Throughout the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the Puritans,[fn1] as had the Lollards before them, emerged as an inner light in a Church was increasingly becoming both secular in outlook, and corrupt. To them, the Protestant Reformation was a compromise - they desired a Church like that of the Protestant Churches of France and Switzerland, in other words the objectives towards which Cranmer was working before Queen Mary came to the throne. They objected to the sign of the Cross in baptism, to kneeling at the Communion [for fear of adoring the elements], and to the use of surplices and albs. They insisted strongly that everything must be according to the model of the New Testament. Their remarkable strength "lay in their constant appeal to Scripture to settle all questions of faith and morals. It was the `touchstone of God's Word' that counted with them not the opinions of men."[fn2]

    In Cornwall, Puritanism was never the religion of many - mainly because of the County's conservative outlook on religion. But it was a minority that was well-organised, well-informed, and one to be reckoned with. With this conservative outlook, by the beginning of the Seventeenth Century, the Church of England, to the majority of Cornish folk, had replaced the Roman Catholic Church in their affection; and because of this these new Puritan Clergymen were viewed with the contempt that had initially been shown to the Protestants during the previous Century. In fact, throughout the whole of the Seventeenth Century. Cornwall, as a County, remained loyal to Church and King; and the Puritans that there were, were mostly moderate Presbyterians.

    When James VI of Scotland became King James I of England in 1603, the Puritans thought that as he came from a Presbyterian Country, he would be sympathetic towards them. They discovered differently at the King's Hampton Court Conference of 1604. A Royal Proclamation was also issued, demanding complete conformity to the settled order of the Church of England on the part of all; and of course an acknowledgement of the King's Supremacy.[fn3] Fifteen hundred clergymen refused to sign the new Canon; but at St Gluvias there were no objections.

    While all this was going on at a National level, the See of Exeter was shedding more of its secular powers in Penryn. Before 1606 the Bishops leased out their Manors at Penryn on a Stock and Lease system whereby they leased not only the property, but also a certain number of animals that had to be replaced when the lease came to an end. However, from 1606 onward, the land was allowed to be permanently leased to the town to become Corporate Property. The first acquisition of property was in 1612 for "a street called Bolehill Street between the lands of the late heirs of John Dunkin and a piece of Ground called Episcopal on the north and the lands late the heirs of Thomas Hendra on the south and bordereth with the said street called Bolehill Street on the west and then extended downwards the sea or cliff.”[fn4]

    When the time came for the people of Penryn to finance the building of their Market House, they raised the £20 needed by selling the jewels of St Gluvias Church; and when the Bishop's lease had to be renewed and large sums of money had to be found, the Corporation raised it by loans amongst its own members, which were repaid during the following years.

    By 1640, the rift between Parliament and Puritanism on the one hand, and the King with the Neo-Catholic Church under Archbishop Laud on the other, had become so great that there was open warfare between the two sides. For during that year, the famous Long Parliament met, and fifteen thousand Londoners had presented the ‘Boot and Branch Petition’ that demanded that the Episcopal method of church government should be abolished; that the ‘faithful preachers’ should no longer be silenced; and that such practices as bowing to the altar;[fn5] and the use of images, crucifixes and candles should be abolished. By August 22nd 1642, the English Civil War had begun.

    When the war was well under way [in 1644], the Puritans passed an ordinance for the ejecting of ‘scandalous Ministers’ - that is, those who did not accept or share the Puritan point of view. However, because Cornwall was such a Royalist stronghold, this took a long time to be put into operation in the County; for it wasn't until 1645 when the Parliamentarians defeated the King's army at Tresillian Bridge, that they able to march into Cornwall. In the following year, the Puritans began to sweep the County of its Neo-Catholic Ministers and loyalties. They deprived them of their now beloved English Prayer-Book, and started ejecting the parochial clergy who refused to conform.

