In The Fundamental Right, Safety and Liberty of the People (1651) Penington addressed England's political problems. In the pamplet Penington described England as a "Sick Nation" because parliament, like Charles I had taken too much power, proclaiming that people have the right to choose their " governors", and insisted they could remove them when the government becomes "burdensome or inconvenient". To keep parliamentary power from becoming arbitrary, elections must be free and frequent and MPs should not engage in spiritual affairs. (6)

Oliver Cromwell became increasingly frustrated by the inability of Parliament to get anything done. His biographer, Pauline Gregg, has pointed out: "He realized that all revolutions are about power and he was asking himself who, or what, should exercise that power. He knew, moreover, that whoever or whatever was in control must be strong enough to propel the state in one direction. This he learned from his battle experience. To be successful an army must observe one plan, one directive." (7)

On 20th April 1653, Cromwell sent in his troopers with their muskets and drawn swords into the House of Commons. Harrison himself pulled the Speaker, William Lenthall, out of the Chair and pushed him out of the Chamber. That afternoon Cromwell dissolved the Council of State and replaced it with a committee of thirteen army officers. Major General Thomas Harrison was appointed as chairman and in effect the head of the English state. (8) Pennington responded by saying that though democracy was less efficient it was preferable to absolute dominion. (9)

Penington joined the Quakers in May 1658 after hearing George Fox speak in Bedfordshire. In his first Quaker publication, The Way of Life and Death (1658), Penington outlined his view of church history, according to which "the true state of Christianity" had been lost. "The Lord hath been kind to me in breaking of me in my religion, and in visiting me with sweet and precious light from his own spirit; but I knew it not. I felt, and could not but acknowledge, a power upon me, and might have known what it was by its purifying of my heart, and begetting me into the image of God; but I confined it to appear in a way of demonstration to my reason and earthly wisdom, and for want of satisfaction therein, denied and rebelled against it; and so, after all my former misery, lost my entrance, and sowed seeds of new misery and sorrow to my own soul, which since I have reaped." (10)

Penington asked where were the praying people over whom a heathen spirit had descended? (11) Distinguishing between human and divine faith he insisted that one must be guided by the light in one's soul, love simplicity, and live humbly to experience true religion. (12) Penington believed that those who ignore the inner light are like the ancient Jews, for they commit the same errors, reject the doctrine of the new birth, and oppose Quakers as the Jews rejected Christ. (13)

In 1658 Oliver Cromwell announced that he wanted his son, Richard Cromwell, to replace him as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth. The English army was unhappy with this decision. While they respected Oliver as a skillful military commander, Richard was just a country farmer. To help him Cromwell brought him onto the Council to familiarize him with affairs of state. (14)

Cromwell died on 3rd September 1658 and his son became Lord Protector but he was bullied by conservative MPs into support measures to restrict religious toleration and the army's freedom to indulge in political activity. The army responded by forcing Richard to dissolve Parliament on 21st April, 1659. The following month he agreed to retire from government. (15)

Penington was one of the first to argue that the Cromwell government had betrayed the revolution or what he called "The Good Old Cause". This was a reference to the demands made by Levellers such as John Lilburne, Richard Overton and William Walwyn for political reform. Their political programme included: voting rights for all adult males, annual elections, complete religious freedom, an end to the censorship of books and newspapers, the abolition of the monarchy and the House of Lords, trial by jury, an end to taxation of people earning less than £30 a year and a maximum interest rate of 6%. (16)

On 18 May 1659 Penington wrote To the Parliament, the Army, and All the Well-Affected, accusing them of betraying the "Good Old Cause" because they committed blasphemy, overthrew God's work, and failed to relieve the poor: "That there hath been a backsliding and turning aside from the Good Old Cause even by the army (who formerly were glorious Instruments in the hand of God) hath been lately confessed, and that they have cause, and desire to take shame to themselves. Now that they may see the cause of shame that lies upon them, and may abase themselves in the sight of God, and before all the world, it behooves them to search narrowly into their backslidings, and consider the fruits thereof, that they may be truly humbled, and turned from that Spirit which led them aside, lest any of them take advantage to make a feigned confession for their own ends, and fall afresh to seek themselves; and their own Interests, and not the Good Old Cause, singly, and nakedly, as in the sight of the Lord." (17)

