Archive for July, 2007

The Acts of the Witnesses, The Autobiography of Lodowick Muggleton and Other Early Muggletonian Writings

Thursday, July 26th, 2007
click for larger versions The Acts of the Witnesses, The Autobiography of Lodowick Muggleton and Other Early Muggletonian Writings
Edited by T. L. Underwood
[Oxford University Press 1999]

The middle decades of the seventeenth century in England were marked by political and religious turmoil that included civil war, the execution of the king, the abolition of monarchy and episcopacy, and the establishment of a republican government with increased, yet limited, religious toleration. Over the past quarter century, scholars have developed particular interest in the more radical religious movements that arose in this tumultuous period, including Quakers, Seekers, Ranters, and Muggletonians. Drawing on material from a newly discovered archive, this book presents writings produced by the last group, an unusual sect founded in 1652 by John Reeve and Lodowick Muggleton.

The Muggletonians are of special interest because they differ so dramatically from other religious groups of this time. Claiming that they were the last two witnesses of Revelation 11:3, Reeve and Muggleton acted as ultimate religious authorities on earth, blessing some people to eternal happiness and cursing others to everlasting damnation. Following Reeve's death in 1658, Muggleton became sole leader of the movement that eventually took his name. Muggletonians were noted for their emphasis on Reeve and Muggleton's authority (Muggleton claimed to "stand in God's place"), their conception of God as a man between five and six feet tall who reigned in heaven some six miles above the earth, and the fact that their religious services consisted not of prayers and preachings, but of eating, drinking, singing, and discussing religious views in a local alehouse or home.

Partly because they were not evangelistic, their numbers were never large, and by the twentieth century they were thought to be extinct. In the 1970s, however, Philip Noakes of Kent was identified as the "last Muggletonian" and keeper of the group's archive, which was acquired subsequently by the British Library.

In The Acts of the Witnesses, editor T. L. Underwood brings together documents, from this archive, including letters, songs treatises by the two witnesses and others, and Muggleton's autobiography. By making these rare materials readily accessible, the book invites further analysis of the group's history and thought, and commemorates the tercentenary of Muggleton's death in 1698 and the publication of his autobiography in 1699.

Contents

Abbreviations

1 Editor's Introduction

2 Lodowick Muggleton, The Acts of the Witnesses (1699)
The Epistle Dedicatory
The First Part
The Second Part
The Third Part
The Fourth Part
The Fifth Part

3 John Reeve and Lodowick Muggleton, A Transcendent Spiritual Treatise (1652)

4 John Saddington, "The Articles of True Faith" (1675)

5 Thomas Tomkinson, "The White Divell Uncased" (1704)

6 Letters
1. John Reeve to Christopher Hill, 11 June 1656
2. John Reeve to Christopher Hill, 1656
3. John Reeve to Christopher Hill, no date
4. John Reeve to Alice Webb, 15 August 1656
5. Lodowick Muggleton to Mrs. Elizabeth Dickinson, 20 August 1658
6. Lodowick Muggleton to Laurence Claxton [Laurence Clarkson], 25 December 1660
7. Lodowick Muggleton to William Cleve 1665
8. Lodowick Muggleton to Mr. [John?] Martain, 19 January 1666/7
9. Lodowick Muggleton to Walter Bohanan, 23 January 1671/2
10. Lodowick Muggleton to William Penn, 23 January 1673/4
11. Lodowick Muggleton to Elizabeth Dickinson, Jun.[ior], 6 March 1674/5
12. Lodowick Muggleton to Mrs. Hampson, 11 June 1674
13. Mrs. Ellen Sudbury to Mr. Thomas Tomkinson, 10 August 1664
14. Thomas Dudson to Lodowick Muggleton, 2 March 1668/9
15. Alexander Delamain[e] to Mr. George Gamble, 14 August 1677
16. William Wood to Lodowick Muggleton, 9 February 1691/2

