The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction William Penn: His Life, His Times, and His Work
• Notes On Texts and Annotations
• Chronology of Penn’s Life and Times
• {part I}: Foundations the Ancient Constitution and English Liberties
• 1.: The People’s Ancient and Just Liberties Asserted, In the Trial of William Penn and William Mead, At the Sessions Held At the Old-baily In London, the First, Third, Fourth and Fifth of September, 1670, Against the Most Arbitrary Procedur
• 2.: England ’s Present Interest Considered, With Honour to the Prince, and Safety to the People (1675)
• {part Ii}: Penn’s Argument For Religious Liberty
• 3.: The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience Once More Briefly Debated and Defended, By the Authority of Reason, Scripture, and Antiquity: Which May Serve the Place of a General Reply to Such Late Discourses; As Have Oppos’d a Toleration (1670) the a
• 4.: One Project For the Good of England That Is, Our Civil Union Is Our Civil Safety Humbly Dedicated to the Great Council, the Parliament of England (1679)
• 5.: An Address to Protestants of All Perswasions More Especially the Magistracy and Clergy, For the Promotion of Virtue and Charity (1679) In Two Parts. By W. P. a Protestant.
• 6.: A Brief Examination and State of Liberty Spiritual, Both With Respect to Persons In Their Private Capacity, and In Their Church Society and Communion (1681)
• 7.: A Perswasive to Moderation to Church-dissenters, In Prudence and Conscience: Humbly Submitted to the King and His Great Council (1686)
• 8.: Good Advice to the Church of England, Roman-catholick, and Protestant Dissenter: In Which It Is Endeavoured to Be Made Appear, That It Is Their Duty, Principle, and Interest, to Abolish the Penal Laws and Tests (1687)
• {part Iii}: General Principles and Specific Events
• 9.: The Proposed Comprehension Soberly, and Not Unseasonably, Consider’d (1672)
• 10.: England’s Great Interest, In the Choice of This New Parliament Dedicated to All Her Free-holders and Electors (1679)
• 11.: A Letter From a Gentleman In the Country, to His Friends In London, Upon the Subject of the Penal Laws and Tests (1687)
• {part Iv}: an Expanding Vision For the Future
• 12.: An Essay Towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe By the Establishment of an European Dyet, Parliament, Or Estates (1693)

Tobernard yack, booth fowler,andpatrick riley—scholars, mentors, colleagues, and friends

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In preparing this edition of Penn’s political writings, I have relied heavily on the expertise and advice of an array of colleagues. Chief among these are a number of friends in the Core Humanities Program at Villanova University, where I began work on this volume: I was fortunate to have close by a gifted group of interdisciplinary scholars who exemplified all the virtues of collegiality. Let me especially thank Kevin Hughes, Maura Lafferty, Kim Paffenroth, and Sheryl Forste-Grupp: from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, these four aided me in tracking down a number of Penn’s often-elusive references. The project was completed under the auspices of a senior fellowship at the Martin Marty Center of the University of Chicago Divinity School; I thank former Dean Clark Gilpin and current Dean Rick Rosengarten for facilitating my work at the Center. Johann Sommerville of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cary Nederman of Texas A & M University also generously shared their considerable expertise. Beth Angell helped with the introduction and assisted in too many ways to mention. Peter and Sam were themselves, a gift easy to acknowledge but impossible to repay.