{"id":18226,"date":"2023-06-24T05:19:37","date_gmt":"2023-06-24T05:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/?p=18226"},"modified":"2023-06-24T05:20:12","modified_gmt":"2023-06-24T05:20:12","slug":"18226","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/2023\/06\/18226\/","title":{"rendered":"The Life And Ministry Of William Twisse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dictionary Of National Biography, 1885:<\/strong><\/p>\n

William Twisse D.D. (1578?\u20131646), puritan divine, was born at Speenhamland in the parish of Speen, near Newbury, about 1578. The family name is variously spelled Twysse, Twiss, Twyste, and Twist. His grandfather was a German, his father a clothier. Thomas Bilson [q. v.] was his uncle (Kendall). While at Winchester school where he was admitted, aged 12, in 1590 (Kirby), he was startled into religious conviction by the apparition of a \u2018rakehelly\u2019 schoolfellow uttering the words \u2018I am damned.\u2019 From Winchester he went as probationer fellow to New College, Oxford, in 1596, his eighteenth year (ib.), was admitted fellow 11 March 1598, graduated B.A. 14 Oct. 1600, M.A. 12 June 1604, and took orders. His reputation was that of an erudite student, equally remarkable for pains and penetration. Sir Henry Savile [q. v.] had his assistance in his projected edition of Bradwardine’s \u2018De Causa Dei contra Pelagium\u2019 (published 1618), which Twisse, before 1613, had transcribed and annotated. His expository power was shown in his Thursday catechetical lectures in the college chapel. To his plain sermons, delivered every Sunday \u2018in ecclesia parochiali Oliv\u00e6\u2019 (St. Aldate’s), he drew large numbers of the university. He graduated B.D. on 9 July 1612.<\/p>\n

Twisse’s popularity was increased by his readiness on an unexpected occasion in 1613. A Hebrew teacher at Oxford, Joseph Barnatus, had ingratiated himself with Arthur Lake [q. v.], warden of New College, by offering to receive Christian baptism, to be administered on a Sunday at St. Mary’s after a special sermon by Twisse. But on the Saturday \u2018bonus Josephus clanculum se subducit,\u2019 and, though dragged back to Oxford, declined baptism. Twisse preached a tactful sermon which saved the situation. Shortly afterwards he was made chaplain to Elizabeth, queen of Bohemia [q. v.], and attended her on her journey with her husband to Heidelberg (April\u2013June 1613). Twisse evidently expected a long absence; for he disposed of his small patrimony (30l. a year), giving it in trust to his brother. But before he had been two months at Heidelberg he was recalled. On the presentation of his college he was instituted (13 Sept. 1613) to the rectory of Newton or Newington Longueville, Buckinghamshire. He proceeded to the degree of D.D. on 5 July 1614. His life for some years was that of a recluse scholar, studying hard, yet not neglecting his flock. On 22 March 1618\u201319 Nathaniel Giles had been instituted to the rectory of Newbury. The municipal authorities were anxious to secure Twisse, who accordingly exchanged with Giles, and was instituted to Newbury on 4 Oct. 1620. Further preferments he resolutely declined, refusing the provostship of Winchester, and rejecting a prebend in Winchester Cathedral, as lacking music for the singing and rhetoric for the preaching, and not skilled to stroke a cathedral beard canonically (ib.) He declined an invitation to a divinity chair at Franeker. He felt the pressure of his duties as age crept on, and was tempted by the offer of Robert Rich, second earl of Warwick [q. v.], to give him a better living (Benefield, Northamptonshire), with a less laborious cure. Before accepting it he saw Laud, with whom he had been intimate at Oxford, about the appointment of his successor, Newbury being a crown living. Laud promised to meet Twisse’s requirements, adding that he would assure the king that Twisse was no puritan. He at once decided to stick to his post. His puritanism was not aggressive, and was chiefly doctrinal. He did not read the \u2018Declaration of Sports,\u2019 and protested against it with quiet firmness. It was a tribute to his commanding eminence as a theologian and to his moderate bearing that, at the king’s desire, he was subjected to no episcopal censure. His bishop was John Davenant [q. v.], who certainly had no inclination to interfere with Twisse unless compelled.<\/p>\n

