John Quick (1636 – 29 April 1706) was an English
nonconformist
Nonconformity or nonconformism may refer to:
Culture and society
* Insubordination, the act of willfully disobeying an order of one's superior
*Dissent, a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or entity
** ...
divine
Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.[divine< ...](_blank)
.
Early life
Quick was born in
Plymouth. After graduating at Oxford in 1657 he was ordained at
Ermington in Devon in 1659. A more famous contemporary
John Flavel
John Flavel (c. 1627–1691) was an English Puritan Presbyterian minister and author.
Life
Flavel, the eldest son of the Rev. Richard Flavel, described as 'a painful and eminent minister,' who was incumbent successively of Bromsgrove, Worceste ...
(1628–91) ministered at nearby
Dartmouth. He served at
Kingsbridge
Kingsbridge is a market town and tourist hub in the South Hams district of Devon, England, with a population of 6,116 at the 2011 census. Two electoral wards bear the name of ''Kingsbridge'' (East & North). Their combined population at the ab ...
and then at
Brixton near Plymouth.
Imprisonment
Undeterred by the
Act of Uniformity (1662), he continued to preach. He was arrested during a service on 13 December 1663 and imprisoned at
Exeter. At his trial, he was nearly acquitted on a technicality, but since he refused to give up preaching, he was sent to prison. After eight weeks, he was liberated by Sir
Matthew Hale. The
Bishop of Exeter,
Seth Ward, then prosecuted Quick for preaching to the prisoners but he was acquitted.
Charles II's
Royal Declaration of Indulgence
The Royal Declaration of Indulgence was Charles II of England's attempt to extend religious liberty to Protestant nonconformists and Roman Catholics in his realms, by suspending the execution of the Penal Laws that punished recusants from the ...
of 1672 brought a brief respite for the persecuted Puritan brotherhood. Quick was licensed to preach at Plymouth. When restrictions were imposed again the following year, he was imprisoned for three months with other nonconformists at the
Marshalsea
The Marshalsea (1373–1842) was a notorious prison in Southwark, just south of the River Thames. Although it housed a variety of prisoners, including men accused of crimes at sea and political figures charged with sedition, it became known, ...
prison in Plymouth.
On his release, Quick left the west of England for London. He then traveled to the
Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...
where he became a minister to the English church at
Middelburg Middelburg may refer to:
Places and jurisdictions Europe
* Middelburg, Zeeland, the capital city of the province of Zeeland, southwestern Netherlands
** Roman Catholic Diocese of Middelburg, a former Catholic diocese with its see in the Zeeland ...
in 1679. Returning to London two years later, Quick gathered a
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 ...
congregation in a small meeting house in Middlesex Court, Bartholomew Close and Smithfield.
On the eve of easier times, his London ministry “successful to the conversion of many,” says
Edmund Calamy[An Account of the Ministers...Ejected or Silenced after the Restoration in 1660, 2nd edition (London, 1713), ii. 333] was relatively undisturbed; the
Glorious Revolution and the Toleration Act of 1688-89 eventually brought persecution to an end. Known as “a serious, good preacher” with a “great facility and freedom in prayer,”
John Quick continued to serve his people faithfully until his death on 29 April 1706. His wife Elizabeth died in 1708. Their only daughter became the wife of Dr.
John Evans (c. 1680–1730) who completed the
Matthew Henry's commentary on the
Epistle to the Romans.
Publications
Quick was author of the ''Synodicon in Gallia Reformata'' - a collection of liturgical texts used by the Huguenots in late 17th-century England. During his early ministry, he became acquainted with the
Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
refugees, some of whom landed at Plymouth from
La Rochelle
La Rochelle (, , ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''La Rochéle''; oc, La Rochèla ) is a city on the west coast of France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department. Wi ...
in 1681—the
year the ''dragonnades'' began.
Quick's interest in the Huguenots did not end with the ''Synodicon''. Besides published sermons of his own, he also prepared for publication a selection of fifty brief biographies of eminent pastors, theologians, and martyrs of the
French Reformed Church
The Reformed Church of France (french: Église réformée de France, ERF) was the main Protestant denomination in France with a Calvinist orientation that could be traced back directly to John Calvin. In 2013, the Church merged with the Evang ...
, the ''Icones Sacrae Gallicanae''.
He also produced a similar selection of twenty
Puritans
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...
, the ''Icones Sacrae Anglicanae''. These ambitious ventures failed with the death in 1700 of
William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford
William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford KG PC (August 1616 – 7 September 1700) was an English nobleman and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 until 1641 when he inherited his Peerage as 5th Earl of Bedford and removed to the ...
(the dedicatee of the ''Synodicon'') who had offered to assist with the cost. Advancing illness also prevented Quick from collecting subscriptions for the work.
[See “Translated Abstracts from the Act Book of the ]Consistory
Consistory is the anglicized form of the consistorium, a council of the closest advisors of the Roman emperors. It can also refer to:
*A papal consistory, a formal meeting of the Sacred College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church
* Consistor ...
of the Threadneedle Street rench
The Rench is a right-hand tributary of the Rhine in the Ortenau ( Central Baden, Germany). It rises on the southern edge of the Northern Black Forest at Kniebis near Bad Griesbach im Schwarzwald. The source farthest from the mouth is that of the ...
Church, 1693- 1708,” entry for 6 March 1702-3: “M. Quick returned the 25s paid him as subscription for the book called Icones which he proposed to give to the public, his indisposition compelling him to refrain from printing it” (Proceedings 7 901-4 40. Following the Quick's death, the manuscript volumes were eventually deposited at
Dr. Williams's Library in London.
References
*
;Attribution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quick, John
1636 births
1706 deaths
Clergy from Plymouth, Devon
17th-century English clergy