Parliament and the leaders of the army now began arguing amongst themselves about how England should be ruled. General George Monk, the officer in charge of the English army based in Scotland, decided to take action, and in 1660 he marched his army to London. According to Hyman Fagan: "Faced with a threatened revolt, the upper classes decided to restore the monarchy which, they thought, would bring stability to the country. The army again intervened in politics, but this time it opposed the Commonwealth". (18)

Monck reinstated the House of Lords and the Parliament of 1640. Royalists were now in control of Parliament. Monck now contacted Charles, who was living in Holland. Charles agreed that if he was made king he would pardon all members of the parliamentary army and would continue with the Commonwealth's policy of religious toleration. Charles II also accepted that he would share power with Parliament and would not rule as an 'absolute' monarch as his father had tried to do in the 1630s. (19)

Penington was extremely disillusioned by these events. As Richard L. Greaves pointed out in his book, Deliver Us from Evil: The Radical Underground in Britain, 1660-1663 (1986): "The revolution did not perish in 1660, but lived on in the words and deeds of the host of soldiers and sailors, officers and men, sectaries and republicans who found the Restoration regime wanting ... No amount of penal legislation could eradicate dissent from the restored church, nor did the return of the Cromwellian offices and men to their traditional occupations quench their thirst for a government more responsive to their needs and aspirations. Some in fact, frankly expressed their willingness to take up arms again... for the Good Old Cause, but they never rebelled together." (20)

The Restoration divided Quakers into two groups: those who found reassurance in Fox's message to trust in God and the inevitable workings of God's will, and those who expected the Society of Friends to take a more militant stance. Edward Burrough was one of those who sought confrontation with the authorities. Burrough was arrested on 1 June 1661. He refused to back down and he died aged twenty-nine in Newgate prison on 14 February 1663. (21) According to one source, during Charles II's reign, 13,562 Quakers were arrested and imprisoned in England and 198 were transported as slaves, and 338 died in prison or of wounds received in violent assaults on their meetings. (22)

Penington agreed with Burrough and continued to write pamphlets attacking the new government. When the government in Boston, New England, threatened Quakers with banishment or death, Penington came to their defence in An Examination of the Grounds, insisting Friends did not teach destructive tenets or foment disturbances, and affirming their belief in the Trinity. (23) In another pamphlet Penington insisted that God offers additional truth to each generation. (24)

In February 1661 Penington was in the Aylesbury gaol, having been arrested at a meeting in his house. His confinement lasted seventeen weeks, during which he refused to take an oath. (25) While in prison he wrote Somewhat Spoken to a Weighty Question (1661), which espoused religious freedom and pacifism. (26) Two years later Penington published a long reflective essay in which he ventured that the Society of Friends, like ancient Israel, had become too well-off and self-satisfied, thus straying from its earlier purity. "The enemy is very subtle and watchful, and there is danger to Israel all along, both in the poverty and in the riches; but the greater danger is in the riches: because then man is apt to forget God, and to lose somewhat of the sense of his dependence (which keeps the soul low and safe in the life), and also to suffer somewhat of exaltation to creep upon him, which presently in a degree corrupts and betrays him." (27)

Fox became concerned about Penington's writings, especially his defence of Quaker dissenters when he called for broader toleration within the movement. Fox was also worried about Penington's Three Queries Propounded to the King and Parliament (1662) where he reminded readers that in the mid-century upheavals God had overturned the government and empowered men of low estate, and warned that he could do so again. (28) Penington received letters from Francis Howgill, William Smith and Richard Farnworth asking him to stop causing problems for Fox. "Penington accepted their counsel, including Howgill's request that he write nothing else critical of Quaker leaders." (29)

