Joseph Salmon (
fl. 1647–1656) was a significant English religious and political writer of the middle of the seventeenth century.
Life
He served in the
New Model Army, leaving it in 1649. ''A Rout, A Rout'' contained criticism of the Parliamentary leadership. He was arrested in 1650, and imprisoned in
Coventry
Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...
, with a six-month sentence; and cashiered from the Army.
After 1650 he was for a time a minister in
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
. He left Kent and went abroad in the middle of 1655. He later emigrated to
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...
.
A Ranter?
He was known to the Quaker
George Fox, from 1648/9, who identified him as one of the
Ranters
The Ranters were one of a number of dissenting groups that emerged around the time of the English Commonwealth (1649–1660). They were largely common people and the movement was widespread throughout England, though they were not organised and ...
. Who exactly the Ranters were is now a topic of scholarly debate, and it is suggested Fox may have supplied that name later;
Christopher Hill considers Salmon to have belonged to the ‘mystical and quietist wing’ of the Ranters.
Salmon's last known work is ''Heights in Depths'', from 1651, an apparent if partial recantation, written to fulfil a promise he had made to secure release from jail; he then fell silent as an author. He became a Quaker.
Views
His views were
pantheistic
Pantheism is the belief that reality, the universe and the cosmos are identical with divinity and a supreme supernatural being or entity, pointing to the universe as being an immanent creator deity still expanding and creating, which has ...
, taking an allegorical-psychological view of the interpretation of the Bible.
Works
*''Anti-Christ in Man'' (1647)
*''A Rout, A Rout'' (1649)
*''Divinity Anatomized'' (1649)
*''Heights in Depths'' (1651)
Heights in depths and depths in heights or Truth no less secretly then sweetly sparkling out its glory from under a cloud of obloquie. Wherein is discovered the various motions of an experienced soul, in and through the manifold dispensations of God. And how the author hath been acted in, and redeemed from the unknown paths of darkness; wherein, as in a wilderness, he hath wandered without the clear vision of a Divine Presence. Together with a sincere abdication of certain tenents, either formerly vented by him, or now charged upon him. Per me Jo. Salmon. [WorldCat.org]
/ref>
Notes
External links
*Nigel Smith
"Salmon, Joseph"
( fl. 1647–1656), ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 4 Aug 2008
A Rout, a Rout
at the Ex-Classics Web Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salmon, Joseph
English political writers
English religious writers
English independent ministers of the Interregnum (England)
Roundheads
Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown
17th-century Christian mystics
Protestant mystics
English male non-fiction writers