Peter Sterry (1613 – 19 November 1672) was an English

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

theologian, associated with the

Cambridge Platonists The Cambridge Platonists were an influential group of Platonist philosophers and Christian theologians at the University of Cambridge that existed during the 17th century. The leading figures were Ralph Cudworth and Henry More. Group and its nam ...

prominent during the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

era. He was chaplain to Parliamentarian general

Robert Greville, 2nd Baron Brooke Robert Greville, 2nd Baron Brooke (May 1607 – 4 March 1643) was an English politician, military officer and peer. A leading opponent of Charles I of England, when the First English Civil War began in August 1642, he was appointed as the command ...

and then

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially ...

, a member of the

Westminster Assembly The Westminster Assembly of Divines was a council of Divinity (academic discipline), divines (theologians) and members of the English Parliament appointed from 1643 to 1653 to restructure the Church of England. Several Scots also attended, and ...

, and a leading radical

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

preacher attached to the

English Council of State The English Council of State, later also known as the Protector's Privy Council, was first appointed by the Rump Parliament on 14 February 1649 after the execution of King Charles I. Charles's execution on 30 January was delayed for several ho ...

. He was made fun of in ''

Hudibras ''Hudibras'' () is a vigorous satirical poem, written in a mock-heroic style by Samuel Butler (1613–1680), and published in three parts in 1663, 1664 and 1678. The action is set in the last years of the Interregnum, around 1658–60, immediate ...

''.

Life

He was born in

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. He went to St. Olave's Grammar School,

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

. He was a Fellow of

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mo ...

, from 1636, where he had studied since 1629; but gave up the fellowship quite soon. He preached to Parliament on important occasions: in 1649 after the surrender of

Drogheda Drogheda ( , ; , meaning "bridge at the ford") is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, north of Dublin. It is located on the Dublin–Belfast corridor on the east coast of Ireland, mostly in County Louth ...

and

Waterford Waterford ( ) is a City status in Ireland, city in County Waterford in the South-East Region, Ireland, south-east of Ireland. It is located within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster. The city is situated at the head of Waterford H ...

, in 1651 after the

battle of Worcester The Battle of Worcester took place on 3 September 1651 in and around the city of Worcester, England and was the last major battle of the 1642 to 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A Parliamentarian army of around 28,000 under Oliver Cromwell def ...

. His sermons, widely allusive, were considered opaque:

David Masson David Mather Masson (2 December 18226 October 1907), was a Scotland, Scottish academic, supporter of women's suffrage, literary critic and historian. Biography Masson was born in Aberdeen, the son of Sarah Mather and William Masson, a sto ...

quotes a contemporary opinion: After the Restoration, he retired to a community in

East Sheen East Sheen, also known as Sheen, is a suburb in south-west London in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its long High Street, high street has shops, offices, restaurants, cafés, pubs and suburban supermarkets and is also the economic ...

. He took part in preaching, for example at Hackney and

conventicle A conventicle originally meant "an assembly" and was frequently used by ancient writers to mean "a church." At a semantic level, ''conventicle'' is a Latinized synonym of the Greek word for ''church'', and references Jesus' promise in Matthew 18: ...

s.CDNB Literary historian

Vivian de Sola Pinto Vivian de Sola Pinto (9 December 1895 – 27 July 1969) was a British poet, literary critic and historian. He was a leading scholarly authority on D. H. Lawrence, and appeared for the defence (Penguin Books) in the 1960 ''Lady Chatterley's Lo ...

observes that Sterry "had exactly the qualities that Puritans like Bunyan lacked: intellectual freedom, flexibility of mind, imagination, tolerance and loving-kindness."

Pinto Pinto is a Portuguese, Spanish, Jewish (Sephardic), and Italian surname. It is a high-frequency surname in all Portuguese-speaking countries and is also widely present in Spanish-speaking countries, Italy, India (especially in Mangalore, Karnata ...

, ''Peter Sterry, Platonist and Puritan'' (1934), 63. Sterry "united with this tenderness a wide culture, a true humanist's delight in learning and a love of beauty in all its manifestations." He is commemorated by a stained glass window in the chapel of Emmanuel College, which has an archive of unpublished writings.

Views

Described as a ' Platonizing

', an '

Origen Origen of Alexandria (), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an Early Christianity, early Christian scholar, Asceticism#Christianity, ascetic, and Christian theology, theologian who was born and spent the first half of his career in Early cent ...

ian universalist,' as well as a Behmenist (despite disagreeing with Böhme on much), he was a follower of leading Cambridge Platonist Benjamin Whichcote. As a mystic, he spoke of 'hidden music'. A

millenarian Millenarianism or millenarism () is the belief by a religious organization, religious, social, or political party, political group or Social movement, movement in a coming fundamental Social transformation, transformation of society, after which ...

