Complex sentence: Samuel Crooke (1575--1649) was a seventeenth-century cleric of the Church of England and a noted preacher; during the English Civil War he was a staunch supporter of the Parliamentary cause.
Split into simpler sentences: Samuel Crooke (1575--1649) was a seventeenth-century cleric of the Church of England and a noted preacher. During the English Civil War he was a staunch supporter of the Parliamentary cause.