BASTWICK, JOHN English religious zealot, was born at Writtle, Essex, and after a brief educa tion at Cambridge, wandered on the Continent and graduated in medicine at Padua. On his re turn he settled in Colchester.
His celebrity rests on his strong opposition to the Roman Catholic ceremonial. About 1633 he printed in Holland two Latin treatises, entitled Elenchus Religions Papisticae, and Flagellum Pontificis et Episco porum Latialium; and as Laud and other English prelates thought themselves aimed at, he was fined Ii,000 in the court of high commission, excommunicated and prohibited from practising physic; his books were burnt and the author consigned to prison. His counterblast was Apologeticus ad Praesules Anglicanos, and another book called The Litany, in which he exclaimed vehemently against the proceedings of the court, and charged the bishops with being the enemies of God and "the tail of the beast." William Prynne and Henry Burton coming under the lash of the Star Chamber court at the same time, they were all censured as tur bulent and seditious persons, and condemned to pay a fine of £5,000 each, to be set in the pillory, to lose their ears, and to undergo imprisonment for life in remote parts of the kingdom, Bastwick being sent to Scilly. The parliament in 164o reversed these proceedings, and ordered Bastwick a reparation of £5,000 out of the estates of the commissioners and lords who had sen tenced him. He joined the parliamentary army, but in later years showed bitter opposition to the Independents. He died in the latter part of