    Amongst the seventy-two Cornish clergy who were deprived of their living was Richard Whittaker, the Vicar of St Gluvias. This happened in 1649. Like many others, he was awarded a fifth of the revenue of his sequested living, and his place was taken a local Pastor of another benefice who agreed to keep a check on the Services and spiritual life of the people of Penryn and Budock. So, for eleven years, from 1649 until the Restoration of the King and Church in 1660, St Gluvias had no Vicar.

    There was also an attempt in 1649 to sell the Bishop's Manor to a Thomas Cleely of Plymouth, but the deal, advocated by Cromwell's County Committee, fell through - and the Bishop managed to cling onto his remaining few precious belongings in Cornwall. Although Penryn itself was more hostile to the Royalist cause than the majority of Cornwall and adopted Presbyterian Members of Parliament (Sir John Bampfield, one of one ten extreme Cornish Presbyterians, and Captain John Fox); Cornwall as a whole had little enthusiasm for Presbyterianism, surprisingly enough finding a great affinity with George Fox and his Quakers, whose missions to Cornwall had begun in 1655.

    But times were changing, drastically changing, for “with the introduction of military government in 1655 and the triumph of Independence over Presbyterianism; it was with relief and hope that the inhabitants of the towns and villages of Cornwall welcomed the news of the King's Restoration, and with him the system of the Anglican Church."[fn6] In the summer of 1660, King Charles II returned to England with the Established Church of England, and, as Miles Brown indicated, Cornwall as a whole gave thanks; except for Penryn!

    For some reason, this small town, which throughout its long history had been a strong Catholic area, had during the unrest of the Seventeenth Century, looked to the Puritans for spiritual awakening and understanding. And while the rest of Cornwall was rejoicing over what today would be called an ‘Anglo-Catholic Revival’, the parishioners of St Gluvias had come to the realisation that a Church full of pomp and ceremony was not perhaps the best way for them to express their faith. So in 1660, while in the main, the Church was restoring its ‘High Church’ Bishops, the parishioners of St Gluvias were given their first Vicar for eleven years, a Joseph Allen, who was one of the forerunners of the great Cornish Evangelical Revival of the following Century - when the Wesleys and George Whitfield were leading many to Christ.

    In 1662, to make sure that there were no further outbreaks of Puritan sympathy in the Nation, the King passed the Act of Uniformity, which demanded complete acceptance of the Anglican Prayer-Book "in every jot and tittle''. With the passing of this Act, over two thousand Presbyterian, Independent and Baptist Independent and Baptist Ministers were ejected from their livings. Needless to say, amongst them was Joseph Allen; who took his wife and four children into the neighbouring Parish of Perranarworthal, to wait hope and pray that he would be able to return to the Church that needed him.

    Despite this outbreak of anti High Church fever in St Gluvias, ironically one of the greatest triumphs of the Anglican Revival actually occurred within the Parish boundaries of the Church. In 1661, the Killigrews founded the town of Falmouth near their Pendennis Castle. But this was within the boundary of Penryn's Parish, with whom (as Winston Graham's historical novel ‘The Grove of Eagles’ highlighted) there was a continual feud. So when in 1662, Sir Peter Killigrew obtained money from the King and others to found a Church at Falmouth; and within a couple of years, the King had also a created a new Parish for the new town out of part of St Budock's Parish lands. This meant that the inhabitants of Falmouth could attend their own Church instead of having to make the two mile journey each Sunday to St Budock [as Graham's characters had had to do!]. However, the Corporation of Falmouth had to pay £3 per year to the Vicar of St Gluvias for the ‘right’ to worship away from his Church.

    Despite the attempts of the restored Anglican Church to curb dissenters, there emerged two main groups from the Puritan tradition of the Commonwealth Period, both of which soon began to strengthen and grow into national and international denominations: the Quakers and the Baptists.[fn7]

    The Quakers or the 'Society of Friends' was founded by George Fox in the 1650's. A son of a Leicestershire weaver, who became disillusioned with the behaviour of professing Christians, and so gathered around himself groups of `seekers' who similarly felt that the Churches were leading people away from the real purposes of Christianity, and instead were becoming bogged down with tradition, ritual and power politics. In 1655 Fox made his first mission to Cornwall, and managed to attract many of those who had become disillusioned with Presbyterianism, many of whom were heavily persecuted during the time of the Restoration. This was so widespread that Norman Penney has been able to fill a book entitled Records of the Sufferings of Quakers in Cornwall. It seems that the main reasons for this opposition was that [1] they refused to swear an oath; [2] take off their hats in respect; [3] bear arms and [4] pay tithes or church rates for the repair of what they called the ‘Steeplehouse’ or the ‘Pope's old decayed Masshouse’.

