John Humfrey (1621–1719) was an English clergyman, an ejected minister from 1662 and controversialist active in the

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

cause.

Life

He graduated B.A from

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located at Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale, and was named after ...

in 1641, and M.A. in 1647. He studied in Oxford during the royalist occupation there. He received presbyterian ordination in 1649, and became vicar of

Frome Selwood Frome ( ) is a town and civil parish in eastern Somerset, England. The town is built on uneven high ground at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills, and centres on the River Frome. The town, about south of Bath, is the largest in the Mendip d ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

. He defended with Thomas Blake free admission to communion, in a controversy that opposed him to Roger Drake. His views of the Interregnum period were

Erastian Thomas Erastus (original surname Lüber, Lieber, or Liebler; 7 September 152431 December 1583) was a Swiss physician and Calvinist theologian. He wrote 100 theses (later reduced to 75) in which he argued that the sins committed by Christians shou ...

. He was re-ordained by

William Piers William Piers may refer to: * William Piers (bishop) William Piers (Pierse, Pierce; –1670) was Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University from 1621 to 1624, Bishop of Peterborough from 1630 to 1632 and Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1632 until t ...

Bishop of Bath and Wells The Bishop of Bath and Wells heads the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells in the Province of Canterbury in England. The present diocese covers the overwhelmingly greater part of the (ceremonial) county of Somerset and a small area of Do ...

in 1661. Humfrey defended his action, in ''The Question of Re-Ordination''(1661). He shortly changed his mind, however, and lost his living in 1662 for nonconformism. He set up a church in Duke's Place, London, and afterwards in Petticoat Lane,

Whitechapel Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...

. With the congregationalist

Stephen Lobb Stephen Lobb (c. 1647 – 1699) was an English nonconformist minister and controversialist. He was prominent in the 1680s as a court representative of the Independents to James II, and in the 1690s in polemics between the Presbyterian and Independe ...

he wrote two works against

Edward Stillingfleet Edward Stillingfleet (17 April 1635 – 27 March 1699) was a British Christian theologian and scholar. Considered an outstanding preacher as well as a strong polemical writer defending Anglicanism, Stillingfleet was known as "the beauty of holin ...

's ''Mischief of Separation''. He was a staunch advocate of a national church and the unity of Protestants within it, and supported ‘comprehension’, the adjustment of positions to bring nonconformists back within the Church of England. His ''A Case of Conscience'' (1669) argued that in matter of religion the magistrate should not constrain people against the requirements of their conscience. Andrew Pyle (editor), ''Dictionary of Seventeenth Century British Philosophers'' (2000), article on Humfrey, pp. 455-6.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Humfrey, John 1621 births 1719 deaths Ejected English ministers of 1662 Erastians