Friday, January 10, 2014

The Life And Times Of Richard Overton

By Marissa Velazquez


It was during the first English civil war which took place at around 1599 that Richard Overton was born. He was from England and studied at Cambridge. In his early childhood, he did some acting and later when he joined the college of queen, he performed as playwright. He lived for about sixty five years but his life was quite fascinating.

He along with three others had some great ideas that they felt would revolutionize the world if properly implemented. The four were also opposed to the monarchy terming it as archaic. They wanted it to be abolished and it was then that they formed a group which they called the levelers. The group insisted that court trials should include the jury. The monarchy had placed censorship on the media and all forms of written material. Overton however still printed pamphlets in a bid to end the monarchy.

Some of the pamphlets he had published had talked ill of some churches for instance the Catholic Church and the Church of England. Overton was however a Christian who continued to hold debates about various church reforms. His articles talked about how churches conducted their spiritual life. He was not decided on which church he wanted to join but he had the urge to belong to one.

Overton felt the urge to gain more knowledge about Christianity and therefore studied the bible thoroughly. In his search for a church, he landed at the General Baptism church and was dedicated there. The teachings from this church were so different from what was taught in other churches and he found this very contradictory.

The message taught by most churches was that when a person died, his soul departed the body but remained alive. Richard opposed this saying that it was not just the body that died but the soul as well. He believed that both the body and soul resurrected together on judgment day. This led to disagreements with the church.

Richard felt that each person was equal to their neighbor and so he pushed for equality in the government. The government was keen and observed him closely so as to understand why he was always opposing many things so much. The articles he had published made him popular among his people and he was gaining followers. Due to this, the government was not very happy and this led to his arrest twice where he ended up in jail both times.

It was after these kinds of trouble with the government that he fled to Flanders. He was a man of good character and the previous popularity in his country did not change this. Just like he pushed for equality among all, he also practiced it and was a good role model who people could emulate.

While in school, he performed well in English and mathematics. In fact Richard was on record as one of the best mathematicians in his class. Though not loved by the government, people had come to love him very much. Richard Overton also enjoyed reading his publications because even he himself was fond of his humor.




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