OWEN, Dr John (?1614-83), of The Deanery, Christ Church, Oxford.

Among a handful of elected Members who should have been disqualified on account of their clerical orders, Owen may never have taken his seat in the Commons. Nevertheless, he had an established profile there as a fast day preacher between 1646 and 1659, and wielded an incalculable influence on leading members of the commonwealth and protectorate regimes.27 CCSP iv. 404. Even before that he was an important star in the firmament of godly Essex MPs.

As he later acknowledged, Owen’s long-lasting nonconformity had deep roots.28J. Owen, Of schisme the true nature of it discovered and considered (Oxford, 1657), 38. His father Henry, who was of Welsh extraction, had been a schoolmaster before becoming, under the sympathetic patronage of the puritan D’Oyly family, vicar of Stadhampton.29Ath. Ox. iv. 97; ‘Memoirs of the Life’, in [J. Owen], A complete collection of the sermons of … John Owen (1721), p. ii; Corresp. John Owen, 3. After schooling in Oxford, Owen went with his elder brother William to Queen’s College. Here as a precocious graduate he was taught logic and philosophy by Thomas Barlow, who combined a high Calvinism incongruous in the increasingly Laudian university environment with an eclectic social and intellectual circle.30Al. Ox.; Ath. Ox. iv. 97; ‘Thomas Barlow’, Oxford DNB. Both William and John were ordained by Laud’s friend John Bancroft, bishop of Oxford: the fact that the latter was made a deacon as early as December 1632 suggested he was born a few years earlier than 1616, the birthdate often given; he should have been at least 24 at his ordination as priest in December 1638.31Clergy of the C of E database. However, by 1637 he found the ceremonialist atmosphere of Queen’s, as promoted by provost Christopher Potter, intolerable. Abandoning a potential academic career, he became chaplain to Sir Robert Dormer of Great Milton, Oxfordshire, and tutor to his son. At Dormer’s private chapel Owen observed the rites of the Book of Common Prayer according to his conscience. A subsequent period as chaplain to Lord John Lovelace at Hurley in Berkshire was cut short in 1642, when at the outbreak of war Owen and his patron adopted opposing allegiances, and Owen was disinherited by the uncle who had financed his studies.32‘Mems. of the Life’, p. iv; Corresp. John Owen, 6-9.

Owen moved on to areas under parliamentary control. He spent part of November and December 1642 in Kent, as a guest of (Sir) Edward Scott† at Scot’s Hall near Ashford, but otherwise he was in London, where he took lodgings in Charterhouse Yard. On a visit to St Mary Aldermanbury church he underwent a galvanising spiritual experience.33‘Mems. of the Life’, pp. iv-v; Corresp. John Owen, 10, 12; J.Owen, The Duty of Pastors and People Distinguished (1644), sig. A2v (E.49.6). He was possibly the John Owen who on 23 March 1643 signed an affidavit submitted to the House of Lords identifying a London debtor as a recusant from Oxford.34HMC 5th Rep. 78a. Within four weeks he published an exposé of the advance of Arminianism, dedicating to the committee for religion this ‘bill of complaint’ against those who had sought to reintroduce ‘the foreign power of an old idol’.35J. Owen, Theomachia autexousiastike: or, A display of Arminianisme (1643), *2–*2v (E.97.14) Its favourable reception, together with friendly networks operating on the Committee for Scandalous Ministers* through Scott’s friend Thomas Rooke or the maternal kin of John D’Oyly*, appear to explain his induction by 16 July to the vicarage of Fordham, Essex.36‘Mems. of the Life’, p. vi; Corresp. John Owen, 14. His marriage shortly afterwards to Mary Rooke, probably the daughter of a local clothier, evidently sealed his residence there, for he then declined a living offered by Scott.37Owen, Duty of Pastors and People, sig. A2.

Over the next few years Owen established a reputation as a pastor. In The Duty of Pastors and People (1644) he identified the respective responsibilities of a dedicated ministry and a Christian laity, differentiating the roles of both from a priestly caste and from a ‘democratical confusion’ where all held parallel authority and function. At this date he identified himself as a Presbyterian in church government.38Owen, Duty of Pastors and People, 10, 18, 24, 42. He published two catechisms and was suggested as a potential investigator of inadequate ministers.39J. Owen, The principles of the doctrine of Christ (1645); Corresp. John Owen, 15-16.