However, Penington did continue to criticise Charles II. In his pamphlet, A Weighty Question (1663), he asked whether they had the right to enforce laws people could not conscientiously obey.(30) Magistrates imprisoned him at Aylesbury for seventeen or eighteen weeks in 1664 for having attended a Quaker meeting. In prison he wrote Many Deep Considerations (1664) warning about the dangers of conflict in the movement. He pointed out that God might permit church leaders to fall, thereby endangering ordinary believers. (31)

Penington was fined and imprisoned for a month at Aylesbury in March 1665 for attending a Quaker funeral. Soon after being released he was arrested again, this time at the behest of John Egerton, 2nd Earl of Bridgewater, who was offended because Penington had refused to address him as "My lord". During his imprisonment the crown seized his home and forced his wife, Mary Penington and her children to find other lodgings. Released after nine months he was apprehended again about three weeks later and held in the Aylesbury gaol for a year and a half; he received his freedom about October 1667 after one of his wife's relatives obtained a writ of habeas corpus and had his case transferred to king's bench. (32)

By May 1670 Penington was imprisoned in Reading, where he had gone to visit imprisoned Quakers and had refused to take an oath. While in gaol he learned of the death of his son Isaac, lost at sea as he returned from Barbados. At least seven works were composed during this twenty-one month confinement, including Some Queries Concerning Compulsion in Religion, which reiterated the case for religious freedom. (33) He also wrote A Treatise Concerning God's Teachings that includes an autobiographical section. (34)

Isaac Penington died on 8th October, 1679.

The Middle Ages

The Normans

The Tudors

The English Civil War

Industrial Revolution

First World War

Russian Revolution

Nazi Germany

(1) Isaac Penington, The Way of Life and Death (1658)

My soul hath still in remembrance the grievous shakings and rendings that have been in this nation, which entered deep into the bowels of it, and made every heart ache, and every mind astonished. This nation was settled in religion and outward peace, in such a way as was pleasing to most; but yet there was a spirit within, which had been long groaning under oppression, whose sighs and cries entered into the ears of the Lord: and he rose up in his fury and jealousy, and rent the heavens, and rent the earth; so breaking the very foundation of both, that men generally were amazed, and wondered what would become of all. The former religion was almost buried in confusion, and in danger of being utterly lost. A long-spun, corroding war were we entangled in, which administered no hopes nor likelihood of peace. The hand of the Lord reached through all these dominions; magistracy, ministry, the common people, the people of God (both such as were accounted so, and such as were indeed so), the line of confusion was stretched over them all; they did all reel and totter like a drunken man, as if they had been so to fall as to rise up no more.

But behold how suddenly and unexpectedly was there a settlement of all again! the nation settled in peace, magistracy settled, ministry settled, the common people settled, and those which were shaken in their spirits got into their several ways in religion, and settled again. Thus there was a general healing of all again, save only of a few, whose spirits God had so reached, that their wound was incurable; and unless somewhat of God had been brought forth, which the world cannot know (nay, the religious spirit of man, which is below, can no more reach it than the common spirit of the world), they had remained miserable, lost, scattered, and confounded to this day. But the Lord hath in infinite mercy visited them in the season of distress: and there hath a little foolish thing broke forth (at which all the wise and religious in the spirit of this world cannot but stumble), which hath administered relief, and discovered the foundation whereon they also can settle. So that now there is, as it were, a universal settlement, as every creature is gathered into the centre which is proper and suitable to its spirit to bottom on.

Now this I have to say to all; Let every one look to his foundation; for the Lord can arise again; yea, and will arise again, and shake once more; and then the heavens and the earth, which have not a true foundation, cannot but fall. If the earth be not founded upon and settled in righteousness, its present establishment will not stand. If the heavens be not founded upon and settled in truth, they will melt and pass away before the fire of the Lord. There is a spirit that mourneth deeply to the Lord, groaning inwardly, and his ears are open to it, and he will plead the cause of his seed; and the churches and religions wherein the seed of the serpent can live and flourish, shall wither and come to an end. Dust is already become the serpent's food. The spirit of man, in all his exercises of religion, knoweth not the bread of life; but the dead feed upon the dead, and the dead spirit of man loves to have it so. But this cannot continue; for the Lord hath been at work all this while; and when he brings forth the people which he hath been forming, and their religion, the religion of man will appear what it is; and shame and sorrow will be the portion of all who have pleased themselves therein, and trifled away the day of their visitation.