, he expected in the early 1650s the

Second Coming The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is the Christianity, Christian and Islam, Islamic belief that Jesus, Jesus Christ will return to Earth after his Ascension of Jesus, ascension to Heaven (Christianity), Heav ...

shortly, with 1656 a decisive year. He with

William Erbery William Erbery or Erbury (1604 – April 1654) was a Welsh clergyman and radical Independent theologian. He was the father of the militant Quaker Dorcas Erbery. Life Erbery was born in Roath, Cardiff. He graduated from Brasenose College, O ...

'had difficulty in distinguishing themselves from

Ranters The Ranters were one of a number of English Dissenters, dissenting groups that emerged about the time of the Commonwealth of England (1649–1660). They were largely common people, and the movement was widespread throughout England, though they w ...

'; but he wrote against Ranter 'errors'. He was a sympathiser with early Quakerism, and preached in their defence when

James Nayler James Nayler (or Naylor; 1618–1660) was an English Quaker leader. He was among the members of the Valiant Sixty, a group of early Quaker preachers and missionaries. In 1656, Nayler achieved national notoriety when he re-enacted Christ's Palm ...

was under attack by MPs at the parliament of 1656. Robin Parry summarizes: "In many ways Sterry is an anomaly—a Puritan who was a lover of the arts and poetry, a Platonist who was a theological determinist, a deeply rational mystic, and a Calvinist universalist." The following excerpt exemplifies Sterry's thought and style quite well:

The divine love covers all things with the divine loveliness and beauty of the universal harmony, which is the righteousness of God in Christ, the first, the fairest image of the invisible God, in which every other image of God stands, as in the original, the all-comprehending glory.Peter Sterry, ''A Discourse of the Freedom of the Will'' (1675), preface, as cited in Vivian de Sola Pinto, ''Peter Sterry, Platonist and Puritan'' (1934), p. 131 (excerpt 1), with slightly modernized spelling, punctuation, and syntax.

Family

The Oxford academic Nathaniel Sterry was his younger brother.

Works

*''The Spirit Convincing of Sinne'', fast sermon for Parliament, 26 November 1645 *''England's Deliverance from the Northern Presbytery, Compared with its Deliverance from the Roman Papacy'' (1652) sermon on the Battle of Worcester *'' Way of God with his people in these nations'', sermon for Parliament 5 November 1656 *''Free Grace Exalted'' (1670) *''A Discourse of the Freedom of the Will'' (1675) *''The Rise, Race, and Royalty of the Kingdom of God in the Soul'' (1683) *''The Appearance of God to Man in the Gospel'' (1710)

References

* F. J. Powicke, "Peter Sterry: A Puritan Mystic." Primitive Methodist Quarterly Review 47 (1905): 617–25. *

(1968) Peter Sterry, Platonist and Puritan, 1613–1672;: A biographical and critical study with passages selected from his writings *V. de Sola Pinto, Peter Sterry and His Unpublished Writings, The Review of English Studies, Vol. 6, No. 24 (Oct. 1930), pp. 385–407 *Nabil I. Matar (1994), Peter Sterry: Select Writings *Matar, "Peter Sterry and the Comenian Circle: Education and Eschatology in Restoration Nonconformity," The Journal of the United Reformed Church History Society, 5 (1994): 183–192. *Matar, "Aristotelian Tragedy in the Theology of Peter Sterry," Literature and Theology, 6 (1992): 310–20. *Matar, "'Oyle of Joy': The Early Prose of Peter Sterry," Philological Quarterly, 71 (1992): 31–46. *Matar, "John Donne, Peter Sterry and the ars moriendi," Exploration in Renaissance Culture, 17 (1991): 55–71. *Matar, "Peter Sterry and the Puritan Defense of Ovid in Restoration England," Studies in Philology, 88 (1991): 110–121. *Matar, "Peter Sterry and the 'Paradise Within': A Study of the Emmanuel College Letters," Restoration, 13 (1989): 76–85. *Matar, "Peter Sterry and Jacob Boehme," Notes and Queries, 231 (1986): 33–36. *Matar, "Peter Sterry and the First English Poem on the Druids," National Library of Wales Journal, 24 (1985): 222–243. *Matar, "Peter Sterry and the Ranters," Notes and Queries, 227 (1982): 504–506. *Matar, "Peter Sterry and the 'lovely Society' at West Sheen," Notes and Queries, 227 (1982): 45–46, *Matar, "Peter Sterry, the Millennium and Oliver Cromwell," The Journal of the United Reformed Church History Society, 2 (1982): 334–343. *Matar, "A Note on George Herbert and Peter Sterry," George Herbert Journal, 5 (1982): 71–75. *Matar, "Peter Sterry and Morgan Llwyd," The Journal of the United Reformed Church History Society, 2 (1981): 275–279. *Matar, "The Peter Sterry MSS at Emmanuel College, Cambridge," Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 8 (1981): 42–56. With P. J.Croft.

Notes

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sterry, Peter 1613 births 1672 deaths Westminster Divines English theologians People educated at St Olave's Grammar School Fellows of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Cambridge Platonists Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge English male non-fiction writers