On 14 March 1646 the Committee for Plundered Ministers* proposed to place Owen in the vacant cure of St Botolph, Colchester, while on the 25th Sir Peter Wentworth* and Thomas Westrow* (a connection of Lady Scott) were ordered to invite him to preach before the Commons at the next fast day.40Corresp. John Owen, 16; CJ iv. 489a. The sermon, delivered on 29 April, revealed a shift in his ecclesiological thinking. He had discovered that, in a divinely ordered universe, ‘all things here below, especially as concern the gospel and church of God, are carried along, through innumerable varieties, and a world of contingencies’, especially in dispensing of the outward means of salvation’. Much error remained and further reformation was necessary; Wales, the north and the west in particular cried for help. But although both magistrates and ministers had a responsibility to promote the gospel, there was ‘more danger of an apostacy against Christ, and rebellion against the truth, in one Babylonish Error, owned by men, pretending to power and jurisdiction over others, than in five hundred, scattered amongst inconsiderable disunited individuals’.41J. Owen, A Vision of Unchangeable Free Mercy (1646), 2, 8, 25, 26, 27, 44-5 (E.334.15); CJ iv. 526b. Annexed to the published text was ‘A Country Essay for the Practice of Church Government here’, born out of frustrated hopes of accommodation between ‘dissenting parties’. Avowedly only a working draft, it proposed a system combining voluntary congregations of the ‘professors’ or ‘visible saints’ with a distinct ministry, rejecting as ‘simple or malicious’ the question of whether this was Presbyterian or Independent. Preliminary directional principles were suggested to deal with the difficult problem of toleration but Owen was clear that, although doctrines subversive to the civil state might be suppressed, ecclesiastical and civil discipline were not to be mixed; the weapon against heresy was primarily spiritual.42Owen, Vision of Unchangeable Free Mercy, esp. 57, 60. 61, 70, 81.

The message that Parliament should not be the ultimate arbiter of religious settlement was doubtless unwelcome to some auditors, but on 18 August 1646 the Lords authorised Owen’s appointment to the vicarage of Coggleshall, Essex, on the presentation of Robert Devereux, 3rd earl of Essex, and others.43LJ viii. 467b. Following the collapse of the royalist cause in the county in 1648, Owen preached and published two important sermons, one before General Sir Thomas Fairfax* at a thanksgiving for the surrender of Colchester and another at Romford celebrating the release of members of the county committee who had been imprisoned by the enemy; dedicatees included Sir William Masham* and Sir Henry Mildmay*.44J. Owen, Eben-ezer a memoriall of the deliverance of Essex, county, and committee (1648, E.477.8). These two men were the bearers of invitations and thanks for preaching to Parliament on several occasions from early 1649.45CJ vi. 107a, 152b, 190a, 218a. According to Bulstrode Whitelocke*, who met him at dinner on 31 December 1648, Owen ‘seemed much to favour the army, and disliked the absence of those Parliament men who had no force upon them particularly’.46Whitelocke, Diary, 227. His sermon before the Rump on the day after the king’s execution took as its text Jeremiah’s injunction to the remnant of Judah, ‘Let them return to thee, but return not thou unto them’; Members were exhorted to stand fast in the storm and not to be disconcerted by those who ‘so endlessly engage themselves to fruitless oppositions’.47J. Owen, A Sermon Preached to the Honourable House of Commons … on January 31 (1649) 1, 37 (E.540.2). Once again Owen appended to the published version a discussion of toleration and the role of the magistrate, according to the representatives of the state an important role in nurturing Christian preaching, worship and ministers, but reiterating the separation of civil and spiritual authority in a context where all men were obligated to seek to know the will of God.48Owen, A Sermon Preached, 39-95. His theme of constancy and perseverance in a time of ‘reshuffling’ was repeated in a sermon to the House on 19 April. His purpose was to ‘stir up’ Members to shun what had been purged from the house and to labour to do God’s work, but beyond the removal of idolatrous worship, he did not suggest in what that consisted.49J. Owen, Ouranon Ourania: The Shaking and Translating of Heaven and Earth (1649), 14, 26, 31, 42 (E.551.4).

