EMMANUEL COLLEGE: THE FOUNDING GENERATION, WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL REGISTER OF MEMBERS OF THE COLLEGE, 1584-1604 (PURITANISM, ENGLAND)

Emmanuel College, Cambridge, founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, a moderate Puritan, and headed by Laurence Chaderton, a leading Puritan clergyman, was designed by them to fulfill a basic Puritan objective, to increase the number of learned preaching clergy in the parishes. The college grew rapidly and attracted significant support from Puritan sympathizers in donations and students. Fifty-six intended benefactions were found for the period 1584-1624 of which half were made in the five years before the death of Mildmay. Almost all the donors could be identified. Most were members of the gentry or the London merchant class. Many knew Mildmay and a large number, roughly half of the fifty-six, were found to have Puritan sympathies. A Biographical Register of Members of the College 1584-1604 was prepared, using Venn's Alumni Cantabrigiensis as a basis with the addition of forty-five names recovered from other sources. The entries in Venn have been corrected and supplemented. All but 236 of the 832 known fellows and students have been at least partially identified. Origins and careers of these men have been analyzed. Evidence of religious sympathies was not often found. But it was possible to show that eleven to fourteen percent of the students were sent to Emmanuel by Puritans and to distinguish significant patronage of the college by important groups of Puritans such as the members of the classical movement who sent twenty-two to twenty-five boys to be educated at the new college by their colleague Chaderton. Some forty percent of the 832 were preparing for the ministry. The careers of 307 of these, for whom some information was found, have been analyzed. They served mainly in eastern and southern parishes, the same areas which fed Emmanuel. Usually there is no evidence of their religious sympathies but eighty-five (nearly 28%) exhibited Puritan tendencies ranging from radical to moderate. Even when noticed by the authorities most of these were able to remain in their parishes, sometimes by temporary conformity. As Mildmay and Chaderton had intended, the learned preaching clergy trained at Emmanuel placed service to their flocks above all else.