    In Penney's book there were several references to persecutions of the Quakers in the Penryn area, including the arrest of two Quakers in Falmouth for “theire not doffinge their hatts" when a proclamation was read, and one of the many arrests of a John Tregelles: “Upon the 12th day off the 4th month 1670 Friends being met together in their own house in the parish of Budock to wait upon the Lord - there came John Monkey and Henry Sandry- Constables; with Gabriel Cerise, overseer, and took their names though they had no Information against them; and they went and informed Christopher Billett, called a Justice thereof, who convicted them without hearing them and thereupon sent his warrants to the Constables of the parishes of Budock and Mabe to levy the fines imposed upon Friends within the parishes; and Certificates of the Conviction unto the Mayors of Falmouth and Penryn: whereupon Benjamin Pender Mayor of Falmouth issued forth his warrants: and upon the 16th day of the 4th month and year aforesaid; came Edward Pearce and Stephen Richards, Constables, and Bryan Rogers and James Tresahar, overseers: and Gabriel Glandfield, Churchwarden, and they took from Joseph Tregelles, four pewter platters (worth 12s) for a fine of five shillings imposed upon him for being at the meeting aforesaid."[fn8]

    Drawing their numbers mainly from the middle class, the Quakers expanded rapidly despite the persecution. By 1700 there were twenty-seven societies in the County with about four hundred adherents. Today the Quaker witness is still represented within the area: with a community at Come-to-Good, off the Truro Road.

    The Baptists had emerged during the early part of the Seventeenth Century, maintaining that baptism by immersion was a sign that the believer in question was old enough to make their own decision about matters of faith, and had professed faith in Christ. Although their origins lay to some extent in the Anabaptist Movement,[fn9] by 1620 they were legally recognised as being distinct from them. During the Civil War and Commonwealth Period, the Baptists had established themselves as a denomination, with a Congregational form of Church government. Like the Quakers they too were persecuted after the Restoration of the Monarchy and the Anglican Church. With one of their most famous members, John Bunyon being imprisoned in Bedford Jail for twelve years, during which time he wrote "Pilgrim's Progress".

    As in other parts of the Country, it was the influence of Baptist soldiers in Cromwell's Model Army that brought Baptist ideals to Cornwall. Many of these soldiers were preachers and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ wherever they went: in the garrisons and in the towns - these were truly ‘soldiers of the Cross'. "In garrison towns it was no uncommon thing for a Baptist soldier-preacher to occupy the pulpit of the Parish Church to the great scandal of the clergy.”[fn10] This is most likely how the Dissenter Gospel came to be so readily accepted by the parishioners of St Gluvias during the period they were without a Vicar, and was possibly one of the principal explanations why this corner of the Country was to become one of the most strategic areas for the Evangelical Awakening of the next couple of centuries.

    The Baptist witness in the Penryn area after the Restoration was mainly due to the ministry of one man, Thomas Tregosse. Tregosse had been the Vicar of Mylor and Mabe until his ejection in 1662. He then began to witness for God as a ‘Nonconformist’. By holding illegal meetings in secluded spots and remote farms, he began to gather around himself a group of people who found Christ through his preaching. This group became so obvious that John Wynell, the Vicar of St Gluvias and Budock, wrote to his Bishop in 1667 complaining: "We have of late been so troubled with Conventicles and Bastardy that I think it my necessary duty to prevent their growth and mischief to the Church and entreat you to get process to issue forth against them.”[fn11]