On 8 June, the day after he had preached at Parliament’s thanksgiving for the suppression of the Levellers’ mutiny (depicted as a ‘trial of faith’), a bill was read proposing generous annuities to Owen and other ministers.50J. Owen, ‘Human power defeated’, A complete collection of the sermons, 79-90; CJ vi. 218a, 226b; Corresp. John Owen, 32-3; CSP Dom. 1649-50, p. 177. On 2 July the Commons approved his appointment as a chaplain to accompany Oliver Cromwell* to Ireland and ordered that the annuity, confirmed at £100, be paid to his wife and children in his absence.51CJ vi. 248a. A personal advance of £80 was ordered on 20 September.52CSP Dom. 1649-50, p. 589. Lodging at Trinity College, Dublin, he was able to preach, study and enjoy ‘peace and quietness for a season’.53‘Mems. of the Life’, p. x; J. Owen, Of the Death of Christ (1650), dedication (E.641.2). By late February 1650 he was back in England and in high favour with the regime. A sermon delivered to Parliament on the 28th pursued his familiar theme of faithfulness and hope in apparently adverse circumstances, but offered more specific guidance than heretofore. Not only was his declared aim to promote the propagation of the gospel in Ireland but he also advocated in passing the relief of victims of the wars, and appeared to commend the Engagement.54CJ vi. 374a; J. Owen, The stedfastness of promises (1650), sig. A2, 30, 34-7, 46 (E.599.9). On 8 March he was appointed a weekly preacher to the council of state (a post which carried lodgings in Whitehall) and duly made a commissioner for the advancement of the gospel and learning in Ireland.55CSP Dom. 1650, p. 30; A. and O. As he prepared for publication a work of theological controversy composed there and dedicated to Cromwell, on 21 May the council named him among ministers to be consulted about supplying chaplains to regiments; by 26 June he was earmarked for employment in the army destined for Scotland.56CSP Dom. 1650, pp. 171, 216, 217; Owen, Of the Death of Christ, dedication.

Owen seems to have set off with Captain-general Cromwell two days later. About 19 July he preached to the troops in Berwick; his letter to John Lisle* describing the engagement with the Scots near Musselburgh on 29/30 July was among those read in the Commons on 6 August.57CJ vi. 451b; Corresp. John Owen, 38-9. Owen had retained his London salary and was there, presumably fulfilling his duties, when in mid-September Cromwell’s request called him back to Scotland.58CSP Dom. 1650, pp. 336, 348; While he admitted a certain reluctance – ‘it was with thoughts of peace that I embraced my call to this place and time of war’ – his presence in and around Edinburgh was valued by many who found him a persuasive expositor of Parliament’s cause, and he welcomed a close relationship with Cromwell and a further opportunity to build the house of God.59J. Owen, The Branch of the Lord, the Beauty of Sion (Edinburgh, 1650), *2 (E.618.2); Corresp. John Owen, 40-1; Mercurius Politicus no. 33 (16-23 Jan. 1651), 541 (E.622.8); Diary of Alexander Jaffray ed. J. Barclay (1833), 38. He stayed until about the middle of February 1651.60CSP Dom. 1650, p. 472; 1651, p. 18.

On 4 March, with Masham once more as intermediary, Owen was again invited to preach before Parliament.61CJ vi. 544b. It is unclear whether he did so: the sermons delivered on the 13th were not printed and on the 8th Owen was given six weeks’ leave of absence in the country by the council of state.62CJ vi. 549a; CSP Dom. 1651, p. 74. It may have been a tactical withdrawal. On 14 March, following long debate in which various options had been canvassed, the Commons voted that he replace Edward Reynolds as dean of Christ Church, Oxford; it is probably no coincidence that Cromwell had just been appointed chancellor of the university.63CJ vi. 549a and b; Corresp. John Owen, 41-2. Installed shortly afterwards, by virtue of his office, a confident personality, a significant academic stature, and his perceived closeness to the lord general, Owen soon came to dominate the ascendant Independents at Oxford.64Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxford, ii. pt. ii. 644; Wood, Life and Times, i. 145-6; Bodl. OUA, NEP/supra/Reg. T., pp. 142, 147, 154, 160. By October he had a regular weekly preaching slot at the university church.65Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxford, ii. pt. ii. 647.

However, although Joseph Caryll, who had refused the deanery, replaced Owen as minister to the council of state in June 1651, the latter still moved on the national stage.66CSP Dom. 1651, p. 263. Called to preach at a parliamentary thanksgiving on 24 October for the victory at Worcester, he dedicated the printed text to ‘the supreme authority of the nation, the Commons’. He contemplated a new political model based on scriptural precedent. While God had ‘erected a kingly government in the house of David’ it was ‘not for any eminency in the government itself, or for the civil advantage of that people’; ‘long before’ that God had ‘chosen and established another consisting of 70 elders of the people … to whom he added prophets and judges extraordinarily raised up in several generations’. Israelites, bishops and now Scots had alike chosen the yoke of monarchy, but since God had effected amazing deliverance, it was time to join in his design.67J. Owen, The advantage of the kingdome of Christ (Oxford, 1651), esp. A2, 3, 4, 13, 15, 28 (E.643.25). In his funeral sermon for Henry Ireton*, given on 6 February 1652 and dedicated to his ‘very worthy friend’ Colonel Henry Cromwell*, Owen identified an ideal Christian magistrate, ‘an eminent instrument in the hands of God’ – wise, faithful, industrious, self-denying, impartial and ‘in love to the Lord Jesus and all his saints’.68J. Owen, The labouring saints dismission to rest (1652), A2, 9, 24 (E.654.3). With Thomas Goodwin, president of Magdalen College, and other Independents, in February and March he presented proposals to the parliamentary committee for the propagation of the gospel, including suggestions for the supply of suitable ministers and the curbing of error and blasphemy.69The humble proposals of Mr. Owen … and other ministers (1652, E.658.12). He headed a list of ministers who commended to MPs mission to the indigenous peoples of New England.70[H. Whitfield], Strength out of Weakness (1652), sig. [A3v] (E673.6). Probably that year he was first named among approvers of potential translations of the Bible or New Testament.71CSP Dom. 1652-3, p. 74. A personal contribution was his primer and catechism for children, approved for publication by parliamentary committee that year, while in July he was summoned with Goodwin, Caryll and others to a meeting at Cromwell’s house to advise on preachers for Ireland; the necessity of his influence in effecting any result here was recognised across the Irish Sea.72J. Owen, The Primer (1652); CSP Dom. 1651-2, p. 351; Corresp. John Owen, 59.

