Simonds D’Ewes: A Puritan at Cambridge
Simonds D’Ewes’ record of his personal experiences gives us a vivid picture of University life at the beginning of the seventeenth century, as seen by a devout young Protestant with “an insatiable appetite for sermons.” By Meyrick H. Carré.
The religious causes that were making for the reform of the Church of England in the early years of the seventeenth century were active in the universities. The Puritan divines at Oxford and Cambridge, some of whom were heads of colleges, expounded in their treatises and sermons the principles of reform, faith in the Scriptures, simpUcity of worship and Calvinist theology, to generations of university men. The marrow of academic Puritanism is contained in the works of the doctors and preachers.
A more intimate picture of the life and thoughts of a youthful scholar of Cambridge, who had dedicated himself from childhood to the discipline and beliefs of Scriptural Protestantism, is offered in a Diary and Autobiography of the time. These records show us a boy of sixteen setting out from his home at Stowlangtoft in Suffolk on a showery morning in May 1618 to ride to Cambridge. The purpose of his journey was to seek admission to St. John’s College and on his arrival at Cambridge with his attendant he was kindly received by a junior Fellow, the eloquent and learned the Reverend Richard Holdsworth, who was appointed to be his tutor.
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