RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Penn, William Pentecost
frauds of his steward he became for a time impoverished. But he recovered himself, and his second wife was an excellent manager. He made two visits (1682-84; 1699-1701) to his American possessions, but felt it his duty to live at the court of James II., interceding with the king for the release of all victims of religious or political persecution. This he did with great effect. The king, to whose special care he had been entrusted by the dying admiral, was his faithful friend, and sometimes attended his meetings, and listened to his preaching. Penn did not conceal from him his liberal political views, but labored openly for the election to Parliament of the republican Algernon Sidney. On the accession of William of Orange, Penn was charged with being a papist, and plotting for the return of the Stuarts, for which he was several times arrested, and once thrown into prison. He succeeded at length in establishing his innocence, and was made a welcome visitor at their courts by William and Mary, and afterward Queen Anne, thus enjoying the personal friendship of five sovereigns of Great Britain. Six years before his death he was attacked with an apoplectic disease, by which his mind was impaired, but not the sweetness of his temper, nor the joy of spiritual communion with his Lord. " Clouds lay upon his understanding," says Cope: " but the sun shone on his eternal prospects, and the long evening sky was clear and full of light."
He was twice married: 1. Gulielma Maria Springatt (1672-1693-94), who bore him three sons and four daughters; 2. Hannah Callowhill (1695- 1696), who survived him, dying in 1726. She bore him two daughters and four sons. As an author Penn appears as a defender of the views of Fox and Barclay, a writer of sententious ethical precepts, an opponent of judicial oaths, an advocate of a Congress of Nations for the settlement of international disputes, and a champion of complete and universal religious liberty. Many of his books and pamphlets were translated into German, French, Dutch, and Welsh. Among the more important of them are, Truth Exalted (a defense of Quakerism, 1668); No Cross, No Crown (1670); The People's Ancient and Just Liberties asserted (1670); A Caveat Against Popery (1670); A Guide Mistaken (against J. Clapham's A Guide to True Religion, 1670); The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience once more briefly debated, etc. (1670); A Treatise on Oaths (1675); England's Present Interest discovered, with Honour to the Princes, and Safety to the Kingdom (1675) ; The Continued Cry of the Oppressed for Justice (1675); A Letter to the Churches of Jesus throughout the World, A Call or Summons to Christendom (1677); A Persuasion to Moderation (1686); Good Advice to the Church of England, and Catholic and Protestant Dissenters, for the Abolition of the Penal Laws and Fasts (1687); A Key (elucidating the peculiar tenets and features of Quakerism) ; The New Athenians no Noble Bereans (1692); An Essay towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe by the Establishment of a European Diet, Parliament, or Estates (1693); Fruits of Solitude (1693); Travels in Holland and Germany, anno 1677 (1694); Primitive Christianity Revived (1696); The Quaker a Christian (1698). An edition of his Works, with Life by Joseph Besse, appeared in 2
vols. (London, 1726), and his Select Works, ed. J. Fothergill (1771); in 5 vols. (1782) and 3 vols. (1825).
W. J. MANNf. Bibliography: The principal sources of knowledge are Perm's Journal; the publications of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vols, i.-ix.; and the life by Besse in the Works, ut sup. A good list of lesser authorities and secondary materials is given at the end of the sketch in DNB, xliv. 311-319. Consult: Mrs. C. Grant (a descendant), Quaker and Courtier. The Life and Work of W. Penn, London and New York, 1908; J. Marsillac, 2 vols., Paris, 1791; T. Clarkson, 2 vols., London, 1813; M. L. Weems, Philadelphia, 1835; E. Lewis, Philadelphia, 1837; W. H. Dixon, London, 1856, new issue, New York, 1905; S. M. Janney, Philadelphia, 1852; J. Sparks, American Biography, vol. xii., Boston, 1852; C. Vincens, Paris, 1877; T. P. Cope, Passages from the Life and Writings of William Penn, Philadelphia, 1882; W. J. Mann, Reading, 1882 (in German) ; J. Stoughton, London, 1882; B. Rhodes, Three Apostles of Quakerism, London, 1885; W. J. Buck, William Penn in America, Philadelphia, 1888; F. E. Cooke, London, 1899; A. C. Buell, William Penn as the Founder of Two Commonwealths, New York, 1904; C. E. Hewitt, Spirit of Penn, ib. 1909. The British Museum Catalogue gives about ten pages to works by and on William Penn.
PENOLOGY. See Pbison Reform.
PENRY (AP-HENRY), JOHN: English Puritan and separatist; b. in the parish of Llangamarch, northern Brecknockshire, Wales, 1559; hanged in London May 29, 1593. He studied at Peterhouse, Cambridge, and at St. Alban's Hall, Oxford (B.A., Cambridge, 1584; M.A., Oxford, 1586). He is said to have been brought up a Roman Catholic, but became an extreme Puritan at Cambridge; preached there and at Oxford with fervor and acceptance, although it is doubtful if he ever took orders. In 1587 he published at Oxford a plea for the better preaching of the Gospel in Wales; he criticized unsparingly the non-residence and incompetency of the clergy and other abuses, was brought before the high commission court in consequence, and suffered an imprisonment of a few days. In 1588 he was at Moulsey, Surrey, connected with the surreptitious press from which the Marprelate tracts were issued. When the press was seized by the authorities at Manchester in Aug., 1589, he escaped to Scotland, was well received and protected by the clergy there, and remained till Sept., 1592, maintaining his attacks on the bishops. Returning to London he joined Johnson and Greenwood's congregation of separatists; was arrested as a suspicious character in Mar., 1593, brought to trial in May on a charge of inciting a rebellion, was found guilty on somewhat forced testimony, and executed at St. Thomas-a- Watering, Surrey. It is admitted that he was the chief agent in publishing the Marprelate tracts, and it is held by many that he was their principal author [though this distinction seems rather to belong to Henry Barrow (q.v.) a. h. n.]. His acknowledged writings are very similar in tone and manner.
Bibliography: Besides the literature on the Marprelate Tracts (q.v.), consult: J. Waddington, John Penry the Pilgrim Martyr, London, 1854; C. H. and T. Cooper, Athence Cantabrigienses, ii. 154-158, London, 1861; H. M Dexter, Congregationalism of the Last Three Hundred Years, pp. 246-252, New York, 1880; DNB, xliv. 346-350.
PENTATEUCH. See Hexateuch.
PENTECOST: The name of two feasts, one Jewish and the other Christian, so called from their
Pentecost Pepper