A conduit for Cromwell’s judgements on university matters and chief delegate in his absence, in September Owen was nominated by the lord general as his new vice-chancellor; convocation duly elected him on the 26th.73Bodl. OUA, NEP/supra/Reg. T., pp. 162, 170, 173. His vigour in office did not preclude continued activity on the national stage, however. On 13 October he took the pulpit for another fast day sermon at Westminster, exploring familiar themes of the power of civil magistrates in religion, the imperative to assert the gospel against all opposition using spiritual means, and ‘the rule of toleration’, updated by reference to ‘strange conflicts’ with brother believers in Scotland and the Netherlands. A glimpse of the impending political agenda appeared in a passing observation that there would be no establishment of Christ’s earthly kingdom without the Jews.74J. Owen, A sermon preached to the Parliament, Octob. 13. 1652 (Oxford, 1652), 17, 27, 29, 45-7, 53 (E.678.2). With notable energy Owen managed through 1653 and into 1654 to combine engagement in scholarly controversy, day-to-day college and university administration, pressing for reform of the university visitors, and parochial and parliamentary preaching in London (25 Aug. 1653, to the Nominated Assembly) with playing his part in advancing that kingdom, cultivating and benefiting from his relationship with Cromwell.75J Owen, Diatriba de justitia divina (Oxford, 1653), esp. dedication (E.1482.2); Owen, The doctrine of the saints perseverance (Oxford, 1654); Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxford, ii. pt. ii. 651, 654; Bodl. OUA WPγ/16/1/56; Bodl. Selden supra 109, f. 372; CJ vii. 297b The award of DD by diploma on 23 December gave him vital academic status.76Al. Ox. Nominated a commissioner for ejecting and settling ministers (1 Dec. 1653) and to approve all appointments to cures and lectureships (20 Mar. 1654), he took an active part in endorsing orthodox candidates, was vigilant in refuting Socinian threats, and encouraged others who laboured in exemplary fashion for the word of God ‘in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation’.77CJ vii. 361b; CSP Dom. 1653-4, p. 416; 1654, pp. 3, 40-1; J. Owen, Vindiciae evanglicae (1655); Corresp. John Owen, 57–9. On 9 January 1654 he was the first signatory to a fraternal circular from Independent ministers warning of the dangerous and politically subversive errors of the Fifth Monarchists, while in the spring he led the university and ministerial figures endorsing John Durie’s ecumenical intentions in a letter to the evangelical churches of Europe.78Bodl. Carte 81, ff. 16-17; Corresp. John Owen, 70.

In this context it is easy to see why in summer 1654 Owen might be considered a potentially useful Member of Parliament, both by Oxford University, which notwithstanding local criticism of his institutional rule elected him as its representative on 27 June, and by probable sponsors like Protector Cromwell himself.79Bodl. OUA, NEP/supra/Reg. T., p. 249. It is even credible that the ‘chief plotter’ for his victory was, as alleged, John Wilkins, the natural philosopher of opaque political allegiances whom Owen had controversially helped install as warden of Wadham College.80Cal. Baxter Corresp. i. 152. It is surprising, however, that Owen’s ineligibility as an ordained person did not block his candidature at the outset, especially given his own pronouncements on the separation of spiritual and civil authority. Perhaps his ex officio appointment as an Oxford justice of the peace the previous September had blurred such distinctions in the minds of many, including himself, and highlighted the anomaly of university government.81C231/6, p. 268. There is no sign of the eligibility issue surfacing over the summer and early autumn, during which Owen became an assistant to the Oxfordshire commissioners for ejecting scandalous ministers (28 Aug.) and a member of the new commission of university visitors (2 Sept.).82A. and O.; Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxford, ii. pt. ii. 662.

