Penry, John ___ 1559-1593 ___ British ___ priest writer

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Penry was born at Cefn Brith, in Wales, the son of a farmer, and was probably brought up in the Roman Catholic faith. He studied at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he came into contact with Protestant ideas and influences, and at St Albans Hall, Oxford. Although he was not ordained, he did become licensed as a university preacher, a position which allowed him to promote the ardent Puritan beliefs he had taken on. It is thought his reputation as a preacher grew during tours in Wales in 1586-1587. In 1587 he published a 'A Treatise containing the Aequity of an Humble Supplication' which criticised the state of the Welsh clergy and called for more preaching in Welsh. This proved to be controversial and he was put under arrest for a while. The following year, he became involved with Robert Waldegrave's secret printing press which produced tracts, under the pseudonym Martin Marprelate, exposing and criticising the church. Waldegrave left the press, but one or more of the others involved with it were arrested, and he himself fell under suspicion. He fled to Scotland where he continued publishing tracts. On returning to England in 1592, he joined the Separatist Church. He was captured, tried on a doubtful charge of intent to excite rebellion, and hanged. He had four daughters which were still young when he died. They were called Deliverance, Comfort, Safety and Sure Hope.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1592-1593 ___ religious

WEB TEXT LINKS

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
Huntington Library

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
The Notebook of John Penry
 

May 2005, April 2008, April 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.