Robert Parker (c. 1564 – 1614) was an English Puritan clergyman and scholar. He became minister of a separatist congregation in Holland where he died while in exile for his heterodoxy.K.L. Sprunger, 'Parker, Robert (c.1564–1614), religious controversialist', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The Revd. Cotton Mather wrote of Parker as "one of the greatest scholars in the English Nation, and in some sort the father of all Nonconformists of our day."C. Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana, III, Chap. XXV: 'Scholasticus. The Life of Mr Thomas Parker' pp. 143–45. Reprint, (Hartford, 1855), Vol. 1, pp. 480–488.
Early life: England Parker was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he became a chorister in 1575. He was a demy there 1580–3, and graduated B.A. on 3 November 1582. He was elected Fellow in 1585, and proceeded M.A. 22 June 1587.J. Foster (ed.), Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714 (Oxford 1891), pp. 1104–31. (British History Online accessed 18 June 2016) The rectories of Bulbridge, Ditchhampton and Wilton pertained to a different clergyman named Parker, see Dictionary of National Biography. In the following year he was more than once reprimanded for not wearing scholastic gown or surplice. In October 1591, during a vacancy in the diocese, he was presented by Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke to the Rectory of Patney, Wiltshire, by authority of Archbishop Whitgift, and in January 1592 was instituted by Bishop Coldwell with the Bishop of Winchester as patron.Clergy of the Church of England database, Appointment Records ID: 237213 and 88936. In 1593 he resigned his college fellowship and his position at Patney, and the next year was instituted as Rector of Stanton St. Bernard, Wiltshire, in the patronage of the Crown.CCEd Appointment Record ID: 88990. At this time he married Dorothy Stevens: their daughter Sarah was born in 1593, and their son Thomas Parker c.1595. When his wife's sister Ann married, he became brother (in-law) of William Noyes, minister of Cholderton, Wiltshire.
He held the Rectory of Stanton until 1607, and in 1605 he presented his wife's brother Richard StevensRichard is provisionally identified by Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, as Richard Stephens or Stevens of Berkshire who matriculated from Magdalen College, Oxford in 1597 aged 15, B.A. 1601, M.A. 1604. as Perpetual Vicar to the same parish.Church of England Clergy database, Appointment Record 296932. Stevens's son Nathaniel, who became a noted religious controversialist, was born there in 1606/7.A. Gordon, rev. M. Mullett, 'Nathaniel Stephens, (1606/7-1678), religious controversialist', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. In 1607 Parker issued a discourse against idolatrous uses of the sign of the Cross during religious ceremonies. This work, much admired by some,W. Ames, A Fresh Suit Against Human Ceremonies in God's Worship: or, a Triplication against Mr Burgess His Rejoinder (1633), preface. amounted to an open declaration of nonconformism, and caused the bishops to induce King James to issue a proclamation offering a reward for his capture. To avoid prosecution before the Court of High Commission he went into hiding in London.J. Peirce, A Vindication of the Dissenters (John Clark, London 1717), Part 1, pp. 170–71. After some narrow escapes he made his way to Gravesend and thence into exile in the Netherlands.B. Brook, The Lives of the Puritans, 3 Vols (James Black, London 1813), II, pp. 237–40. The early part of Brooks's biography confuses Robert Parker with another clergyman: see Dictionary of National Biography.
Leyden, Netherlands Leaving his son to schooling by William Noyes at Cholderton,Magnalia Christi Americana, III, p. 143. Parker settled in Leyden, and for four years worked on the treatise De Descensu Christi, published in Amsterdam in 1611. Thomas Bilson, Bishop of Winchester, had preached at Paul's Cross in 1597 on the subject of Christ's descent into Hell, an article of the Apostles' Creed. Henry Jacob published an answer, and at Elizabeth's command Bilson prepared his magnum opus in reply (1604).T. Bilson, The survey of Christs sufferings for mans redemption: and of his descent to Hades or Hel for our deliverance (Melchisedech Bradwood for Iohn Bill, London 1604). Bilson's doctrine was answered at home by Gabriel Powell, and abroad by Hugh Broughton. Parker's De Descensu was begun by Hugh Sanford, who died in 1607S.T. Bindoff, 'Sanford, Hugh (d.1607), of Wilton, Wilts.', in P.W. Hasler (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603 (from Boydell and Brewer, 1981), History of Parliament Online. leaving it incomplete: Parker, according to his own preface, rearranged the whole matter and completed it. He derives Hades from Adam, and traces the whole Greek theogony to Hebrew roots and derivations.
Henry Jacob arrived in Leyden in 1610 and, with support from wealthy English merchants, William Ames was brought together with them to 'engage in controversy with supporters of the English Church'. Parker's role in, and influence upon the separatist question in Congregationalism was the subject of differing opinions in his own time and afterwards. He is said to have been largely in agreement with Jacob, taking a moderate or 'semi-separatist' line.J. Cotton, The Way of Congregational Churches Cleared in Two Treatises (John Bellamie, London 1648), p. 13. At Leyden, in their friendship and dealings with the pastor John Robinson, Parker and Ames were thought to have softened Robinson's more strongly separatist views.Georg Horn, Historia Ecclesiastica et Politica, Editio nova auctior et emendatior (Ex Officina Hackiana, Leyden 1671), pp. 234-35, Section XVI. William Bradford placed Ames and Parker in the tradition of Thomas Cartwright.W. Bradford, Governor Bradford's first dialogue. A dialogue, or the sum of a conference between some young men born in New England and sundry ancient men that came out of Holland and old England, anno Domini 1648, in A. Young, Chronicles of the Pilgrim fathers of the Colony of Plymouth, 1602-1625 (Charles C. Little and James Brown, Boston 1841), pp. 409-58, at pp. 436–40. Richard Clyfton, however, attacked Parker as being identified with the Brownist Christopher Lawne.R. Clyfton, An advertisement concerning a book lately published by Christopher Lawne and others, against the English exiled Church at Amsterdam. By Richard Clyfton teacher of the same church (G. Thorp, Amsterdam 1612).
