Thomas Wright (1561-1624) was an English

recusant Recusancy (from ) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign of Elizabeth I, and temporarily repea ...

and early emotion theorist. Wright is known for his work ''The Passions of the Minde in generall.'' Wright is a possible candidate for the priest

Ben Jonson Benjamin Jonson ( 11 June 1572 – ) was an English playwright, poet and actor. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence on English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for the satire, satirical ...

referenced during the trials for the

Gunpowder Plot The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was an unsuccessful attempted regicide against James VI and I, King James VI of Scotland and I of England by a group of English ...

Life

Wright was born in York. He studied at the Jesuit Douai Seminary and the English College in Rome, then returned to England in 1595 carrying intelligence regarding Spanish military strategy. Though he remained a Catholic priest, Wright left the Society of Jesus because of his English sympathies and distaste with Robert Parsons' support of plots against

Queen Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elisabeth or Elizabeth the Queen may refer to: Queens regnant * Elizabeth I (1533–1603; ), Queen of England and Ireland * Elizabeth II (1926–2022; ), Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms * Queen B ...

. By 1596 Wright had upset Matthew Hutton, the Archbishop of York, and was imprisoned for his vocal recusancy. Wright finished ''Passions of the Minde'' shortly before his escape from prison, and published it shortly thereafter. In ''Passions of the Minde,'' Wright explores the

passions ''Passions'' is an American television soap opera that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1999, to September 7, 2007, and on DirecTV's The 101 Network from September 17, 2007, to August 7, 2008. Created by screenwriter James E. Reilly and ...

and their relationship to

moral psychology Moral psychology is the study of human thought and behavior in ethical contexts. Historically, the term "moral psychology" was used relatively narrowly to refer to the study of moral development. This field of study is interdisciplinary between th ...

. Wright may be responsible for converting

Works

Wright is ascribed: *''The Disposition or Garnishmente of the Soule.''
''The Passions of the Minde in generall''.
By Thomas Wright,’London, 1601, which reappeared in 1604 "corrected, enlarged, and with sundry new discourses augmented", and was reissued in 1621 and 1630. This work was dedicated to Henry Wriothesley, third earl of Southampton in the hope that he may be "delivered from inordinate passions", and had

commendatory verse The epideictic oratory, also called ceremonial oratory or praise-and-blame rhetoric, is one of the three branches, or "species" (eidē), of rhetoric, as outlined in Aristotle's ''Rhetoric'', to be used to praise or blame, during ceremonies. Orig ...

s by B. I. (Ben Jonson). *''A Succinct Philosophicall Declaration of the Nature of Clymactericall Yeeres, occasioned by the Death of Queene Elizabeth'' Written by T. W ight Printed for T. Thorpe, London, 1604. Another Thomas Wright, M.A., of Peterhouse, Cambridge, issued in 1685 ''The Glory of Gods Revenge against the Bloody and Detestable Sins of Murther and Adultery'' (London).

References

* * Thomas O. Sloan (1969).
A renaissance controversialist on rhetoric: Thomas Wright's ''passions of the minde in generall.''
'" Speech Monographs'' vol. 36, no. 1. * Erin Sullivan (2015).
The passions of Thomas Wright: Renaissance emotion across body and soul.
In ''The Renaissance of Emotion.'' Manchester UP. ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Thomas 17th-century English writers 17th-century English male writers