CARTWRIGHT, THOMAS (e.1535-1603). A Puritan leader of the time of Elizabeth. He was born in Hertfordshire, and studied divin ity at Cambridge, being entered as sizar at Clare Hall in 1547, and elected to a scholar ship at Saint John's College in 15.50. Here he soon became an active defender of the new reli gious doctrine: Willa were then in the ascend ency at Cambridge and of which Saint John's was the stronghold. During Mary's reign he was forced to discontinue his studies at the university, and became clerk to a ecumselor-at law. Returning to Cambridge after the accession of Elizabeth, he came under the influence of the Puritan theologian Dr. James Pilkington. then master of Saint John's, from which college he received a fellowship in 1560. Two years later the major fellowship in Trinity was conferred upon him. In 1564 he took part in a theological disputation before Queen Elizabeth, who, it is alleged, strongly favored his adversary. Five years later he became Lady Margaret professor of divinity; but in 1570 he was deprived of his professorship by Whitgift. then vice-chancellor, who was offended by Cartwright's attacks on the hierarchy and government of the Established Church. The next year he lost his fellowship in Trinity by command of the same officer, and then made a visit to Geneva, where he met Theo dore Beza. who greatly admired his learning. He returned to England in 1572 during the excite ment caused by the publication of the famous Admonition to the Parliament, written by two London clergymen, John Field and Thomas Wil cox. This book gave definiteness to the Puritan movement, presenting the Calvinistic system of Geneva as a model for reforms of the English Church. Cartwright gave aid and comfort to the authors, who were imprisoned, and defended the book in a second Admonition to the Parliament. TO this Whitgift. produced an Answer, which was
followed by another paper by Cartwright, at tacking the forms and ceremonies of the Church, such as the use of the ring in the marriage celebration and the cross in baptism. An in direct result of the controversy was the produc tion of one of the most remarkable books of that fruitful age—Hooker's Ecclesiastical Pohl y (con sult introduction to edition by Danbury, Lon don, 1830). In 1573 the Court of High Corm mi-sion issued an order for Cartwright's arrest. leeordingly, he fled to the Continent, where for a time he preached before the English congrega tions in Antwerp and Middclburg. Returning without the Queen's consent in 1585, he was im prisoned in the Fleet without legal warrant by the bigoted Aylmer. Bishop of London; but he was presently set free. Ile was committed to the Fleet in 1590, and again in 1591, when he refused to take the infamous oath ex F1'0111 his liberation in 1592 until his death in 1603, he appears to have escaped IlerseeutMn; but, as sometimes alleged, there is no evidence that he changed his views.
Consult: Isaac Maddox. Vindication of the Oor (rnm( at, Doctrine, and Worship of the Church of England Against Seal (London, 1733) ; IIaim in, Constitutional History of England, Vol. I. new ed., London, 1876) ; Dexter, Congr( gat ionalism (New York, ISSO) : Mullinger, History of the Uni rersity of Cambridge, Vol. 11. (London, 1873-84) ; id., in Dictionary of National Biography, IX. (New York, 18871; Cooper, A thmur contrib., Vol. 11. (Cambridge, 1858-61) ; Strype, .1nnats (new ed., Oxford, 1824) ; id., Life of Whitgiff (Oxford, 1822) ; and for the controversy over the Admwii tion, Whitgift, Defense of the Answer, in his Works (Cambridge, 1851-53), published by the Parker Society.