John Norton
John Norton was a prominent Puritan minister and theologian born in 1606 in Stortford, Hertfordshire, England. He pursued higher education at Cambridge, earning his B.A. in 1623 and M.A. in 1627 before financial difficulties forced him to leave. After serving as an usher at Stortford Grammar School and a curate, he experienced a significant religious conversion that led him to refuse several lucrative offers. In 1634, Norton immigrated to New England, where he became a respected church leader in Ipswich and later in Boston.
Norton is noted for his eloquent theological writings, including his 1645 Latin work, "Responsio ad totam quaestionum," which addressed the complexities of New England Congregationalism. He published several influential texts, including a systematic theology titled "The Orthodox Evangelist" in 1654 and the first American biography of John Cotton in 1657. His works often defended Puritan beliefs against emerging dissenters, including Quakers. Despite facing unpopularity upon returning from a trip to England to renew the Massachusetts charter, Norton's legacy continued through his writings and a significant library collection. He passed away in 1659, leaving behind an unfinished manuscript titled "The Body of Divinity."
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John Norton
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- Born: May 6, 1606
- Birthplace: Stortford, Hertfordshire, England
- Died: April 5, 1663
Biography
John Norton, the son of William and Alice Norton, was born in Stortford, Hertfordshire, England, in 1606. His parents arranged for him to be tutored by Alexander Strange in Buntingford, and at fourteen he matriculated at Peterhouse College, Cambridge. He received his B.A. in 1623 and M. A. in 1627. His father experienced financial difficulties, and Norton was forced to leave Cambridge.
Norton became an usher at Stortford Grammar School and curate of the local church. He had been exposed to Puritan ideas at Cambridge, but he began to attend the lectures of dissenting ministers, in particular, Reverend Jeremiah Dyke. He experienced religious conversion while at Stortford, and his religious convictions led him to refuse both a lucrative benefice from his uncle and a fellowship at Cambridge. He became private chaplain to Sir William Mashaw of High Lever, Essex.
In 1634, he and his new wife, whose name is unknown, decided to immigrate to New England and sailed on the Good Hope. During a violent storm, Norton and Thomas Shepard led the crew and passengers in prayers. The ship was saved but unable to complete the voyage. Norton did not arrive in Plymouth until 1635. He accepted a call from the church at Ipswich on May 17, 1637, where he acted as an assistant to Nathaniel Ward. On February 20, 1638, he was ordained a teacher at the church, with Nathaniel Rogers as pastor.
Norton had a reputation for eloquence and was asked to articulate the Middle Way of New England Congregationalism, responding to Roman Catholicism on the right and Antinomianism on the left. Norton’s discussion of this subject, Responsio ad totam quaestionum, was completed in 1645 and published in 1648, the first Latin work to be published in New England. In 1653, he received twenty pounds for his A Discussion of that Great Point in Divinity, the Sufferings of Christ. . . , an attack on William Pyncheon’s heretical view that God did not impute the sins of mankind to Christ. In 1654, he wrote The Orthodox Evangelist. . . , a systematic theology and the first work he wrote that was not solicited by officials. When Puritan minister John Cotton died in 1652, he had a dream in which Norton, riding into Boston on a white horse, succeeded him. Norton was installed in a Boston church on July 23, 1656. On the same day he married his second wife, Mary Mason.
Norton published the first American biography of Cotton, The Life and Death of the Deservedly Famous Mr. John Cotton, the Late Reverend Teacher of the Church of Christ at Boston in New England 1(657), republished in London under the title Abel Being Dead yet Speaketh (1658). In 1659, at the request of the General Court, he published The Heart of N- England Rent at the Blasphemies of the Present Generation, a refutation of Quaker separatism and defense of the Quaker persecution. In that year, two Quakers, Marmaduke Stephenson and William Robinson, were hanged in Boston. King Charles II of England objected to the hanging and suspended the death penalty for religious dissension. In February, 1652, Norton and Simon Bradstreet went to England to renew the Massachusetts charter and answer the king’s complaints. Norton was unpopular after his return in September, 1652, and he died of apoplexy the following spring. He left a library of 729 volumes; his unfinished manuscript, The Body of Divinity, is at the Massachusetts Historical Society.