Be wise now, therefore, O ye wise ones! be religious, O ye religious ones! open the eye and ear that have been shut; shut the eye and ear that have been open: stumble no longer, lest ye fall and rise no more. I know ye cannot see; for the wrong eye is open, and the Lord hath designed to hide his wisdom from that eye. If it be possible for you, become poor in spirit; lest ye at last prove to be the rich whom the Lord will send empty away. Sell all apace, that ye may have wherewith to buy the pearl. Ye have not known the appearance of the Lord; but in your wisdom have disdained it, and he hath disdained to make use of you in this great work; but it hath been pleasant to him to lay stumbling-blocks before you, that ye might fall and be broken. The children, the fools, the blind, can see the way, and enter into life; but ye that are men, that are wise, that have both your eyes, that can judge in religion, and determine what is orthodox, and what erroneous, ye cannot.

Oh hear, that your souls may live! Ye know not how short your time is; the day of your visitation passeth away faster than you are aware. The cry hath long gone forth, Behold, the bridegroom cometh, and his spouse hath been preparing for his bed! Ye must off with your old garments, and have the new on. Ye must have the true oil in your lamps, or the door of the kingdom will be shut upon you, and there will be no entrance for you. In plain terms, you must part with all your religion which you have gathered in your own wisdom, which hath grown up in the apostasy, and which only can make a fair show in the dark; but can not endure the searching light of the day of the Lord; and ye must purchase the true religion, the true righteousness, the true innocency and purity of Christ. The old must be done away, truly done away, and the new come in the place. So that flesh and self may be quite destroyed, and nothing but Christ found in you, and you found no where but in Christ, if you enter into his kingdom; for no unclean thing can enter. Therefore put away pride and passion and enmity and fleshly reasonings, and seek out that which is pure, and enter into it, and take up the cross against all that is contrary, that so you may be wrought into it, and found in it. And turn from all imaginings and conceivings about the meanings of scriptures in the uncertain and erring mind, and come to that which is infallible. And know the silencing of the fleshly part, that the spiritual part may grow in the wisdom, that so ye may learn in the spirit, and know the word of God, and be able to speak it.

My bowels are towards you, and in bowels hath this been written, not to anger or shame you, but to provoke you to jealousy against that dark and evil spirit, which leads you to destruction under the guise and appearance of a light and good spirit. Nor is it to glory over you; for my soul lieth down in shame and sorrow before the Lord, and the reproach of mine own apostasy, and seeking relief from the world (turning from the Lord, who had wounded me, to earthly vanities for ease), will not easily be recovered.

The Lord hath been kind to me in breaking of me in my religion, and in visiting me with sweet and precious light from his own spirit; but I knew it not. I felt, and could not but acknowledge, a power upon me, and might have known what it was by its purifying of my heart, and begetting me into the image of God; but I confined it to appear in a way of demonstration to my reason and earthly wisdom, and for want of satisfaction therein, denied and rebelled against it; and so, after all my former misery, lost my entrance, and sowed seeds of new misery and sorrow to my own soul, which since I have reaped. So that I have no cause to boast over others; but to lie low in abasement of spirit. And what I write is not in any dominion and authority of mine own; but to bring others into that dominion and authority which it is good for me, and for every one else, to be subject to. The Lord strip us of our own understanding, and of that righteousness which is but ours (though we have called it his), that so we may be gathered into, and receive his understanding, and be clothed with his righteousness, and feel his rest and peace! And happy is he that loseth all to gain this; but he that keepeth what he hath too long, shall in the end lose all, and yet not gain this either; therefore be no longer wise in the eye of flesh, or according to what man calleth wisdom; but be truly wise.

