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Another Look at John Canne

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

John F. Wilson
John F. Wilson
Affiliation:
Princeton University
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Extract

The purpose of this paper is to establish a more consistent estimate of John Canne within the context of English Puritanism, 1630–1660. A further conclusion, however, is that study of a figure like Canne makes evident the need to interpret his Puritan context in new ways. This reconsideration involves at once a critical attitude toward the exaggerated emphasis on parties in the analysis of Stuart Puritanism and also an appreciation of the apocalyptic exegesis of scripture which was common in that era and which frequently issued in Millenarianism. It is beyond the scope of this paper to implement these observations but it will be argued that such an effort is required insofar as John Canne has representative significance.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , March 1964 , pp. 34 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1964

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References

1. It is argued that to have been called “Old Brother Caune” in 1658 he must then have been at least as old as the century. Cf. The Time of the End (1657), pp. 265–6.Google Scholar

2. Some have tried to connect him with a family of that name near Bristol. Others snggest that he may have come from the Hull region.

3. Stevens, W. reported this tradition, History of the Scottish Church in Rotterdam (Edinburgh, 1833), pp. 270 f.Google Scholar

4. Burrage, , Early English Dissenters, I (Cambridge, 1912), p. 201 & Axon, DNB/VIIIGoogle Scholar. This was the Deadman's Place congregation in London.

5. Burrage, op. cit., I, p. 178; A Stay, pp.75 ff., “The Way to Peace”.

6. Burrage, op. cit., I, p. 181.

7. P&R 4574 and 4575 respectively.

8. A thorough study of the several generations of British dissenters in the Low Countries from Elizabeth to the Restoration would be very useful. Generally this phenomenon has been treated episodically rather than analytically.

9. Underhill, E. B., Records of a Church of Christ meeting in Broadmead, Bristol, 1640–1687 (London, 1847)Google Scholar. Also published in a more exact edition by Haycroft in 1865 as Vol. XIV of the Bunyan Library.

10. Underhill, , Records, pp. 18 f.Google Scholar

11. Stovel, G., “Historical Introductory Notice” in Canne's Necessity of Separation (1849), p. xi.Google Scholar

12. R. O., , Mans Mortallitie or a Treatise wherein …. (1643) [Wing 0 641] (1644) [Wing 0 642].Google Scholar

13. Church History, XXIX, 4 (Dec. 1960), p. 434.Google Scholar

14. The Library, Fifth Series, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Dec. 1950), pp. 179–183.Google Scholar

15. Boyle, J. R. (ed.), Memoirs of Master John Shawe (Hull, 1882), pp. 42–45.Google Scholar

16. Brown, L., Baptists and Fifth Monarchy Men (Washington, 1912), passim.Google Scholar

17. A Narrative Wherein is faithfully set forth the Sufferings of John Canne (London, 1658)Google Scholar. The arrest was on 1st April, 1658.

18. Most of these later tracts will appear in the subsequent analysis.

19. There is an edition of the KJ folio interleaved printed by Joost Broersz of Amsterdam (OT 1642, NT 1643). There are notes on the OT and “Summaries and Expositions of T. Beza ou Hard Places” and “Annotations on Revelations by Fr. Junias.” All this is “put in order by J. C.” This was reproduced in identical form in 1672. Also a substantially identical edition was printed by the Stationers Company in 1649 in which the tables were shifted to the end. I tend to identify the two earlier versions with those attributed to Canne, although the dates vary significantly from the ones given by tradition. No editions are kuowa to me which answer to the 1647 and 1653 dates. N. B., if “J. C.” be identified with Canne it is imperative to recognize that these are not his comments— rather he has assimilated traditional commentary to the KJ version. In the 1662 edition with marginal scriptural references which he produced in Amsterdam he declared that this work was “sweet” in comparison with his former studies and reading done over thrice seven years. (A2) This would suggest that about 1641 he began careful annotation of the scripture, and that his present edition differed essentially from the previous ones; namely because this was a compilation of scriptural references rather than correlation of existing commeutary with a new translation. He proceeded to conose who placed glosses on Scripture—it should be left free to interpret itself. The 1662 edition is a selection from longer notes he had made and he intended to set forth an edition with “large annotations,” a project on which he had been long engaged which would be a complete work of Scripture Interpreter. (A2 f.) Canne himself, then, is not to be credited with three pubhshed editions of biblical commentary. Cf. Barlow, T. H. and Moule, H. F., Historical Catalogue of the Printed Editions of Holy Scripture, vol. I (London, 1903), passim.Google Scholar

20. CSP, 9 June, 1653, exclusive license f or seven years “to print a Bible with annotations …”

21. Cf. 1807 edition with Canne's Notes (embodying many errors and additions) (Philadelphia), Jacob Johnson. Hills, Margaret T., The English Bible in America (N. Y., 1961). Item 143, p. 25.Google Scholar

22. (London, Printed … by J. Haddou, Finsbury, 1849).

23. Ibid., p. xxvill.

24. DNB, vol. VIII.

25. Zagorin, The Library, op. cit.; Burrage, C., The Early English Dissenters, I, p. 181.Google Scholar

26. Vol. III (London, 1913), pp. 212–246.

27. Cf. note 9, supra. Burrage assumed that the original document had been lost. I have no further information concerning it.

28. So Burrage judged on the basis of the 1662 and 1664 editions, Transactions, op. cit., p. 244. My own study of them led to the same conclusion.