7 Songs and Miscellaneous
1. Song by Nathanial Powell
2. Song by William Wood
3. Song by Thomas Tomkinson
4. Song by Thomas Turner
5. Song by John Ladd
6. Song by Alexander Delamain[e]
7. Song by William Wood
8. Song by John Ladd
9. Song by William Wood
10. Song by Thomas Tomkinson
11. An Acrostic by Tobit [Tobiah] Terry
12. Expense Record, Dinner, 19 July 1682

Appendix A
Alternate Epistle Dedicatory to The Acts of the Witnesses (1699)

Appendix B
Sections in the First Edition (1656) deleted from the Second Edition (1661) of A Divine Looking Glass

Notes

Index of Persons

Index of Places

Roger Crab - The English Hermite and Dagons-Downfall

Thursday, July 19th, 2007
click for larger version Roger Crab - The English Hermite and Dagons-Downfall
[Aporia Press 1990]
Tracts and Rants of the Interregnum 3
Introduced by Andrew Hopton

Contents

The English Hermite, or Wonder of this AGE

Being a relation of the life of ROGER CRAB, living neer Uxbridg. taken from his own mouth, shewing his strange reserved and unparallel'd kind of life, who counteth it a sin against his body and soule to eate any sort of Flesh, Fish, or living Creature, or to drinke any Wine, Ale or Beere. He can live with three farthings a week.

His constant food is Roots and Hearbs, as Cabbage, Turneps, Carrets, Dock leaves, and Grasse; also Bread and Bran, without Butter or Cheese: His Cloathing is Sack-cloath.

He left the Army, and kept a Shop at CHESHAM, and hath now left off that, and sold a considerable Estate to give to the Poore, shewing his reasons from the Scripture, Mark. 10. 21; Jer. 35.

Wherefore if meate make my brother to offend, I will never eate flesh while the world stands, 1 Cor. 8. 13.

LONDON
Printed, and are to be sold in Popes-head Alley, and at the Exchange 1655.

Dagons-Downfall; or, The great IDOL digged up Root and Branch.

MATTH. 7.19.
Every Tree that bringeth not forth good Fruit, is hewn down and cast into the Fire.

Printed in the Yeer, 1657:

THE English HERMITES Spade AT THE Ground and root of IDOLATORY.

Claws Mail development on Maemo

Monday, July 9th, 2007

Thanks to a very generous donation from Claws Mail user Guido Rudolphi, Colin and I are now owners of the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. This will enable us to discover just how justified the complaints from the oh-so-demanding n800 users of Claws Mail actually are, and where other improvements can be made.

As the n800 runs GNU/Linux and a modified Debian, using it is fun and easy. I don't have a wi-fi connection, so it's not as much fun as is it might be; I have to download packages on my main PC and then copy them onto the n800 via USB, so it's not quite as easy either. I wanted to upgrade the firmware, as you do when you get a new device such as this, but it was no-go, just forever waiting at "Suitable USB device not found, waiting". I guess that the device-mapping has changed since flasher-3.0 was written, but I'm still not sure. Anyway, this sort of stuff doesn't stand in my way.

Here are a few screenshots (click the image for a larger version)


Claws Mail

XTerm

desktop

Having one of these devices is a big incentive to actually spend a little more time looking at the maemo bug reports and feature requests, and to spend time contributing to Jean-Luc Biord's Maemo port, but not to the detriment of Claws Mail as a desktop app, that will retain the main focus.

Let the hacking commence!

Claws Mail Maemo port: http://www.claws-mail.org/maemo/
Claws Mail at the Maemo Garage: https://garage.maemo.org/projects/claws-mail
Jean-Luc Biord's page at maemopeople.org: http://www.maemopeople.org/index.php/jlbrd/

B. S. Capp - The Fifth Monarchy Men, A Study in Seventeenth-Century English Millenarianism

Sunday, July 1st, 2007
click for larger version B. S. Capp - The Fifth Monarchy Men, A Study in Seventeenth-Century English Millenarianism
[Faber And Faber 1972]

In The Fifth Monarchy Men, Dr Capp places the movement in the context of the rise of millenarian thought in Europe from the Reformation and its rapid spread in England during the Civil Wars. For many radicals, the execution of King Charles cleared the way for King Jesus, and heralded the establishment of a revolutionary millennium. The apparent apostasy of the Rump Parliament and Oliver Cromwell channelled part of the wave of millenarian feeling into the formation of a specific sect. The first comprehensive study of the Fifth Monarchists movement traces its history from its origins until its disappearance in the mid-1680s, and examines its social, political, legal and religious proposals.

