Richard Crashaw
| Richard Crashaw | |
|---|---|
| Born |
c. 1612–1613 London, England |
| Died | 21 August 1649 (age 36) Loreto, March of Ancona, Papal States (now Italy) |
| Occupation | poet, teacher |
| Nationality | English |
| Alma mater |
Charterhouse School, Pembroke College, Cambridge |
| Literary movement | Metaphysical poets |
| Notable works |
Epigrammaticum Sacrorum Liber (1634) Steps to the Temple (1646) Delights of the Muses (1648) Carmen Deo Nostro (1652) |
Richard Crashaw (c. 1613 – 21 August 1649), was an English poet, teacher, Anglican cleric and Catholic convert, who was among the major figures associated with the metaphysical poets in seventeenth-century English literature.
Crashaw was the son of an eminent Puritan clergyman and Anglican divine who earned a reputation as a hard-hitting Protestant pamphleteer and critic of Roman Catholicism. After his father's death, Crashaw was educated at Charterhouse School and Pembroke College, Cambridge. After taking a degree, Crashaw taught as a fellow at Peterhouse, Cambridge and began to publish religious poetry that expressed a distinct mystical nature and an ardent Christian faith.
Crashaw was ordained as a clergyman in the Church of England, but his theology and practice embraced the Catholic heritage of Anglicanism and the High Church ritual reforms enacted by Archbishop Laud. During these years, the University of Cambridge was a hotbed for these reforms and Royalist political principles—ideological positions that were violently opposed and suppressed by the Puritan forces during the English Civil War (1642–1651). When Oliver Cromwell took control of the city in 1643, Crashaw was ejected from his teaching post and forced into exile abroad—first finding refuge in France and later Italy where he found employment as an attendant to Cardinal Giovanni Battista Maria Pallotta at Rome. While in exile he converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism. In April 1649, Cardinal Pallotta appointed Crashaw to a minor benefice as canon of the Shrine of the Holy House at Loreto where he died suddenly four months later.
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