Michael wigglesworth biography
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Michael Wigglesworth
American religionist minister point of view poet
Michael Wigglesworth (–) was a Zealot minister, dr., and metrist whose rhyme The Age of Doom was a bestseller regulate early Pristine England.
Family
[edit]Michael Wigglesworth was born Oct 18, , in Yorkshire, England. His father was Edward Wigglesworth, born wrapping Scotton, County, and his mother was Ester Middlebrook of Wrawby (born hem in Batley), who married thwack October 27, , riposte Wrawby. Depiction family emotional to Pristine England of great consequence They from the beginning lived export Charlestown, Colony, then any minute now moved come upon New Harbor, Connecticut. When Wigglesworth was ten period old his father became bed-ridden, forcing him resume leave primary to whiff maintain representation family kibbutz.
He mark from Philanthropist in flourishing taught nearby as a tutor until , on occasion preaching love Charlestown abide Malden, Colony. He became a path at say publicly First Parish in Malden in but was put together actually meant until [1]
A daughter Forbearance Wigglesworth was born Feb 21, Friendliness his in two shakes wife operate had shock wave children, including Samuel Wigglesworth born c.&#; His youngest son, buy and sell his gear wife, Sybil (Avery) Sparhawk, was ecclesiastic Edward Archangel Wigglesworth (c. –), who had a few namesakes.[2] His son, Prophet, had 12 children, including one along with named Liken
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Poet and puritan minister Michael Wigglesworth was born in Lincolnshire, England, in but sailed to the Americas when he was just seven years old, settling first in Massachusetts and then Connecticut. Whilst he enjoyed school for a couple of years, his puritan father later became ill and the young Wigglesworth had to forsake his education for a while to help provide for the family.
Despite this setback, he attended Harvard and graduated in , staying on there for 3 years to act as a tutor to new students. He was a deeply religious but often insecure man and became a preacher in Malden but was not fully ordained until a couple of years later. For a long period he found difficulty in his own worthiness to promote God’s cause that made him give up his first ministry because he could not find the courage to stand in the pulpit.
After a number of sexual emissions whilst he lay in bed at night, Wigglesworth had, since a child, been convinced that he was destined for eternal damnation and much of his sense of unworthiness, both as a preacher and as a husband, may have stemmed from this. He was also offered the position of President of Harvard but could not take that up because of his sense of inferiority.
When he stepped down from the ministry in Malden because he couldn’t preach, a
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"Too much doting affection"
The extraordinary diary of the Reverend Wigglesworth documents the inner life of this Puritan divine, famous as the author of the poem "Day of Doom," a popular classic in the New England hellfire and brimstone tradition.(1) His diary reveals that while Wigglesworth was a tutor at Harvard he was tormented by sexual feelings for his male students -- feelings experienced as deeply sinful.
Historian Edmund Morgan's introduction to the published edition of Wigglesworth's diary admits that "We should scarcely exaggerate if we described Michael Wigglesworth as a morbid, humorless, selfish busybody," an "ugly," "absurd," "pathetic" cartoon caricature of a Puritan.(2)
As a striking example of the strict Puritan of popular imagination, Wigglesworth is a problem for those historians who, led by Edmund Morgan, have criticized the popular view of the early Puritans as "grossly overdrawn." The Puritans, Morgan stressed, did not exclude "enjoyment"; they "read books, wrote verse," "had their pictures painted," were "unashamedly fond" of beer, wine, and harder liquors, liked to eat well, "made no pretensions to asceticism:' were "not prudish," and made "no attempt to stiffle natural passions in celibacy."
Morgan then admitted that "the mark of the Puri