It is not known whether Owen attempted to take his seat when Parliament opened on 3 September; he is completely absent from the Journal. Yet he was certainly active in London around this time, chairing negotiations with Scottish ministers referred to him and others by the council of state.83CSP Dom. 1654, p. 386. The case of MP Colonel Nathaniel Barton*, ‘who is in holy orders and therefore disabled’, was referred with parallel instances to the committee for privileges on 9 October, but it seems to have been mid-November before voters in the university perceived their election might be overturned.84CJ vii. 375a. On the 21st convocation petitioned the committee that they had chosen Owen (who on 31 October had been reappointed vice-chancellor for the second time in line with Cromwell’s wish) ‘with much unanimity’ and asked that they might be consulted before a definitive decision was taken.85Bodl. OUA, NEP/supra/Reg. T., pp. 254–5. Such a decision, regarding as it did an embarrassingly high-profile figure like Owen, may simply have been shelved amid the debates on the Instrument of Government and the rumours of plots which overshadowed this Parliament. The vice-chancellor himself was probably distracted by the apparently serious threats to the discipline of civil law and to university education in general which occasioned lobbying of the protector and his councillors between November 1654 and February 1655.86Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxford, ii. pt. ii. 662-6; Corresp. John Owen, 75-9. At any rate, Owen made no obvious direct contribution to proceedings in the House, although, according to Richard Baxter, behind the scenes he was the principal author of The Principles of Faith presented to the parliamentary committee on religion by Goodwin and others at the beginning of November.87[T. Goodwin], The Principles of Faith (1654, E.234.5); Reliquiae, i pt. ii, 198. He was also reportedly called in to advise Cromwell on the articles in the Instrument relating to toleration.88Cal. Baxter Corresp. i. 157.

Owen continued to be a figure of substance. He raised a troop of 60 horse to defend the university from the insurgents of March 1655, and was able to capitalize on his loyalty to the regime to protect professor of Arabic Edward Pocock from the indiscriminate attentions of the Berkshire triers and ejectors and to promote the interests of sub-steward Serjeant Unton Croke I*.89Bodl. Rawl. A.24, f. 336; A.26 f. 413; TSP iv. 65-6.. In September he was confirmed for a fourth time as vice-chancellor and in November he was an obvious consultant when the council of state sought advice on the proposals for the readmission of the Jews.90Bodl. OUA, NEP/supra/Reg. T., p. 269; CSP Dom. 1655-6, p. 23; Corresp. John Owen, 88. Early in 1656 he experienced various setbacks. In April two of his sons died from a fever which nearly killed him too, and it emerged that his government annuity was several years in arrears.91HMC Egmont, i. 576; CSP Dom. 1655-6, p. 288; Josselin, Diary, 363. In May he was arrested by the bailiff of Middlesex at Whitehall Gate on his way to attend public service, though the instigators were dealt with by the council.92CSP Dom. 1655-6, pp. 319, 331; 1656-7, p. 108. At Oxford deep-seated divisions among the visitors and simmering discontent with some of Owen’s decisions came to a head. Owen’s plans to abolish academic dress and simplify ceremonial came to nothing, foundering on widespread consternation within the university and the counter-influence outside it of Dr Jonathan Goddard*, warden of Merton and one of Cromwell’s physicians, and Dr Peter French, who had married one of the protector’s sisters.93Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxford, ii. pt. ii. 665-6, 675; Wood, Life and Times i. 359; Bodl. OUA, SP/E/4, f. 93v; Josselin, Diary, 374. Yet in June the council deputed Owen, with two others, to advise on which of the books and manuscripts of the late archbishop of Armagh, James Ussher, should be bought by the state and in August it ordered payment of his arrears.94CSP Dom. 1655-6, p. 370; 1656-7, p. 66.

In the parliamentary elections of August 1656, in which Nathaniel Fiennes I* was returned for the university, Owen supported the candidature of Bulstrode Whitelocke for the county before the latter opted for Buckinghamshire.95Whitelocke, Diary, 447-8. Chosen to preach at the opening of the session on 17 September, Owen extolled the common interest and ‘a spirit of love’ at home and unity with protestant nations abroad, for

is not for this, or that form of government, or civil administration of human affairs; it is not for these, or those governors, much less for the advantage of one or other sort of men: for the enthroning of any one, or other persuasion, gainful, or helpful to some few, or more, that God hath wrought his mighty works amongst us. But it is that Sion may be founded.96J. Owen, God's work in founding Zion (Oxford, 1656) 9, 30, 45, 48 (E.891.2); Clarke Pprs. iii. 72; CSP Dom. 1656-7, p. 113.