    In 1669 Tregosse took up residence in Penryn, but soon after was sent to Launceston jail. Following his release, he "hired a house for a Meeting Place in the parish of Mabe, where he ministered from Midsummer 1669 to May 1670" until informers: “two debauched persons hoping to get fuel for their lusts” procured another warrant against him; and "this scared away most of his hearers especially those who had any considerable estates.”[fn12] Tregosse must have made quite an impact on the new Vicar at St Gluvias, John Collyer (1670-1730), who in 1670 wrote to Francis Cooke, to explain that one reason for the “frequentation” of Tregosse's meetings was that there were no "sermons at Gluvias, Sundays in the afternoon. Every forenoon (as I am informed) I have the greatest part of them, but when I go to Budock in the afternoon many of them frequent Tregosse.”[fn13] Tregosse's witness was also noted by John Wesley, who in September 1775, after preaching to the believers at St Ives, wrote in his diary, "the people in general here (excepting the rich) seem almost persuaded to be Christians. Perhaps the prayer of their old Pastor, Mr Tregosse, is answered even to the fourth generation.”[fn14]

    Tregosse died in January 1671 and was buried in Mabe Churchyard. Although he himself never actually held what might be termed ‘Baptist Doctrine’, many of his hearers were Baptists - those converted to meaningful faith by the soldier-preachers of the Model Army; and undeterred by the measures of the 1662 Act, they were greatly strengthened and encouraged by Tregosse's Ministry. After his death, they met as a Church for worship on the estate of one of his friends, in a building belonging to Mr William Taylder of Helland, in the Parish of Mabe.

    While these Nonconformist Movements were secretly growing and gaining strength, the Established Church was exchanging its Neo-Catholicism for an even closer walk with the Church at Rome - for the new King, James II was an avowed Roman Catholic. During his short reign, he issued an Order to read the Declaration of Indulgence[fn15] in all churches, but seven Bishops refused and so were imprisoned. One of these was Jonathan Trelawny, the Cornish Bishop of Exeter. He being the one of whom The Song of the Western Men was written:

"And here they fixed the where and when?

Will know the reason why?"

    Although this demonstrated the active support that the Cornish gave ‘their Bishop’ against the ‘Papist’ King, they also helped to propagate a Church that denied freedom of worship believers.

    In 1688, James fled and Britain had a new king, William of Orange, who with Queen Mary, restored the Church to its Protestantism. Under William and Mary, Trelawny was reunited with his Cornish people as Bishop of Exeter, although in 1707 he was transferred to Winchester. However, on his death, his body was returned to his native land to be laid to rest. Another important happening during the reign of William and Mary one that benefited the Church in Cornwall immensely: the Toleration Act of 1689. This both alleviated the position of Nonconformists, and also opened the way for the great Nonconformist happenings of the next century: Revivals.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

fn1: Camden gives 1568 as the date for the rise of Puritanism, although by then they had already begun to make their presence known. Although the term ‘Puritan’ applied to all those who wanted to model the Anglican Church on the pattern of Continental Protestantism; the name in later years was applied specifically to those of their number who practised austerity and strictness in religious matters.

fn2 / fn3: "The Story of the Church" by Renwick

fn4: Quoted in Roddis’ “Penryn”

fn5: Reintroduced from Pre-Reformation days by Archbishop Laud

fn6: H Miles Brown [taken from "The Church in Cornwall"]

fn7: The Congregationalists also emerged during this period. See the chapter on the Nineteenth Century for further information.

fn8: Taken from Norman Penney's book

fn9: The Anabaptists had preached a wild millenarianism, insisting that God's day of wrath was about to break. Anabaptists are now [1999] held in a far greater esteem by Church historians than those of a previous generation.

fn10 / fn11: "The story of Falmouth Baptists'` by L A Fereday

fn12 / fn13: H Miles Brown's "The Church in Cornwall"

fn14: Taken from Fereday's book on the Falmouth Baptists

fn15: This would have allowed both Nonconformist and Roman Catholic religious freedom