As a controversialist Twisse was courteous and thorough, owing much of his strength to his accurate understanding of his opponent’s position. Baxter well describes him as using a \u2018very smooth triumphant stile.\u2019 The defence of the puritan theology was congenial to him; and in an age of transition to positions more or less Arminian the acumen of Twisse was constantly exercised in maintaining the stricter view. No contemporary theologian gave him more trouble than Thomas Jackson (1579\u20131640) [q. v.] He had less difficulty in dealing with the more sharply defined antagonism of Henry Mason [q. v.], Thomas Godwin, D.D. [q. v.], and John Goodwin [q. v.] Men of his own school, like John Cotton of New England, found him a watchful critic, always armed to resist deviations in doctrine.<\/p>\n

At the outset of the civil war Prince Rupert had hopes of engaging Twisse on the side of the king. His sympathies were with the cause of the parliament, but he thought the war would be fatal to the best interests of both parties. In ecclesiastical affairs he had a dread of revolutionary measures, and the policy of laying hands on the patrimony of the church he viewed as inimical to religion. He had been on the sub-committee in aid of the lords’ accommodation scheme of March 1641. There is no reason for doubting that his own preference was always for the modified episcopacy then recommended. He was nominated to the Westminster assembly of divines in the original ordinance of June 1643, was unanimously elected prolocutor and preached at the formal opening of the assembly on 1 July, regretting in his sermon the absence of the royal assent, and hoping it might yet be obtained. He had very unwillingly accepted the post; indeed, his health was unequal to its demands. Robert Baillie, D.D. [q. v.], thought it a \u2018canny convoyance of these who guides most matters for their own interest to plant such a man of purpose in the chaire.\u2019 He describes him as \u2018very learned in the questions he hes studied, and very good, beloved of all and highlie esteemed; but merely bookish \u2026 among the unfittest of all the company for any action.\u2019 Baillie’s keen ear detected that Twisse was not used to pray without book, adding, \u2018After the prayer he sitts mute.\u2019 The minutes show that his part in the assembly was purely formal, and he owns himself \u2018unfit for such an employment that divers times do fall upon me\u2019 (3 Jan. 1644\u20135). It fell to Cornelius Burges, D.D. [q. v.], to supply, \u2018so farr as is decent, the proloqutor’s place\u2019 (Baillie). On 1 April 1645 it was reported to the assembly that the prolocutor was \u2018very sick and in great straits.\u2019 He had received no profits from Newbury, and but a small stipend (1643\u20135) as one of three lecturers at St. Andrew’s, Holborn. On 30 March 1645 he had fainted in the pulpit (\u2018procumbit in pulverem,\u2019 Kendall), and henceforth kept his bed. Though a man of some estate\u2014for his will (9 Sept. 1645; codicil 30 June 1646; proved 6 Aug. 1646) disposes of the manor of Ashamstead, Berkshire, and other property\u2014the confusion of the times had deprived him of income. Parliament voted him 100l. (4 Dec. 1645), which does not seem to have been paid in full; on 26 June 1646 the assembly sent him 10l., with the assurance \u2018that there hath been no money paid by any order of parliament to his use that hath been detained from him.\u2019<\/p>\n

Twisse died in Holborn on 20 July 1646, and on 24 July, with all the pomp of a public funeral, was buried in Westminster Abbey, \u2018in the south side of the church, near the upper end of the poore’s table, next the vestry.\u2019 By royal mandate of 9 Sept. 1661 his remains, with others, were disinterred and thrown into a common pit in St. Margaret’s churchyard, the site being in the sward between the north transept and the west end of the abbey. An oil painting of him, done in 1644, is in the vestry of St. Nicholas, Newbury. Bromley says his portrait, engraved by T. Trotter, is in the \u2018Nonconformist’s Memorial,\u2019 but this is an error. He was twice married: first, before 1615, to a daughter of Robert Moor [q. v.]; secondly, to Frances, daughter of Barnabas Colnett of Combley, Isle of Wight. At the time of his death he was a widower with four sons and three daughters. His son William, born in 1616, was fellow of New College, Oxford (1635\u201350); his son Robert (d. 1674) published in 1665 a sermon preached at the New Church (now Christ Church), Westminster, \u2018on the anniversary of the martyrdom\u2019 of Charles I. Parliament voted 1000l. towards the support of his children, but the money does not seem to have been paid.<\/p>\n

