radical Whigs, including England’s Great Interest in the Choice of this New Parliament (1679), which is noteworthy as one of the first clear statements of party doctrine ever laid before the English electorate.
Penn had meanwhile become involved in American colonization as a trustee for Edward Byllynge, one of the two Quaker proprietors of West New Jersey. In 1681 Penn and 11 other Quakers bought the proprietary rights to East New Jersey from the widow of Sir John Carteret. In that same year, discouraged by the turn of political events in England, where Charles II was ruling without Parliament and prospects for religious freedom seemed dark, Penn sought and received a vast province on the west bank of the Delaware River, which was named Pennsylvania after his father (to whom Charles II had owed a large debt canceled by this grant). A few months later the Duke of York granted him the three "lower counties" (later Delaware). In Pennsylvania, Penn hoped to provide a refuge for Quakers and other persecuted people and to build an ideal Christian commonwealth. "There may be room there, though not here" he wrote to a friend in America, "for such a holy experiment."
As a proprietor, Penn seized the opportunity to create a government that would embody his Quaker-Whig ideas. In 1682, he drew up a Frame of Government for the colony that would, he said, leave himself and his successors "no power of doing mischief, that the will of one man may not hinder the good of a whole country." Freedom of worship in the colony was to be absolute, and all the traditional rights of Englishmen were carefully safeguarded. The actual machinery of government outlined in the Frame proved in some respects to be clumsy and unworkable, but Penn wisely included in the Frame an amending clause - the first in any written constitution - so that it could be altered as necessity required.
Penn himself sailed in the Welcome for Pennsylvania late in 1682, leaving his family behind, and found his experiment already well underway. The city of Philadelphia was already laid out on a grid pattern according to his instructions, and settlers were pouring in to take up the fertile lands lying around it. Presiding over the first Assembly, Penn saw the government of the "lower counties" united with that of Pennsylvania and the Frame of Government incorporated in the Great Law of the province. In a series of treaties based on mutual trust, he established good relations with the Delaware Indians. He also held an unsuccessful conference with Lord Baltimore, the proprietor of the neighboring province of Maryland, to negotiate a boundary between it and Pennsylvania. When this effort proved unsuccessful, Penn was obliged in 1684 to return to England to defend his interests against Baltimore.
Before his return, Penn published A Letter to the Free Society of Traders (1683), which contained his fullest description of Pennsylvania and included a valuable account of Delaware based on firsthand observation. With the accession of his friend the Duke of York as James II in 1685, Penn found himself in a position of great influence at court, whereby he was able to have hundreds of Quakers, as well as political prisoners such as John Locke, released from prison. Penn welcomed James’s Declaration of Indulgence (1687) but received some criticism for doing so since the declaration provided religious toleration at the royal pleasure rather than as a matter of fundamental right. But the Act of Toleration (1689), passed after James’s abdication, finally established the principle for which Penn had labored so long and faithfully.
Penn’s close relations with James brought him under a cloud when William and Mary came to the throne, and for a time he was forced to live virtually in hiding to avoid arrest. He used this period of forced retirement to write more books. Among them were An Essay Towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe (1693), in which he proposed an international organization to prevent wars by arbitrating disputes, and A Brief Account of the Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers (1694), which was the earliest serious effort to set down the history of the Quaker movement. Penn also drafted (1696) the first plan for a future union of the American colonies, a document that presaged the United States Constitution.
Meanwhile, affairs had been going badly in Pennsylvania. For about two years (1692-1694), while Penn was under suspicion, the government of the colony had been taken from him and given to that of New York. Afterwards, Pennsylvania’s Assembly quarreled constantly with its Council and with Penn’s deputy governors. The "lower counties" were unhappy at being unequally yoked with the larger province of Pennsylvania. Relations with the home government were strained by the Quakers’ conscientious refusal to provide military defense. In 1699 Penn, his wife, and his secretary, James Logan, returned to the province. He settled many of the outstanding difficulties, though he was compelled to grant the Pennsylvania Assembly preeminence in 1701 in a revised constitution known as the Charter of Privileges. He also allowed the lower counties to form their own independent government. After less than two years Penn’s affairs in England demanded his presence, and he left the province in 1701, never to see it again. He confided his Pennsylvania interests to the capable hands of James Logan, who upheld them loyally for the next half-century.