(2) Isaac Penington, To the Parliament, the Army, and All the Well-Affected (1659)

That there hath been a backsliding and turning aside from the GOOD OLD CAUSE even by the army (who formerly were glorious Instruments in the hand of God) hath been lately confessed, and that they have cause, and desire to take shame to themselves.

Now that they may see the cause of shame that lies upon them, and may abase themselves in the sight of God, and before all the world, it behooves them to search narrowly into their backslidings, and consider the fruits thereof, that they may be truly humbled, and turned from that Spirit which led them aside, lest any of them take advantage to make a feigned confession for their own ends, and fall afresh to seek themselves; and their own Interests, and not the Good Old Cause, singly, and nakedly, as in the sight of the Lord.

Many bad fruits have grown from this corrupt spirit, and the corrupt course it hath run in these late years, which would be narrowly searched into, and considered of: Some few general ones I may mention.

1. The name of God hath been blasphemed in the sight of the whole earth, and that holy Spirit and Power (which many hearts can witness was the beginner and carrier on of this Work) made a scoff and derision to the enemies of truth in these nations, and in the nations round about, who watched to see the issue and result of these things. The controversy was very great and eminent, and drew many eyes upon it, the Lord was appealed to on both sides to decide it; and many know, that by his presence and power in the army, the scale was turned, (even when they were very low, and cried out for prayers; and made large promises in the day of their distress.) Yea, the Lord did not desert the army, but heard their prayers, and the prayers of his people for them, carrying on the deliverance, until he had given a perfect victory into their hands. But then the army deserted the Lord; and just like men that were ruled by the spirit of the world, forgot the Lord, and his cause and interest, and their fellow companions in the hard travel and service, and set up themselves, and their own interest, making their general the greatest, and their officers great. Thus the Cause was betrayed, the measure of it lost, a private, particular, selfish, earthly, corrupt interest set up, and men countenanced and advanced, not according to their fidelity to the Good Old Cause, but according to their compliance with this new selfish interest.

2. The great work of God, both in these nations, and in the world, hath hereby been turned backward. In these nations, that spirit which began this work (when at any time it hath appeared in simplicity and singleness for the prosecution of it) hath been snibbed; what was built up formerly, thrown down; and that which was thrown down, now again built up; so that the face of the nation was changed, and unrighteous ones came into place and power, and the innocent and upright (those that feared God, and could not seek themselves, or the pleasing of men) have been oppressed and crushed. And if the work was thus stopt in these nations, its advantage of spreading further must needs be interrupted. God had raised up a power against oppression, in which he eminently appeared, even to the dread of the nations round about: and how far this power should have gone on in his work, by the leadings of his Spirit, had they waited in his counsel, kept to their Leader, and not turned aside to another spirit, and to other ends and interests, who can tell?

3. Great and vast treasures have been expended, for the maintaining of you in greatness in your backslidings, and the poor have groaned to bear the burthen: and while ye have grown thus high, extravagant, and excessive, many (who remained faithful) have wanted even that which was their due, and have undergone great hardships thereby.

4. The account of all the blood which hath been shed lies somewhere. Was it for a thing of nought? Was it of no value. Nay, it was precious in the sight of the Lord; many (yea very many) in the singleness and simplicity of their hearts losing their lives for the Cause. And yet how soon had you forgot all this, casting it, and the cause behind your backs, and setting up yourselves! Thus have ye grieved that good Spirit, which never gave you victory over your enemies for this end, that his name, and cause, and interest should be forgotten, and yours grow great: but the name of the Lord should have been exalted by you, and ye should have remained low and little, both in your own eyes, and in the eyes of others. But the Lord hath been veiled by your greatness, and that veil lies upon him at this day: Read this in the true humility, and in the fear and dread of his great name, who will be exalted over all, and whom no power or greatness on earth shall be able to hinder from arising. Remember these things, O ye backsliding children, and be abased; that the Lord may forgive you, and may vouchsafe yet once more to make use of you in his service.