Amsterdam In around 1611 Parker and Jacob moved to Amsterdam, and came into the congregation of the English Reformed Church there. Parker lived in the household of the chief presbyterian minister John Paget, with whom he had daily conversations. Paget recorded that on his arrival, Parker maintained that Church synods had only an advisory validity, but that he adapted to and participated in the presbyterian discipline. He became an elder of the congregation, 'and by office sat with us daily to judge and hear the causes of our church, and so became a member of our classical combination.' He became also the secretary of the consistory meetings, recording their proceedings in his own hand.J. Paget, A Defence of Church-Government, Exercised in Presbyteriall, Classicall and Synodall Assemblies; according to the Practise of the Reformed Churches (Thomas Underhill, London 1641), pp. 88-106, at p. 105.
Jacob criticized Paget for drawing Parker away from his principles. After two years he was to have been chosen minister in Amsterdam, but the Burgomasters, not wishing to lose the favour of King James I, forbade his appointment.Peirce, A Vindication of the Dissenters, pp. 170–71. Therefore, he was forced to give it up and to leave Amsterdam. William Best and John Davenport, in 1634–35, wrote against Paget, accusing him of tyranny in depriving the Amsterdam church of freedom to appoint its own pastors, and of jealousy towards Parker, who could preach in Dutch.A Iust Complaint against an Uniust Doer: Wherein is declared the miserable slaverie & bondage that the English Church of Amsterdam is now in, by reason of the tirannicall government and corrupt doctrine, of Mr. Iohn Pagett their present minister. The which things are plainly manifested in two certein letters, the one written by Mr. Iohn Davenport to the Dutch classis, the other given vp to the English consistorie by some of the brethren. With other briefe passages tending to the same effect ('Published by one that much pitties them and prayes dayly for their deliverance' (sc. William Best), 1634). Full text at Umich/eebo2. (Reserved - Login only). See also J. Davenport, A Protestation made and published by Iohn Davenporte vpon occasion of a pamphlett intitled A Just Complaint against an Uniust Doer published by a nameles person (Isaac from Waesberghe, Rotterdam 1635). Full text at University of Oxford Text Archive. (Reserved - Login only). Paget answered in his own defenceJ. Paget, An answer to the unjust complaints of William Best: and of such other as have subscribed thereunto. Also an answer to Mr. Iohn Davenport, touching his report of some passages, his allegations of scripture against the baptising of some kind of infants, his protestation about the publishing of his writings (John Fredericksz Stam, Amsterdam 1635), pp. 74, 96–97. and in In Defence of Church Government (1641) gave detailed reference to Parker's incomplete work, De Politeia Ecclesiastica Christi et Hierarchica Opposita, (first published posthumously in Frankfurt in 1616), which Paget claimed to be a representation of presbyterian church organization.
Parker left Amsterdam in 1613 for Doesburg, Gelderland, where he preached to the garrison. There were various accusations against him arising from his book De Descensu ad Inferos, and he wrote several times to Paget as his friend asking him to help to clear him of false imputations, and thanking him for his efforts. He evidently hoped to return to Amsterdam, but never did so: he died at Doesburg in 1614 after having been there about 8 months.Paget, A Defence of Church-Government, preface.
Family The parents of Robert Parker are not known.The suggested parentage 'Robert Parker' (1544–1591) and 'Mary Eydith Bruge-Collins' (or 'Burges') (1555–1649) requires a reliable and verifiable source (see article Talk page).
Parker was brother-in-law of the clergyman William Noyes, but it is debated whether Noyes's wife (Anne) was the sister of Robert Parker himself (as her grandson Nicholas Noyes of Salem later statedMagnalia Christi Americana, pp. 145-48, at p. 145.), or of Parker's wife Dorothy Stevens. It has been claimedJ.J. Currier, "Ould Newbury": Historical and Biographical Sketches (Damrell & Upham, Newbury, Mass. 1896), p. 165. See Noyes & Noyes (1904), Genealogical Record I, p. 45, who at first rejected the claim, but after further research accepted it. that Dorothy and her brother the Revd. Richard Stevens (and possibly Anne) were children of Nicholas Stephens (died 1611) and his wife Frances Brydges, daughter of Sir Richard Brydges, of Burderop Park, Chiseldon, Wiltshire.For Stephens of Burderop see 'Chiseldon: Manors and other estates', in R.W. Dunning, K.H. Rogers, P.A. Spalding, C. Shrimpton, J.H. Stevenson and M. Tomlinson, A History of the County of Wiltshire Vol. 9, ed. E. Crittall (V.C.H. London, 1970), pp. 6–23. (British History Online accessed 30 May 2016). However their names do not appear as children of Nicholas Stephens in his will or pedigree.'The Society's MSS. Chiseldon and Draycot' (continued), Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine Vol. 30 for 1898–99 (1899), pp. 126–142.
Robert Parker and Dorothy Stevens had three children: Revd. Thomas Parker (1595–1677), along with his cousin Revd. James Noyes,Francis J. Bremer, Tom Webster, Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and America: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia (2006), article on Noyes, pp. 183–4. led a group of Wiltshire settlers aboard the Mary and John to New England in 1630 where they founded Newbury, Massachusetts.