PRYNNE, WILLIAM (1600-1669), English parliamenta rian, son of Thomas Prynne, born at Swainswick near Bath, was educated at Bath Grammar School and at Oriel College, Oxford. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1628. He was Puritan. In 1629 Prynne came forward as the assailant of Arminianism in doctrine and of ceremonialism in practice, and thus drew down upon himself the anger of Laud. Histrio-mastix, published in 1633, was a violent attack upon stage plays in general, in which the author pointed out that kings and emperors who had favoured the drama had been carried off by violent deaths, and applied a disgraceful epithet to actresses, which, as Henrietta Maria was taking part in the rehearsal of a ballet, was supposed to apply to the queen. After a year's imprisonment in the Tower Prynne was sentenced by the star chamber on Feb. 17, 1634 to be imprisoned for life, and also to be fined £5,000, expelled from Lincoln's Inn, rendered incapable of returning to his profession, degraded from his degree in the university of Oxford, and set in the pillory, where he was to lose both his ears. The latter portion of the sentence was carried out on May 7, and the rest of his punish ment inflicted except the fine and part of the imprisonment. There is no reason to suppose that his punishment was unpopular.
In 1637 he was once more in the star chamber, together with Bastwick and Burton. In A Divine Tragedy lately acted he had attacked the Declaration of Sports, and in News from Ipswich he had assailed Wren and the bishops generally. On June 3o a fresh sentence, delivered on the 14th, was executed. The stumps of Prynne's ears were shorn off in the pillory, and he was branded on the cheeks with the letters S.L., meaning "seditious libeller," which Prynne, however, interpreted as "stigmata laudis." He was removed to Carnarvon Castle, and thence to Mont Orgueil Castle in Jersey, where he occupied himself in writing against popery.
Immediately upon the meeting of the Long Parliament in 1640 Prynne was liberated. On Nov. 28 he entered London in triumph, and on March 2, 1641, reparation was voted by the Commons, at the expense of his persecutors. Prynne now attacked the bishops and the Roman Catholics and defended the taking up of arms by the parliament. He showed a vindictive energy in the prosecution of Archbishop Laud. He manipulated the evidence against him, and having been entrusted with the search of Laud's papers, he published a garbled edition of the archbishop's private "Diary," entitled A Breviate of the Life of Archbishop Laud. He also pub lished Hidden Works of Darkness brought to Light in order to prejudice the archbishop's case, and of ter his execution, Canter bury's Doom . . . an unfinished account of the trial commissioned
by the House of Commons. Prynne supported a national church controlled by the state, and issued a series of tracts against inde pendency. He denounced Milton's Divorce at Pleasure, was answered in the Colasterion, and contemptuously referred to in the sonnet "On the Forcers of Conscience." He also opposed violently the Presbyterian system, and denied the right of any Church to excommunicate except by leave of the state (e.g., Four Short Questions A Vindication of Four Serious Ques tions [1645]). He was throughout an enemy of individual free dom in religion.
Prynne took the side of the parliament against the army in 1647, supported the cause of the eleven impeached members, and visited the university of Oxford as one of the parliamentary commissioners. In 1648 Prynne was returned as member for Newport in Cornwall. He at once took part against those who called for the execution of Charles; the result was his inclusion in "Pride's Purge" on Dec. 6, when, having resisted military violence, he was imprisoned. After recovering his liberty Prynne retired to Swainswick. On June 7, 1649, he was assessed to the monthly contribution laid on the country by parliament. He not only re fused to pay, but published A Legal Vindication of the Liberties of England, arguing that no tax could be raised without the consent of the two houses. He was imprisoned in various places from 165o to 1653, and on his release renewed his pamphleteering activities.
On the restoration of the Rump Parliament by the army of the 7th of May 1659 fourteen of the secluded members, with Prynne among them, claimed admittance. He was prevented from taking his seat, and a second attempt in December also failed. He was returned for Bath to the Convention parliament and to the parlia ment of 1661. During 1663 he served constantly on committees, and was chairman of the committee of supply in July, and again in April 1664. The last time he addressed the House appears to have been in Nov. 1667.
Prynne died unmarried, in his lodgings at Lincoln's Inn, on Oct. 24, 1669, and was buried in the walk under the chapel there.
by C. H. Frith in the Dict. of Nat. Biography; Life of Prynne, in Wood's Ath. Oxon., ed. by Bliss, iii. 844; Documents relating to the Proceedings against Prynne, ed. by S. R. Gardiner for the Camden Society (1877) ; Hist. of Swains wick, by R. ,E. M. Peach ; Gardiner's Hist. of England, of the Civil War and of the Commonwealth; Notes and Queries, 8th series, vol. viii., p. 361 ("Letter to Charles II., May 2, 166o"), 9th series, vol. ii. P. 336.