Asked the next day, via Major-general Thomas Kelsey*, for a fast sermon delivered on 30 October, in it he expressed the hope that this Parliament would not proceed under the ‘darkening cloud’ that had blighted its predecessor, but that ‘we are journeying towards our rest’.97J. Owen, God's presence with a people (1656) 19 (E.891.4); CJ vii. 424a, 447b. Such optimism was misplaced, but Owen himself was riding high. He was again consulted by councillors about the augmentation of ministers’ incomes; the preparation of proposals with Thomas Goodwin, Philip Nye and others, and reviews of individual cases kept him in London well into November.98CSP Dom. 1656-7, pp. 132, 158, 164; The Corresp. of Thomas Hobbes ed. N. Malcolm (1994), 338. On 25 February 1657 he was asked to preach once more, although it is possible that his disquiet about the offer of the crown to Cromwell two days earlier led him to decline in the invitation.99CJ vii. 497a; Ludlow, Mems. ii. 25. In the fraught debates on the fate of James Naylor his name surfaced readily as a fit spiritual counsellor to whom to refer the alleged blasphemer.100Burton’s Diary, i. 79. A settlement of lands in Ireland in lieu of his previous English annuity was debated through May and passed in June.101CJ vii. 529b, 532b, 534a, 534b, 535a, 553a. According to Thomas Burton, Walter Strickland*, who with Colonel (?)Philip Jones*, Denis Bond* and Colonel William Sydenham* was among the bill’s promoters, pointed out that, although the original grant had recognised Owen’s services at Colchester, ‘yet all here know that he hath done several good services for you elsewhere; and there is little enough that you should confirm this to him which his Highness had taken such care to satisfy’.102Burton’s Diary, ii. 97-8. Royalist intelligence learned in March of rumours of greater honours, which if incredible (or jocular) none the less testified to Owen’s standing. The newswriter Marchamont Nedham, it was alleged, had told Cromwell in Goodwin’s chamber at Whitehall that gossip said Nye should be archbishop of Canterbury and Owen archbishop of York.103CSP Dom. 1656-7, p. 318. It was certainly as a national religious leader that the council called on him in July and August 1657 as a referee in reconciling differences between the resolutioners and remonstrants in the Scottish church.104CSP Dom. 1657-8, pp. 30, 68-9; Corresp. John Owen, 99.

Meanwhile, on 7 October 1656 Owen was elected as vice-chancellor for the last time.105Bodl. OUA, NEP/supra/Reg. T. p. 290. Thanks to amenuenses, the flow of his controversial works continued unabated.106J. Owen, A review of the annotations of Hugo Grotius (Oxford, 1656); Of the mortification of sinne in believers (Oxford, 1656, E.1704.1); Of schisme the true nature of it discovered and considered (Oxford, 1657); A review of the true nature of schisme (Oxford, 1657, E.1664.1); Of communion with God the Father, Sonne, and Holy Ghost (Oxford, 1657, E.916.6). Within Oxford his tolerance towards individuals and their religious practices (from Prayer-Book episcopalians to Baptists), was undeniable, and he told his assistant Henry Stubbe that Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan was ‘full of excellent remarks’, even though it ‘deified the magistrate’ and ‘spoiled all by [its] kingdom of darkness’, but this very broad-mindedness offended his adversaries in print and in convocation just as his penchant for ostentatious dress struck many as hypocritical.107‘Mems. of the Life’, p. xi; Corresp. of Thomas Hobbes, 311-12, 334, 449, 456, 459; L.J. Kreitzer, ‘Seditious Sectaryes’: the Baptist Conventiclers of Oxford (Milton Keynes, 2006), 211, 227; Wood, Life and Times i. 221, 300. Friction over college appointments, the intervention of the visitors, and Owen’s continuing reforming efforts was never far from the surface and the ‘back-biting’ and ‘harsh language’ of confrontations with men like John Wallis evidently divided opinion further.108CSP Dom. 1655-6, p. 29; 1656-7, p. 235; Corresp. Thomas Hobbes, 311-12, 384, 426, 456. When in October 1657, following the appointment of Richard Cromwell* as chancellor, John Conant replaced Owen as vice-chancellor, some observers were quick to claim a political eclipse and a return to the agenda of formality.109Bodl. OUA, NEP/supra/Reg. T, p. 309; CSP Dom. 1657-8, p. 118. Two months later Thomas Lamplugh of Queen’s depicted for exiled royalist Joseph Williamson a frustrated and resentful man who had not only abandoned his Sunday sermons at the university church but had also (less reliably) established an alternative (and clashing) lecture in at St Peter in the East, well-known for its eclectic preaching.110CSP Dom. 1657-8, p. 216. Even if there was in time a partial withdrawal from university activities, however, in 1658 and 1659 Owen remained a presence among the visitors and at Christ Church, from where he continued to publish.111Bodl. OUA, NEP/supra/Reg. T. p. 312, 321, 331; CSP Dom. 1657-8, pp. 218, 236, 278; 1658-9, p. 28; J. Owen, Of the mortification of sin in believers (1658, E.2134.1); Of the divine original, authority, … and power of the Scriptures (1659), *2 (E.1866.1). Still valuable to the protectorate government, on 7 November 1657 he was added to a Whitehall committee to organise collections for persecuted Piedmontese protestants.112CSP Dom. 1657-8, p. 149.

