Burton, Henry
, was born at Birsall in Yorkshire,
about 1579; and educated at St. John’s college in Cambridge, where he took both his degrees in arts. He wa*
afterwards incorporated M. A. at Oxford, and took the degree of B. D. He first was tutor to the sons of lord Carey
of Lepington (created in 1625 earl of Monmouth), and
afterwards, probably by his lordship’s interest, clerk of the
closet to prince Henry; and after his death to prince
Charles, whom he was appointed to attend into Spain in
1623; but, for reasons unknown, was set aside after part
of his goods were shipped, and upon that prince' succession
to the crown was removed from being his clerk of the closet. Burton, highly disgusted at this treatment, took
every opportunity of expressing his resentment, particularly by railing against the bishops.
In April 1625, he presented a letter to king Charles,
remonstrating against Dr. Neile and Dr. Laud, his majesty’s continual attendants, as popishly affected; and for
this was forbidden the court. Soon after he was presented
to the rectory of -St, Matthew’s, in Friday-street, London.
In Dec. 1636, he was summoned to appear before Dr.
Duck, one of the commissioners for causes ecclesiastical,
who tendered to him the oaths ex officio, to answer to certain articles brought against him, for what he had advanced
in two sermons preached in his own church on the preceding 5th of November .*
* The text they were preached upon
was Proverbs xxiv. 21, 22. In these
two sermons, and in his apology, he
charged the bishops with dangerous
plots to change the orthodox religion
established in England, and to bring
in Romish superstition in the room of
it; and blamed them for introducing
several innovations into divine worship,
The chief he mentioned were, that in
the epistle the Sunday before Easter,
they had put out “In,” and made it
“At the name of Jesus;” which alteration was directly against the act of
parliament. That two places were
changed in the prayers set forth for
the 5th of November; namely, “Root
out that Babylonish and antichristian
sect, which say, &c.” is thus altered
“Root out that Babylonish and antichristian sect of them which say.”
Next, “Cut off those workers of iniquity whose religion is rebellion, &c.”
was, in the book printed in 1635, thus
altered: “Cut off those workers of
iniquity, who turn religion into rebellion.”—That the prayers for the navy
are left out of the late book for the
fast.—That the placing the communion-table altarwise, at the upper end
of the chancel, was done to advauce
and usher in popery. That the second
service, as dainties, was said there.—
That bowing towards the altar, wa
worshiping the table, &c.
Burton, instead of answering,
appealed to the king: but a special high-commission court,
| which was called soon after at Doctors’ Commons, suspended him, in his absence, from both his office and benefice; on which he thought fit to abscond, but published his
two sermons under the title of “
For God and the King;”
together with an apology justifying his appeal.
February 1,
a serjeant at arms, with other officers, by virtue of a warrant from the star-chamber, broke open his doors, seized
his papers, and took him into custody. Next day, he was,
by an order of the privy-council, committed to the Fleet
prison; from which place he dated one epistle to his majesty, another to the judges, and a third to the “
truehearted nobility.”
March 1!, he was proceeded against
in the star-chamber, for writing and publishing seditious,
schismatical, and libellous books, against the hierarchy of
*
the church, and to the scandal of the government. To
this information he (and Bastwick and Prynne who were indicted with him) prepared answers *. In the end of
May 1637, a person came to the Fleet to examine Burton
upon his answer; but hearing that the greatest part of
it had been expunged, he refused to be examined, unless his answer might be admitted as it was put in, or he
permitted to put in a new answer.
