Thomas Traherne

Thomas Traherne was born in 1637, the son of a shoemaker. He and his brother Philip were probably orphaned young and taken into the care of a relative, Philip Traherne, twice mayor of Hereford. He received good enough schooling to go up to Brasenose College, Oxford, where, in 1656, he graduated MA. In 1657 he was appointed to the parish of Credenhill by the Commisioners for the Approbation of Public Preachers. At the Restoration, however, Traherne had himself ordained by a bishop before he was required to do so, thereafter supporting the Episcopal establishment of the Church of England and disapproving of dissent. In doing this Traherne was changing his clerical cloth at a time when it was to his advantage to do so, although, to be fai