But I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, lest ye should confess, and turn back, not with an upright heart, but feignedly: and if so, then you will not lie flat in your spirits, either before the Lord, or before men, but will be keeping up the greatness ye have got in your backslidings, and seeking your own interests, and self-ends afresh. There hath been often a naked, honest, simple, pure thing stirring in the Army, which the great ones (seeing some present use of) fell in with, and improved for their own ends; but destroyed the thing itself; so that it attained not to the bringing forth of that righteous liberty, and common good which it seemed to aim at (and did indeed aim at in those in whom the stirring did arise) but was made use of as an advantage to advance them in their particular interests against their enemies, and so set them up. Have ye seen this use made formerly of such lively stirrings in some, and such fair pretenses in others after righteousness, liberty, and the common good? Take heed of it now. Let not the pure stirrings after good, be betrayed into the selfish lusts and interests of your own corrupt hearts. Do not fall so hastily to the work of reformation, nor be not so forward to propose things for settlement; but wait to be purged from that backsliding spirit (which sticks closer to you and makes you unfitter for this service than you are aware) that you may come into a capacity of desiring the common good, and of being faithful in the prosecution of it; and put off your greatness and swelling honors that ye have contracted in the time of your backslidings, and come at least into an equal balance with them that remained faithful. Are ye humbled before the Lord for your backslidings, and yet keep your corrupt standings? Is this true humiliation? Is this taking of shame to yourselves? Ah, do not force the Lord to deal with you! do not force the Lord to strip you, and manifest your shame! If it be truly in your hearts, that the work of the Lord should go on, let such be picked out who have not backslidden, and let them carry it on; and stand ye by a while, till it be made manifest that your hearts are changed, and there be a testimony given to the nation, that you are truly humbled, and become men of other spirits: For while this spirit remains in you, ye will be secretly for yourselves, and cannot possibly be cordial, either to the Lord, or to the nation, in the work of reformation; but while you seem to be setting your hands to it, your hearts will be erring from it, and your endeavors will be to obstruct those whose hearts are entire and faithful to it.

(3) Isaac Penington, Many Deep Considerations (1663)

The glory which the Lord advanced these vessels to, since his beginning to make use of them. How hath he enriched them with gifts and abilities, and every way fitted them for the service and employment he hath had for them! How hath he enlarged their ministry, that they who had very little to say, either by way of declaration or disputation at first, now abound with strength, and abundantly surpass the knowledge and wisdom both of the world, and of other professors of religion! The Lord indeed hath adorned them, putting his beauty upon them, and causing them to grow up in his strength, and in his wisdom. This mine eye hath seen, and often taken notice of, blessing the name of the Lord, and praying to him for their preservation. And surely whoever he be, that hath either known himself, or heard the relation of the poverty of these young striplings, when they first came forth in the power of the Lord, how empty in themselves they then were, how sensibly they went up and down of their own weakness, how little they had to say to people that came to observe them and inquire of them, how afraid they were to be drawn from their watch, at what a distance they stood from entering into reasoning about things, -- I say, he that did know, and doth consider this, and shall also behold how the Lord hath advanced them since, making them mighty and honorable with his gifts and abilities (with the beauty whereof the very man flourisheth to the sight of every eye that is in any measure truly open), cannot but acknowledge the change to be wonderful.

8. I have had the sense and consideration of this also in my heart, that their danger is now greater than when they were poorer, weaker, and not so enriched and gifted by the Lord. The enemy is very subtle and watchful, and there is danger to Israel all along, both in the poverty and in the riches; but the greater danger is in the riches: because then man is apt to forget God, and to lose somewhat of the sense of his dependence (which keeps the soul low and safe in the life), and also to suffer somewhat of exaltation to creep upon him, which presently in a degree corrupts and betrays him. The heart that is in any measure lifted up in itself, so far it is not upright in the Lord . Let every one feel this, waiting to be preserved, and praying for those who are most beautified by gifts and abilities from the life, because in this respect (and at this time) their danger is greatest. When Israel is poor, low, weak, trembling, seeing no loveliness nor worthiness in himself, but depending upon the mere mercy and tender bowels of the Lord in the free covenant of his love, &c., then is Israel safe. But when he hath a being given him in the life, and is richly adorned with the ornaments of life, and comes to have the power itself in his hand to make use of, then is he in more danger of being somewhat of himself, and of forgetting him that formed him, (being apt to make use of his gifts without such an immediate sense of the giver as he had in his trembling and weak estate) and so of departing out of that humble, tender, abased, contrite state, and temper of spirit, wherein he was still preserved.