Twisse published: 1. \u2018A Discovery of D. Jacksons Vanitie,\u2019 1631, 4to. 2. \u2018Vindici\u00e6 Grati\u00e6, Potestatis ac Providenti\u00e6 Dei,\u2019 Amsterdam, 1632, fol.; 1648, fol. 3. \u2018Dissertatio de Scientia Media,\u2019 Arnheim, 1639, fol. 4. \u2018Of the Morality of the Fourth Commandment,\u2019 1641, 4to; with new title, \u2018The Christian Sabbath defended,\u2019 1652, 4to. 5. \u2018A Brief Catecheticall Exposition of Christian Doctrine,\u2019 1645, 8vo. 6. \u2018A Treatise of Mr. Cotton’s \u2026 concerning Predestination \u2026 with an Examination thereof,\u2019 1646, 4to. Posthumous were: 7. \u2018Ad \u2026 Arminii Collationem \u2026 et \u2026 Corvini Defensionem \u2026 Animadversiones,\u2019 Amsterdam, 1649, fol. 8. \u2018The Doctrine of the Synod of Dort and Arles (sic) reduced to the Practise, with an Answer thereunto\u2019 [1650], 4to. 9. \u2018The Doubting Conscience resolved,\u2019 1652, 12mo. 10. \u2018The Riches of God’s Love \u2026 consisted with \u2026 Reprobation,\u2019 Oxford, 1653, fol. 11. \u2018The Scriptures’ Sufficiency,\u2019 1656, 12mo; commendatory epistle (29 April 1652) by Joseph Hall, bishop of Norwich. According to Kendall, he left some thirty unpublished treatises. His manuscripts, Wood says, were carefully kept by his son Robert till his death. His fifteen letters (2 Nov. 1629\u20132 July 1638) to Joseph Mead [q. v.] are printed in Mead’s \u2018Works,\u2019 1672, bk. iv. The collection of \u2018Guilielmi Twissi \u2026 Opera,\u2019 Amsterdam, 1652, fol., 2 vols., consists of Nos. 2, 3, and 7 above, bound together, with additional title-page.<\/p>\n[Tuissii Vita et Victoria, by George Kendall [q. v.], appended to Fur pro Tribunali, 1657, is the main authority; it is closely (not always carefully) followed in Clarke’s Lives of Sundry Eminent Persons (1683, pp. 13 sq.), less closely by Brook (Lives of the Puritans, 1813, iii. 12 sq.), and by Chalmers (General Biographical Dictionary, 1816, xxx. 118 sq.). See also Wood’s Athen\u00e6 Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 169 sq.; Wood’s Fasti (Bliss), i. 285, 303, 348, 359; Foster’s Alumni Oxon. 1892, iv. 1525; Fuller’s Church History, 1655, xi. 199; Fuller’s Worthies, 1662, \u2018Barkshire,\u2019 p. 96; Reliqui\u00e6 Baxterian\u00e6, 1696, i. 73; Bromley’s Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits, 1793, p. 91; History of Newbury, 1839, p. 106; Lipscomb’s Buckingham, 1847, iv. 266; Mitchell and Struthers’s Minutes of the Westminster Assembly, 1874, passim to p. 258; Chester’s Registers of Westminster Abbey, 1876, pp. 140, 151, 153; Money’s Hist. of Newbury, 1887, pp. 503 sq.]\n

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William Twisse D.D. (1578?\u20131646), puritan divine, was born at Speenhamland in the parish of Speen, near Newbury, about 1578. The family name is variously spelled Twysse, Twiss, Twyste, and Twist. His grandfather was a German, his father a clothier. Thomas Bilson [q. v.] was his uncle (Kendall). While at Winchester school where he was admitted, aged 12, in 1590 (Kirby), he was startled into religious conviction by the apparition of a \u2018rakehelly\u2019 schoolfellow uttering the words \u2018I am damned.\u2019 From Winchester he went as probationer fellow to New College, Oxford, in 1596, his eighteenth year (ib.), was admitted fellow 11 March 1598, graduated B.A. 14 Oct. 1600, M.A. 12 June 1604, and took orders. His reputation was that of an erudite student, equally remarkable for pains and penetration. Sir Henry Savile [q. v.] had his assistance in his projected edition of Bradwardine’s \u2018De Causa Dei contra Pelagium\u2019 (published 1618), which Twisse, before 1613, had transcribed and annotated. His expository power was shown in his Thursday catechetical lectures in the college chapel. To his plain sermons, delivered every Sunday \u2018in ecclesia parochiali Oliv\u00e6\u2019 (St. Aldate’s), he drew large numbers of the university. He graduated B.D. on 9 July 1612.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":18224,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1361],"tags":[1226],"class_list":["post-18226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-william-twisse","tag-gospel-preachers"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18226"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18228,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18226\/revisions\/18228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}