Oliver Pigg (also Pig, Pygg and Pygge) ( fl. 1580) was an English

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...

clergyman.

Life

Born about 1551, Pigg was from

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. He was admitted pensioner of St. John's College, Cambridge, on 6 Oct. 1565, and scholar on 8 Nov. 1566. He graduated B.A. in 1568–9. Pigg was rector of All Saints', Colchester, 1569–71 of St. Peter's, Colchester, 1569–79, and Abberton in Essex, 1571–8. In 1578 he was also beneficed in the

diocese of Norwich The Diocese of Norwich is an ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Church of England that forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England. History It traces its roots in an unbroken line to the diocese of the Bishop of the East A ...

, and in February 1583 was temporarily appointed to the cure of

Rougham, Suffolk Rougham is a village and former civil parish north west of Ipswich, now in the parish of Rushbrooke with Rougham, in the West Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. Until April 2019 Rougham was in the St Edmundsbury district. In ...

. In July 1583 Pigg was imprisoned at

Bury St. Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton A ...

. The charge was of "dispraising" the ''

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...

'', especially by putting the question in the baptismal service, "Dost thou believe?" to the parents, in place of the child. In a petition for release to the justices of Bury he declared his "detestation of the proceedings of

Browne Browne is a variant of the English surname Brown, meaning "brown-haired" or "brown-skinned". It may sometimes be derived from French ''le Brun'' with similar meaning. The ''Mac an Bhreitheamhnaigh'' clan of County Donegal have anglicized as Browne s ...

Harrison Harrison may refer to: People * Harrison (name) * Harrison family of Virginia, United States Places In Australia: * Harrison, Australian Capital Territory, suburb in the Canberra district of Gungahlin In Canada: * Inukjuak, Quebec, or " ...

, and their favourers". Before the next assizes he conformed; and after some further minor troubles was discharged. In 1587, at a meeting held at Cambridge, under the presidency of Thomas Cartwright to promote church discipline, Pigg and

William Dyke William D. "Bill" Dyke (April 25, 1930March 10, 2016) was an American lawyer, judge, and politician. He was a two-term mayor of Madison, Wisconsin from 1969 to 1973 and ran for Vice President of the United States on the American Independent Part ...

were nominated superintendents of the Puritan ministers for

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. In 1589 he preached in

Dorchester, Dorset Dorchester ( ) is the county town of Dorset, England. It is situated between Poole and Bridport on the A35 trunk route. A historic market town, Dorchester is on the banks of the River Frome to the south of the Dorset Downs and north of the ...

, and in 1591 was in London.

Works

Pigg wrote: *A sermon on the 101st psalm *''A comfortable Treatise upon the latter part of the fourth chapter of the first Epistle of St. Peter, from the twelfth verse to the ende'', London, 1582 *''Meditations concerning Prayer to Almighty God for the Safety of England when the Spaniards were come into the Narrow Seas, 1588. As also other Meditations for delivering England from the Cruelty of the Spaniards'', London, 1588

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Pigg, Oliver Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 16th-century English Puritan ministers People from Essex Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge