27 September 1680: The Rev Oliver Heywood shows disregard for Calvinist views on fasting, for his horses, and for his wife
Oliver Heywood. 1881. The Rev. Oliver Heywood, B.A., 1630-1702, Vol. 2/4. Ed. J. Horsfall Turner. Brighouse: A.B. Bayes. Get it:
.Excerpt
Mr Heywood weighed twelve score and five pounds [111 kg], Mrs H weighed five score and fifteen pounds [52 kg].
To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.
Abbreviations:
- ER: East Riding
- GM: Greater Manchester
- NR: North Riding
- NY: North Yorkshire
- SY: South Yorkshire
- WR: West Riding
- WY: West Yorkshire
Comment
Comment
This despite frequent mentions of fasting, which, according to Calvin, had three ends:
The object of fasts is, that the flesh may be grieved; that we may be better set in order for prayer; that they may be proofs of humility and obedience. They consist in the time of taking food, its quality, and quantity. Here we must take heed, lest we rend our garments only, and not our hearts, as the hypocrites do; lest, when done, they be reckoned as a work of merit; lest they be exacted too rigidly, as if necessary to salvation (Calvin 1844).
Perhaps Heywood’s heart was so evidently in the right place that his fasting could be merely symbolic.
Heywood’s size must have taxed his horses – Ralph Thoresby calculated “that in one year he preached 105 times, besides the Lord’s Days, kept 50 days of fasting and prayer, nine of thanksgiving, and travelled 1,400 miles in his Master’s service.” (Thoresby 1715) His (second) wife was Abigail Crompton, who married him in 1667 and, childless, survived him by five years (Anon 1832).
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Original
Mr. Heywood weighed twelve score and five pounds, Sept. 27. 1680 Mrs H. weighed five score and fifteen pounds.
19 words.
Tags
Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.
- Heywood, Oliver (1630-1702) (34), Bolton-born nonconformist minister and diarist, active in the West Riding, resident at Northowram, ejected for his beliefs
· - Horse (71) ·
- Nonconformism (47) ·
- Obesity (5) ·
- Presbyterianism (20) ·
- Protestantism (25) ·
- Thoresby, Ralph (1658-1725) (11), Leeds-born antiquarian and its first historian, non-conformist, merchant, fellow of the Royal Society, diarist, author, common-councilman in the Corporation of Leeds, museum keeper ·
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