Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/182

 the committee of petitions was suspended. After this new disappointment he printed and distributed to members of parliament ‘The Sad Case of Clement Writer, who hath waited for reliefe therein since the fourth December 1640.’ In 1652 the Worcester committee for sequestration were enjoined by Thomas Fowle, solicitor for the Commonwealth, to examine into his case against Lord Coventry (Cal. of Proceedings of Committee for Compounding, p. 566), but the dissolution of parliament in December again prevented his obtaining hearing. On 1 Oct. 1656 he petitioned Cromwell on the subject, and the council of state referred his case to a committee. Whether he ultimately obtained satisfaction is uncertain.

While Writer's temporal affairs were far from prosperous, his spiritual condition, according to (1599–1647) [q. v.], was continually becoming more dreadful. Originally a presbyterian, or at least a puritan, about 1638 he ‘fell off from the communion of our churches to independency and Brownisme; from that he fell to anabaptisme and Arminianisme and to mortalisme, holding the soul mortal. After that he fell to be a seeker, and is now an anti-scripturist, questionist, and sceptick, and, I fear, an atheist’ (Gangræna, 1647, pp. 81–2). By 1647, Edwards proceeds to say, he had become ‘an arch-heretique and fearfull apostate, an old wolf, and a subtile man, who goes about corrupting and venting his errors; he is often in Westminster-Hall and in the Exchange,’ making it ‘his businesse to plunder men of their faith; and if he can do that upon any it fattens him—that's meat to him’ (ib. p. 84). Edwards asserts that Writer had a large share in ‘Man's Mortalitie,’ an anonymous tract usually attributed to [q. v.], in which heterodox doctrines were propounded concerning the immortality of the soul.

Shortly before 1655 he formed the acquaintance of [q. v.], who described him as ‘an ancient man, who professed to be a seeker, but was either a juggling papist or an infidel, more probably the latter.’ He wrote ‘a scornful book against the ministry,’ called ‘Jus Divinum Presbyterii,’ a treatise which is not extant. Baxter added that in conversation with him Writer urged that ‘no man is bound to believe in Christ who doth not see confirming miracles with his own eyes,’ thus anticipating Hume's great argument. Baxter replied to Writer in the ‘Vnreasonableness of Infidelity’ (London, 1655, 8vo). In 1657 appeared ‘Fides Divina: the Ground of True Faith asserted’ (London, 8vo), which is probably by Writer, although he refused to acknowledge to Baxter that he was the author. In this treatise he urged the insufficiency of the scriptures as a rule of faith on account of their liability to error in transcription and translation, and on account of the differences of opinion respecting the inspiration of certain of them. Baxter resumed the controversy in ‘A Second Sheet for the Ministry,’ and in 1658 Writer rejoined with ‘An Apologetical Narration: or a just and necessary Vindication of Clement Writer against a Four-fold Charge laid on him by Richard Baxter’ (London, 8vo). The date of Writer's death is not known.



WROE, JOHN (1782–1863), fanatic, founder of ‘Christian Israelites,’ eldest son of Joseph Roe, was born at Bowling, parish of Bradford, Yorkshire, on 19 Sept. 1782 (baptised on 8 Dec.). His name is latinised Joannes Roes by Samuel Walker and Henry Lees, his followers. His father was a farmer, worsted manufacturer, and collier. As a lad he was neither robust in mind nor in body, and grew up without learning to read. He complains of ill usage; after carrying ‘a window stone to the second floor,’ he was never straight again. He was with his father in business, getting the drudgery and cheated of the profits, till at length (about 1810) he set up for himself in the farming and wool-combing business, marrying, five years later, a daughter of Benjamin Appleby, of Farnley Mills, near Leeds (she died on 16 May 1853, aged 74). Symptoms of mania appeared in the winter of 1816–17, when he harboured for a time the resolve to shoot his brother Joseph, who had overreached him. In the second half of 1819 he was struck down by fever, being at the same time much harassed by debt. On his recovery he took to bible-reading in the fields, and began to see visions, followed by temporary blindness and a condition of trance (the first dated vision is 12 Nov. 1819). They were written down by neighbours (Abraham Holmes being the first scribe), and were considered prophetic. His wife had his head shaved (1 Feb. 1820), but the visions went on. He began to attend meetings of the followers of [q. v.], then led by George Turner of Leeds (d September 1821). His angelic ‘guide’ told him to visit the Jews. He walked to Liverpool for that purpose, and on the same errand travelled to London, where he delivered (30 Aug. 1820) a ‘mes-