29. Ibid., p. 227.

30. Ibid., p. 228.

31. A Stay Against Straying ([Amsterdam], 1639), pp. 75 f.Google Scholar, says he and a friend both left parish assemblies “about seven years past in England.” Printed 1639, Epistle to Reader was dated in the first month. Cf. Time of the End (1657), pp. 265 f.Google Scholar

32. Burrage, Transactions, op. cit., p. 230.

33. Ibid., p. 232.

34. Ibid., p. 226.

35. Ibid., p. 229.

36. Ibid., p. 230.

37. Ibid.

38. Ibid., p. 231.

39. Evans, B., Early English Baptists (London, 1864), vol. 2, p. 108.Google Scholar

40. Public Records Office. ‘The Information of M. S.…,” pp. 387–79f., 147f.Google Scholar

41. Ibid.

42. MS Bodl. Add. C. 69=.

43. This argument is buttressed by the existence of Hooker's, ThomasThe Soules Preparation in a similar edition (1638), [P&R 13738]Google Scholar. N. B., unlike Goodwin's tract on which the argument is based, it is without the Richt Right mark and the type is different so that I am not prepared to argue that this is definitely by the same press.

44. The Library, Fifth Series, Vol. 5, No.4 (March 1951), pp. 219 ff.Google Scholar

45. Ibid., p. 231: A Brief Relation, [P&R1570Google Scholar and The Confession of Faith, [P&R 22026].

46. (1634) [P&R 4574].

47. Usually included in Sayle, C. E., Early English Books in the University Library, Cambridge, 4 volsGoogle Scholar. (Cambridge, 1900–1907); Catalogue of the McAlpin Collection (N. Y. 1927 ff.)Google Scholar; Pollard, A. W. and Redgrave, G. R., Short title Catalogue (London, 1926).Google Scholar

48. Johnson carefully described these items, op. cit.

49. Johnson has laid the groundwork for this analysis in his article in The Library, ibid.

50. [P&R 15597], p. 7.

51. (1634), p. 196.

52. Ibid., p. 174.

53. A Stay, Epistle.

54. The Informer, p. 13.

55. Ibid., Epistle.

56. In any simple sense Guide unto Sion can not be Ainsworth's (although it may have derived from him) because there were substantial revisions offered in the later editions, suggesting that the author was still alive. SPR and GUS are very directly related to each other. Two other tracts should also be noted here: Best, The Churches Plea for her Right (1635), the substance of which was attributed to Canne and part of which is parallel to SPR. Also the Presbyteriall Government Examined (1641) is related to these tracts.

57. Canne's publications of this period, 1649–50, include: The Discoverer (1649) [C 437]. Wherein is set forth (1649) [C 438]. Emmnauuel (1650) [C 439]. The Golden Rule (1649) [C 440]. The Improvement of Mercy (1650) [C 441]. The Snare is broken (1649) [C 442B]. N. B. Two other later ones are: The Time of Finding (1658) [C442C]. A Seasonable word to the Parliament. Men (1659) [C442].

58. A Voyce …, p. 14.

59. Ibid., p. 29.

60. Also by M. S. Many of the Fifth Mon. archist Tracts were printed by Livewell Chapman.

61. Editions of 1662, 1664; cf. note 19, supra.

62. 1662 ed., A2.

63. This point would seem to be evident in Dr. Nuttall's work. Not only has he disclosed the vitality of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, which was shared by many groups within Puritanism, but he has indicated the sense of newness and discovery with which the “Congregationalists” located and defined their common life. The Holy Spirit in Puritan Faith and Experience (Oxford, 1946)Google Scholar. Visible Saints The Congregational Way 1640–1660 (Oxford, 1957).Google Scholar

64. A frequent theme of Professor William Hailer's has been the role of the Bible in the differentiation of Puritanism through its exposition at the hands of preachers—whether patriarchs of the movement or those of the [tub] variety Cf. Liberty and Reformation in the Puritan Revolution (N. Y., 1955)Google Scholar. In an article it took this form: “The irony of the situation for those who were naturally appalled at the consequences of the liberation of the pulpit was that the uncontrollable, incalculable, disruptive force with which they were confronted was the Bible itself and that they themselves had been the prime agents in setting the Bible to work upon the popular mind.” “The Word of God in the Westminster Assembly,” Church History XVIII, 4 (December, 1949), p. 219Google Scholar. If the Bible was of this instrumental significance the next question would seem to he the relationship between the Puritan divisions and the respective interpretations of the scriptural corpus.

65. Gooch, G. P., English Democratic Ideas (Cambridge, 1927; N. Y., 1959), p. 108.Google Scholar

66. Baillie, R., A Dissuasive from the Errours (1645), ch. XIGoogle Scholar. Goodwin wss probably the author of the widely noted A Glimpse of Syons Glory (1641); see my article with that title in Church History, XXXI, 1 (March, 1962), pp. 66–73Google Scholar. See also his A Sermon of the Fifth Monarchy (1654) and The World to Come (1655), probably preached some ten years before their publication which apparently was not arranged by him. For Burroughs note see especially his Jerusalem Glory (1675).

67. Cf. Maclear, James F.. “Quakerism and the End of the Interreguum: A Chapter in the Domestication of Radical Puritanism,” Church History, XIX, 4 (12, 1950), pp. 240–270CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Geoffrey Nuttall considers “just” Dr. Sippell's description of Quakerism as ganz wesentlich vergeistigter Chiliasmns. The Holy Spirit, op. cit., p. 111.

68. Thus Alan Simpson in Puritanism tn Old and New England (Chicago, 1955), p. 75.Google Scholar