A participant at the Savoy conference in October 1658, Owen contributed to the Declaration of the Faith and Order Owned and Practised in the Congregational Churches subsequently presented to the new protector, Richard Cromwell.113A declaration of the faith and order (1659, E.968.4); ‘Mems. of the Life’, pp. xx-xxii. In November he walked in Oliver’s funeral procession in his capacity as a commissioner for the approbation of public preachers.114Burton’s Diary, ii. 524. His sermon on 4 February 1659 at the first fast day of the latest Parliament contained a familiar exhortation of the faithful remnant to reject party divisions and persevere in promoting the interest of Christ, but an element of disillusion may be read into his ambiguous dedication to Members. There was an obligation to deliver God’s word whether or not men listened, and the minister, operating in his spiritual realm, could not expect to influence the temporal: ‘I know full well, that there is not any thing from the beginning to the ending of this short discourse that doth really interfere with any form of civil government in the world, administered according to righteousness and equity’.115J. Owen, The glory and interest of nations professing the Gospel (1659), sigs. A2v-A3, 2, 15, 21. His long-held view of the separate spheres carried the disquieting logic that the minister should not even attempt such intervention. Nevertheless, as he later admitted, to a greater or lesser extent, he did so that spring.116Clarke Pprs. iv. 123. In March Major-general Charles Fleetwood*, Sydenham and other leaders joined a congregation he established, with what was seen as conciliar encouragement, in the vicinity of Whitehall.117Reg. of the Consultations of the Ministers of Edinburgh ed. W. Stephen (1821-30), ii. 158; Henry Cromwell Corresp. 475. His prayers with the army officers who met at Fleetwood’s residence, Wallingford House, in April associated him with plotting for the Parliament’s dissolution. Archibald Johnston* of Warriston, who when visiting Fleetwood found Sydenham and Owen there also, understood that they had forged a political pact to ‘maintain civil and spiritual liberties already obtained’.118Wariston Diary, iii. 106 According to Edmund Ludlowe II*, Owen asked him for a list of Rumpers who were still alive and, having obtained it, took it to the officers, who were pondering the wisdom of recalling them to Westminster, while Owen’s old antagonist in print, Richard Baxter, also depicted him as an active player.119Ludlow, Mems. ii. 74; Reliquiae, 101, 103. Owen later rejected Baxter’s take on events, and Owen’s eighteenth century editor claimed that, dissatisfied with proceedings at Wallingford House, he had sought a substitute for his preaching at Whitehall, but some involvement seems incontrovertible.120‘Mems. of the Life’, pp. xvii-xxii; Reliquiae, Preface.

It is significant that Owen was called, through Colonel John Jones* and Major Richard Salwey*, to preach to the Rump on 8 May, the day after it reassembled.121CJ vii. 646a and b; Whitelocke, Diary, 514. The Journal noted on 26 July that he had endorsed Salwey’s choice of new incumbent for Richard’s Castle.122CJ vii. 733a. Another old friend, Sydenham, was the intermediary for arranging another sermon to the House on 3 August, while in September there were further refinements to Owen’s Irish land settlement and his tract on toleration was published by parliamentary order.123CJ vii. 732a, 747a, 779a; Clarke Pprs. iv. 54. In the meantime, his London congregation had continued to meet with conciliar sanction, but visits back to Oxford to join the fight against Presbyterian resurgence meant he was not only there to receive with Edward Pococke and his old tutor Barlow the substantial bequest of the books and manuscripts of John Selden* (27 June) but also to act on conciliar instructions to raise troops for the defence of Oxford against the insurgency (15 Aug.).124CSP Dom. 1659-60, pp. 58, 110; Wood, Life and Times i. 268; Bodl. OUA, WPα/15/7. He attended a gathering of ministers and leading laymen in London on 6 September and on the 24th Salwey, as president of the council of state, summoned him back to London to preach at Whitehall on Sundays in October and November; he evidently complied, if not immediately.125Cal. Baxter Corresp. i. 409; CSP Dom. 1658-9, p. 221; Corresp. John Owen, 104-5; cf. Clarke Pprs. iv. 123.

