Robert Harris
1581–1658
President of Trinity College Oxford; preacher in the Dod and Cleaver circle.
Biography
Of Magdalen Hall Oxford under John Rainolds, then a long pre-war ministry at Hanwell and Banbury in the Oxfordshire-Northamptonshire circle led by John Dod and Robert Cleaver — the heartland of late-Jacobean and Caroline Puritan piety. Harris was one of the most-loved Calvinist preachers of his generation; The Way to True Happinesse (1632) and a multi-volume Workes (1635) circulated widely. Made President of Trinity College Oxford from 1648 by the parliamentary visitation. Trinity's royalist fellows later recorded that Harris was a notably kind governor — gentle in enforcement, even-handed in dispute. He was the gentlest of the Oxford visitors and an unforced presence in the middle of the Presbyterian bloc at the Assembly. Died at Trinity Lodge in December 1658.
Principal works
- The Way to True Happinesse (1632)
- Workes (1635)
English Presbyterian divine
The great majority of the sitting members were English parish ministers of Presbyterian conviction. They formed the drafting core of the Assembly, manning its three standing committees and supplying most of the text of the Confession, the two Catechisms, and the Directory for Public Worship.