Richard Crashaw's father, William Crashaw, was a clergyman who moved from Yorkshire to London and from London to Yorkshire and back again. When Richard was born in 1612 or 1613, he was preacher at the Temple, his first charge in London. William was a learned anti-roman polemicist, a friend of Archbishop Ussher and a Puritan Episcopalian within the Church of England. He seems to have been in opposition not only to the Roman Catholic Church that his son converted to but to the future Anglo-Catholic party of Archbishop Laud within the Church of England that nurtured his son's exotic poetic gifts and devotional ardour. The contrast between father and son has been found piquant. However, the father also stressed the continuity of the reformed

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First published 20 October 2001

Citation: Reid, David. "Richard Crashaw". The Literary Encyclopedia. 20 October 2001.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1064, accessed 20 November 2009.]