9. This also hath been manifest to me, and deeply impressed on my spirit all along, that the Lord may, if he see good, suffer some great and eminent ones to fall in Israel. Man may forget himself, and the Lord may let out temptation upon him, and suffer it to enter, that he may bring him to the sense and feeling of his weakness again. Yea, those who have felt the power of the Lord in and through an instrument, may give more to the instrument than belongs unto it, and so put the Lord upon recovering the honor due to him, which is misplaced and misapplied to that which is but his instrument. This is the Lord's day (the light thereof is his, the life his, the power his), and the glory thereof will he not give to another. If therefore any man, in this day, shall take to himself what belongs to the Lord, or any other shall give it him, the Lord will not so lose it, but will find out a way to recover his own. And happy is the man who lieth continually perfectly abased before the Lord, assuming nothing of the Lord's to himself, nor attributing any thing of the Lord's to another, that the Lord alone may be exalted everywhere. And let all gifts serve the seed, and its rising over all gifts be waited for, that the life everywhere may have its due, being lifted up over all. importance of meditation and self-denial.

(1) Richard L. Greaves, Isaac Penington : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (3 October, 2013)

(2) Isaac Penington, A Touchstone or Tryall of Faith (1648)

(3) Isaac Penington, The Great and Sole Troubler (1649)

(4) Isaac Penington, A Word for the Common Weale (1650)

(5) Isaac Penington, Several Fresh Inward Openings (1650)

(6) Isaac Penington, The Fundamental Right, Safety and Liberty of the People (1651)

(7) Pauline Gregg, Oliver Cromwell (1988) page 222

(8) Jasper Ridley, The Roundheads (1976) page 140

(9) Isaac Penington, A Considerable Question (1653)

(10) Richard L. Greaves, Isaac Penington : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (3 October, 2013)

(11) Isaac Penington, The Scattered Sheep (1659)

(12) Isaac Penington, The Axe Laid to the Root (1659)

(13) Isaac Penington, The Jew Outward (1659)

(14) Pauline Gregg, Oliver Cromwell (1988) page 317

(15) Barry Coward, The Stuart Age: England 1603-1714 (1980) page 276

(16) John F. Harrison, The Common People (1984) page 198

(17) Isaac Penington, To the Parliament, the Army, and All the Well-Affected (1659)

(18) Hyman Fagan, The Commoners of England (1958) page 134

(19) Maurice Ashley, The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England (1975) page 194

(20) Richard L. Greaves, Deliver Us from Evil: The Radical Underground in Britain, 1660-1663 (1986) pages 3-4

(21) Catie Gill, Edward Burrough : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (3 January, 2008)

(22) James Loughlin, The Catholic Encyclopedia (2021)

(23) Isaac Penington, An Examination of the Grounds (1661)

(24) Isaac Penington, An Answer to that Common Objection (1661)

(25) Richard L. Greaves, Isaac Penington : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (3 October, 2013)

(26) Isaac Penington, Somewhat Spoken to a Weighty Question (1661)

(27) Isaac Penington, Many Deep Considerations (1663)

(28) Isaac Penington, Three Queries Propounded to the King and Parliament (1662)

(29) Richard L. Greaves, Isaac Penington: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (3 October, 2013)

(30) Isaac Penington, A Weighty Question (1663)

(31) Isaac Penington, Many Deep Considerations (1664)

(32) Richard L. Greaves, Isaac Penington: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (3 October, 2013)