Grindletonian
| Founder | |
|---|---|
| John Wilson, Roger Brearley | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Yorkshire and Lancashire, England | |
| Religions | |
| Christianity | |
| Scriptures | |
| Christian Bible | |
| Languages | |
| English |
Coordinates: 53°54′22″N 2°22′05″W / 53.906°N 2.368°W
The Grindletonians were a Puritan sect that arose in the town of Grindleton in Lancashire, England, in around 1610. The sect remained active in the North of England until the 1660s. Its most notable leader was Roger Brearley (or Brereley). Grindletonian beliefs were Antinomian.
John Wilson, who led the congregation at Kildwick before Grindletoniansm appeared, has been called a religious radical and may have introduced some of the basic concepts of the sect.
The community may therefore have held some Grindletonian beliefs before Brearley arrived.
Brearley, who was the curate at Grindleton from 1615 to 1622, was the main leader of the Grindletonians.John Everard (c. 1584–1641) was a friend of Brearley's and may have influenced him. Brearley had a local following, attracting worshippers from the nearby parish of Giggleswick,but became more widely known after the proceedings against him. He was brought before the High Commission of the Archdiocese of York in October 1616 to answer charges that he was a radical nonconformist, that he relied on the motion of the spirit and that he thought that all doubt about salvation could be removed from believers. He was also asked to reject fifty erroneous beliefs that he and his followers allegedly held. Brearley seems to have renounced his views and to have promised to conform in future, presumably in order to escape punishment.
Brearley left Grindleton in 1634 to teach at Kildwick, twenty miles away. His successor as curate at Grindleton, John Webster (1610-1683), taught ideas similar to Brearley's, and Grindletonianism continued to grow between 1615 and 1640, gaining a large number of followers in Lancashire and Yorkshire, and spinning off other antinomian sects. In 1635 John Webster, curate at Kildwick, was brought before a church court charged with being a Grindletonian.
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