June 2, it was ordered
by the court, that if he would not answer to interrogatories
framed upon his answer, he would be proceeded against
pro confesso. Accordingly,
June 14, Burton, and the two
others, being brought to the bar, the information was read;
and no legal answer having been put in in time, nor filed
on record, the court began for this contempt to proceed
to sentence. The defendants cried out for justice, that
their answers might be read, and that they might not be
| condemned unheard, but because their answers were not
filed on record, the court proceeded to pass sentence:
which was, that Burton, Prynne, and Bastwick pay a fine
of 50OO/. each, and that Burton in particular be deprived
of his ecclesiastical benefice, degraded from his ministerial
function and degrees in the university, be set on the pillory, have both his ears cut off there, confined to perpetual
close imprisonment in Lancaster-castle, debarred the access
of his wife or any other except his keeper, and denied the
use of pen, ink, and paper: all which, except the fine
and the solitary part of the confinement, was executed accordingly, and the cutting off his ears with circumstances
of great cruelty, they being pared so close, that the
temporal artery was cut. During his twelve weeks imprisonment in the common gaol at
Lancaster, great crowds
pitying his misfortunes resorted to him, and some of his
papers being dispersed in
London, he was removed, by an
order of council, to Cornet-castle in the isle of
Guernsey,
October 1637, where he was shut up almost three years;
till in
November 1640, the house of, commons, upon his
wife’s petition, complaining of the severity of his sentence,
ordered that he should be brought to the parliament in
safe custody. Burton, on his arrival at
London, presented
a petition to the house of commons, setting forth his sufferings, and there was now a house of commons willing
enough to listen to more trifling complaints. In consequence of this, the house resolved that the sentence
against him was illegal, and ought to be reversed; that he
be freed from the fine of 5000
l. and from imprisonment,
and restored to his degrees in the university, orders in the
ministry, and to his ecclesiastical benefice in Friday-street,
London; also have recompense for his imprisonment, and
for the loss of his ears, which they fixed at six thousand
pounds; but owing to the ensuing confusions in the kingdom, he never received that sum. He was, however, restored to his living of St.
Matthew’s, after which he declared himself an Independent, and complied with all the
alterations that ensued; but, according to Wood, when
he saw to what extravagant lengths the parliament went,
he grew more moderate, and afterwards fell out with his
fellow-sufferers Prynne and Bastwick, and with Mr.
Edmund Calamy. He died Jan. 7, 1648. Besides the tracts
mentioned above, he wrote several others, which are
thus enumerated. 1. “
A Censure of Simony,” Loud.
| 1624. 2. “
A Plea to an Appeal, traversed Dialoguewise,” Lond.
1626. 3. “
The baiting of the Pope’s Bull,”
Lond.
1627. 4. “
A Tryal of private Devotions, or a Dyal
for the Hours of Prayer,” Lond.
1628. 5. “
Israel’s Fast;
or, Meditations on the 7th Chapter of Joshua,” Lond.
1628. 6. “
Seven Vials, or an Exposition on the loth and
16th Chapters of the Revelations,” Lond.
1628. 7. “
Babel no Bethel; i. e. The Church of Rome no true visible
Church of Christ, being an Answer to Hugh Cholmeley’s
Challenge, and Robert Butterfield’s Maschil.” 8. “
Truth’s
Triumph over Trent, or the great Gulph between Sion
and Babylon,” Lond.
1629. 9. “
The Law and the Gospel reconciled against the Antinomians,” Lond.
1631^ 4to.
10. “
Christian’s Bulwark, or the Doctrine of Justification,” Lond.
1632, 4to. 11. “
Exceptions against a passage in Dr. Jackson’s Treatise of the Divine Essence and
Attributes.” 12. “
The sounding of the two last Trumpets; or, Meditations on the 9th, 10th, and llth Chapters
of the Revelations,” Lond.
1641, 4to. 13. “
The Protestation protested, or a short Remonstrance, shewing what
is principally required of all those that have or do take the
last Parliamentary Protestation,”
London,
1641, 4to.
14. “
Relation of Mr. Chillingworth.” 15. “
A Narration
of his own Life,” Lond.
1643, 4to. J6. “
A Vindication
of Independent Churches, in answer to Mr. Prynne’s two
books of Church-Government, and of Independency,”
Lond.
1644, 4to. 17. “
Parliament’s Power for Laws in
Religion,”
1645, 4to. 18. “
Vindiciae Veritatis: Truth
vindicated against Calumny: In a brief Answer to Dr.
Bastwick’s two late books, entitled, Independency not
God’s Ordinance,” Lond.
1645, 4to. 19. “
Truth shut
out of Doors; or, A brief Narrative of the Occasion and
Manner of Proceeding of Aldermanbury Parish, in shutting their Church-Door against him,” Lond.
1645, 4to.
20. “
Conformity’s Deformity, in a Dialogue between
Conformity and Conscience,” Lond.
1646, 4to.
However disproportioned Burton’s punishment was to his
offence, he appears to have been a man of a violent and
vindictive temper, and an enthusiast, who knowing how to
adapt his harangues to the correspondent enthusiasm of the
people, was considered as one of the most dangerous
agents of the party who were undermining the constitution.
His works are now little read, although often inquired after,
| and it has been justly observed, that punishment made him
an object of pity who never was an object of esteem. 1
1 Biog. Brit.—Life by himself, 1643, 4to.—Wood’s Athenae, vol. I.
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