Penn’s final years were unhappy. His eldest son, William, Jr., turned out a scapegrace. Penn’s own poor judgment in choosing his subordinates (except for the faithful Logan) recoiled upon him: his deputy governors proved incompetent or untrustworthy, and his steward, Philip Ford, cheated him on such a staggering scale that Penn was forced to spend nine months in a debtors’ prison. In 1712, discouraged at the outcome of his "holy experiment," Penn began negotiations to surrender Pennsylvania to the English crown. A paralytic stroke, which seriously impaired his memory and dulled his once-keen intellect, prevented the consummation of these negotiations. Penn lingered on, virtually helpless, until 1718, his wife undertaking to manage his proprietary affairs. Penn’s collected works were published in 1726.
Although born into a distinguished Anglican family and the son of Admiral Sir William Penn, Penn joined the Religious Society of Friends or Quakers at the age of 22. The Quakers obeyed their "inner light", which they believed to come directly from God, refused to bow or take off their hats to any man, and refused to take up arms. Penn was a close friend of George Fox, the founder of the Quakers. These were times of turmoil, just after Cromwell's death, and the Quakers were suspect, because of their principles which differed from the state-imposed religion and because of their refusal to swear an oath of loyalty to Cromwell or the King (Quakers obeyed the command of Christ to not swear, Matthew 5:34).
Penn's religious views were extremely distressing to his father, Admiral Sir William Penn, who had through naval service earned an estate in Ireland and hoped that Penn's charisma and intelligence would be able to win him a favor at the court of Charles II. In 1668 he was imprisoned for writing a tract (The Sandy Foundation Shaken) which attacked the doctrine of the trinity.
Penn was a frequent companion of George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, traveling in Europe and England with him in their ministry. He also wrote a comprehensive, detailed explanation of Quakerism along with a testimony to the character of George Fox, in his Introduction to the autobiographical Journal of George Fox.
Politics
Although Penn's liberal spirit was evident in the political life of Pennsylvania, and he believed that the people should be offered self-government and that the rights of every citizen should be guaranteed, he did not think the colonists should have full power. In order to provide a balance in government, and partly to protect his own rights, he sought a key role in running the colony. He was, in his general outlook, a Whig, and yet his Whiggism was shot through with republican ideals which were more advanced still. Penn co-operated politically with Whig leaders like Lord Essex, the Marquis of Halifax, the Earl of Shaftesbury, Lord Russell, and William Sacheverell.
Views
In addition, Penn thought the colony could become a profitable enterprise to be inherited by his family.
Quotations:
"For the love of God, me, and the poor country, " Penn wrote to the colonists, "be not so governmentish, so noisy, and open in your dissafection. "
Personality
William Penn was a religious rebel or rebellious religious. In his early years as a Friend, he was persistently contentious; the rebellious and religious strains continued to be central in his personal development until at least 1678. He engaged others of every religious stripe, from conservative churchmen to rather mad sectarians, in religious debate. This took a number of forms; he wrote a great many tracts for publication, he engaged in public and private debates, he courted arrest in order to extend the debate into the civil sphere. In many ways, his language was sharper and more interesting at this stage of his life than at any other - he clearly relished the quarrel with authority (or with his father) at every turn. He became powerful in the use of invective, and he was not very polite.
Interests
Politicians
James II of England
Artists
Peter Lely
Connections
In 1672 Penn married Gulielma Springett, a Quaker by whom he had eight children, four of whom died in infancy. In 1696, his first wife having died in 1694, Penn married Hannah Callowhill, by whom he had seven children, five of whom lived to adulthood.