Henry Hammond
1605–1660
Chaplain to Charles I; "father of English biblical criticism"; chief Anglican polemicist against the Assembly.
Biography
Of Magdalen College Oxford, then rector of Penshurst in Kent (1633), Canon of Christ Church Oxford, and royal chaplain to Charles I from 1645. Hammond was the most prolific royalist polemicist against the Assembly's work — A View of the New Directorie (1646) attacked the Directory for Public Worship, A View of Some Exceptions to the Annotations (1647) replied to the Westminster Annotations on the Bible, and Of Schisme (1653) defended episcopal continuity against both Presbyterian and Independent ecclesiology. With Edward Pococke he edited the most learned mid-century Anglican biblical commentary, A Paraphrase and Annotations upon All the Books of the New Testament (1653) — a work that earned him the later title 'father of English biblical criticism' for its sustained attention to the Greek text. His Practical Catechisme (1645) was the principal Anglican catechetical text of the period. He died in April 1660, a month before the Restoration he had longed for.
Principal works
- A Practicall Catechisme (1645)
- A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament (1653)
Named in the ordinance
The 1643 ordinance that summoned the Assembly named some 121 divines. A number — chiefly episcopalians and royalists who heeded the King's proclamation forbidding the Assembly — never took their seats or sat only briefly; a few were later expelled. They are listed here for completeness as part of the originally-summoned roster.