Although it had the support of a number of gentry and army officers, it was essentially an urban movement of artisans, apprentices, and even labourers, reaching lower down the social scale than any other contemporary radical movement, with the possible exception of the Diggers. Dr Capp discusses its regional and organizational structure, and its relationship to other revolutionary sects, notably the Levellers and Quakers. He analyses the nature of the projected millennium — the social, political, and economic programmes of the self-styled saints which, though revolutionary, were elitist rather than equalitarian. The Fifth Monarchist's militant foreign policy, he suggests, was shaped by the twofold consideration of exporting the revolution and of strengthening the position of English trade. Their much-derided call for the re-establishment of the Mosaic Code is shown to be the culmination of a long tradition of such thinking amongst Puritan and earlier writers.

Contents

Preface

1 Introduction
2 The Origins and Rise of Millenarianism to 1649
3 The Beginnings of the Fifth Monarchy Movement and the Barebones Parliament, 1649-1653
4 The Distribution and Composition of the Fifth Monarchy Men
5 The Fifth Monarchists in Opposition, 1653-60
6 The Political, Social and Economic Ideas of the Fifth Monarchy Men
7 Fifth Monarchists and the Reform of the Law
8 The Religious and Intellectual Attitudes of the Fifth Monarchists
9 The Later Years of the Fifth Monarchy Men
10 Conclusion

Appendix I: Bibliographical Appendix
Appendix II: Locations of Fifth Monarchist Congregations, Ministers and Agents
Appendix III: The Schism with John Simpson's Congregation, 1656-8

Bibliography
Index

  • You are currently browsing the breviary stuff archive of July, 2007

  • Current Books

    Further information and comments (RSS)
    Frank Aydelotte - Elizabethan Rogues and Vagabonds Frank Aydelotte - Elizabethan Rogues and Vagabonds
    [Frank Cass 1967]
    Marcus Rediker - Villains of All Nations, Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age Marcus Rediker - Villains of All Nations, Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age
    [Verso 2004]
    Buchanan Sharp - In Contempt of All Authority, Rural Artisans and Riot in the West of England, 1586-1660 Buchanan Sharp - In Contempt of All Authority, Rural Artisans and Riot in the West of England, 1586-1660
    [University of California Press 1980]
    E. P. Thompson - Whigs and Hunters, The Origin of the Black Act E. P. Thompson - Whigs & Hunters, The Origin of the Black Act
    [Penguin 1990]
  • Current Music

    Henry Snowstorm - Civil Unrest Henry Snowstorm - Civil Unrest
    [the Wild Beast Records 2007]
    Karl Hector and The Malcouns - Sahara Swing Karl Hector & The Malcouns - Sahara Swing
    [Now-Again 2008]
    Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds and Nigerian Blues 1970-6 Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds and Nigerian Blues 1970-6
    [Soundway Records 2008]
    Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - Sankofa / Salah Ragab - One Tree/Ole Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - Sankofa / Salah Ragab and the Afro-Egyptian Ensemble - One Tree/Ole
    [Honest Jon's Records 2007]
    Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - Brass In Africa Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - Brass In Africa
    [Handcuts Records 2007]
  • Latest from Atlas Press

    Carlo Emilio Gadda - The Philosophers' Madonna Carlo Emilio Gadda - The Philosophers' Madonna
    [Eclectics & Heteroclites 8 2008]
    Alfred Jarry - Three Early Novels Alfred Jarry - Three Early Novels
    [Anti Classic 9 2007]
    Michel Leiris - Mirror of Tauromachy Michel Leiris - Mirror of Tauromachy
    [Eclectics & Heteroclites 7 2007]
    Konrad Bayer - the sixth sense Konrad Bayer - the sixth sense
    [Eclectics & Heteroclites 6 2007]
  • Pages

  • Categories

  • Archives