Meeting with Nye and fellow Independents at the Savoy, Owen tried to protect the godly cause in a deteriorating political situation.126Ludlow, Mems. ii. 161. When, in the aftermath of the suffocation of Parliament and the appointment of the committee of safety, General George Monck* threatened from Scotland military intervention to restore the Rump, Owen headed the list of ministers who wrote urgently on 31 October to stay his hand.127Clarke Pprs. iv. 81-2. Owen wrote personally on 19 November. ‘Having already laboured to my utmost in this place for a mutual condescension’ he was anxious that gains made thus far should not be forfeited and godly aims compromised. If English and Scottish armies were to ‘engage in blood, there is a grave made for our whole cause and interest, and a door of ruin opened to all the sober godly in both nations’. Although ‘most of the persons’ of ‘the last Parliament’ were ‘my old friends and acquaintances’, and ‘I may freely say I ventured somewhat for their sitting’, restoration now would be pointless if ruin ensued. It was not necessary to settlement and it would not work.128Clarke Pprs. iv. 121-4. Although courteous, Monck was unmoved.129Clarke Pprs. iv. 89-91. On 29 November he tried to engage Owen ‘whom I know to be of sober principles and of a public spirit’ and ‘knowing that interest you have in the Lord Fleetwood’ to persuade the latter towards a parliamentary course anyway.130Clarke Pprs. iv. 153-4 However, on 13 December, with the Tower in the hands of Major-general John Disbrowe* and London arming itself, Owen signed, albeit less prominently than previously, a last-ditch attempt to argue the Independent ministers’ case. The situation had altered: ‘the state of the quarrel in these parts now is not a Parliament or none, the last Parliament or not, but [the preservation of] our lives from the common enemy or not’.131Clarke Pprs. iv. 185.

By this time the ministers’ capacity for negotiation had run out. By at least 1 February 1660 Owen was in Oxford.132Bodl. OUA, NEP/supra/Reg. Ta. p. 7. On 3 March he was summoned to appear before a committee of the reassembled Rump which had been delegated to adjudicate between him and his predecessor Edward Reynolds for possession of the deanery of Christ Church.133CJ vii. 860b; Whitelocke, Diary, 574; HMC 7th Rep. 462. The decision that he and canon Ambrose Upton were deprived in favour of Reynolds and John Mylles* was announced on 13 March.134CJ vii. 871a, 872b; Whitelocke, Diary, 576; Wood, Life and Times, i. 307. Early in April Disbrowe reported receiving Owen’s encouragement that the good old cause would be preserved, but this was his apparently his last throw.135CSP Dom. 1659-60, p. 409. Retiring to Stadhampton, he held regular services there for two years, to the periodic alarm of the local authorities, until St Bartholomew’s day 1662 ended hopes of religious toleration.136Corresp. John Owen, 125; CSP Dom. 1660-1, p. 473. He settled eventually in London, where for the next 20 years, protected by powerful patrons and frequented by old associates like Fleetwood and Whitelocke, he exercised an influential and respected nonconformist ministry.137Calamy Revised, 376-7; Corresp. John Owen, 125-74; CSP Dom. 1661-2, p. 593; Whitelocke, Diary, 684, 712-5, 718, 725, 736, 748. He himself financed the studies of promising young nonconformists at Oxford.138Bodl. Rawl. C.406, ff. 100, 104. Edward Hyde*, 1st earl of Clarendon, was reportedly impressed by his publications, and a rumour was circulating as late as January 1669 that he had kissed the king’s hand and would be offered a bishopric.139Whitelocke, Diary, 681; Bodl. Eng. let. c.328, f. 509. But at times of political crisis he remained under suspicion, and while his ideas on liberty of conscience were periodically aired, there is understandably no evidence that he wielded a direct influence on Parliament.140CSP Dom. 1661-2, p. 594; 1664-5, p. 222; Whitelocke Diary, 747, 750; Bodl. Rawl. D.1352, ff. 131-8; HMC 7th Rep. app. 364. A few months before his death in August 1683 he was presented for holding a conventicle.141Calamy Revised, 377. By the time he made his will the previous March, all his children were dead, so he divided his property between his second wife, his brother Henry, and numerous other relatives.142PROB11/374/442. A sizeable cortege accompanied his body to burial on 4 September at the nonconformist cemetery in Bunhill Fields.143Corresp. John Owen, 128.