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INTRODUCTION.
xxxix
which Penn was led by his zeal against what he considered Popish practices, and for which he, with several others, including probably the Earl of Sunderland, was expelled.[1]
Much of the earlier part of his life was passed in travelling on the continent, under the care of Dr. Pierce,[2] preparing himself for those diplomatic employments in which he was afterwards much en-
- ↑ "An order came down from Charles II., that the surplice should be worn according to the custom of ancient times. It was an unusual sight at that university * * *. William Penn, who conceived that the simplicity and spirituality of the Christian religion would be destroyed by the introduction of outward ceremonies and forms, could not bear it. Engaging. therefore, his friend Robert Spencer and some other young gentlemen to join him, he fell upon those students who appeared in surplices, and they tore them over their heads. The college took it up, and Penn and several of his associates were expelled"—Clarkson's Life of Penn.
- ↑ This Dr. Pierce became afterwards Rector of Brington, in Northamptonshire. In a letter addressed to his patron, the Dowager Lady Sunderland, he thus speaks, both of his pupil and his own preferment. "It has cost me a sequestration from your Ladyship's presence, and from the immediate pleasure which I enjoyed in the education of your son, whose choice rudiments of nature, having been properly seasoned and crowned with grace, gave him such a willingness and aptitude to be taught, as reconciled my greatest pains with ease and pleasure. So that the education of my dear Lord was not so much an employment as it was my recreation and reward."—Kennet's Reg., 216.
vol. i.
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