The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1917-02-22
OLD BOSTON divine
JOHN COTTON FAMOUS AMONG
cLERcYMEN.
Driven From England, He Sought Ref!
uge in the New World, Where He
Was Received With Honors
and Given High Place.


who introduced into New England the
custom Of keeping the Sabbath from
evening to evening, according to some
historians, died December %, 1852. He
was born in Derby, England, Decent
Der 4, 1855.
John Cotton was minister at Boston,
in Lincolnshire, England, when he fed
to Boston, in New England. He had
been minister in the Boston of the old
England for more than 20 years, when
he found that his theological views
were about to get him into trouble.
The father of John Cotton was a
lawyer named Roland Cotton. John
entered Trinity college, Cambridge,
when he was only thirteen years old,
and he rapidly distinguished himself
for scholarship.
He was brilliant as we'll as learned,
and he enjoyed a great reputation. It
was while he was teaching in Emanuel
college at Cambridge that he imbibed
Puritan views of theology, observes a
writer In the Washington Post. He
was about twenty-seven years old
when he was appointed minister at
Boston.
In this charge he got into his first
ecclesiastical trouble by refusing to
conform to certain ceremonies of the
established church. He believed that
many of these ceremonials were I'M
Scriptural.
He was suspended by his bishop,
but the majority of his people stood
by him and he was restored. For more
than 20 years he remained there as
minister, and his influence is said to
have been Of the most salutary ma
lture. A change in the authority of
the church took place and Cotton's
IparishiOnerS were divided into fac
Itions. 1t was reported to Cotton that
he was about to be summoned before
the high commission court, and he fled
to London, whence after a period Of
hiding he sailed for Boston in New
England. He was welcomed cordially
there, and within two weeks after his
trates teacher in the First church.
Here he remained until his de-"
Cotton was rare scholr
voted II hours a day to
before going to sleep at p
las he said, ITO sweeten
piece of Calvin" W
found learning he
plest language. s.
Boston he preps
the general cCjm
laws of Moses f..
ony. 1t was not adopteu,
sion of it, supposed to be the, CORK
of Cotton and Sir Henry Vane, was
afterward used.
Cotton wrote nearly 30 books, which
Were sent to London to be published.
lie could discuss f1uently in Hebrew,
Greek and Latin.
1t Is one of the perplexitieS of hui
man nature that persons who have
suffered from intolerance are so sell
dom taught by that experience to be
tolerant toward others. John Cotton
was an example of this unhappy fact,
He had been prosecuted in old Eng
land and he had to flee for safety to
New England, but once here he showed
the extremities Of his views as to the
power of the civil authority in relig-
ious matters. On this subject he car
ried on a famous controversy with
Roger Williams, who charged him with
holding "bloody tenet of persecu1
tion."
His son, John, and his grandson,
Josiah were distinguished ciergymen,
as was another son, Seaborn, so named
because born at sea on the passage
of his parents to New England in 1888,