03 - William Dell (c.1607–1669)

William Dell (c.1607–1669), Master of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge from 1649 to 1660, was a leading radical Parliamentarian. A Bedfordshire man, Dell went to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, graduating MA in 1631. He became a chaplain in the New Model Army, being a radical preacher. Following a controversial sermon to the House of Lords, Dell's 1646 sermon to Parliament – in which he attacked the Westminster Assembly, spoke up for the poor, and told the politicians to keep out of religious reform – was considered too extreme, and the House of Commons reprimanded him. Notwithstanding, in 1649 he dedicated to the House of Commons the publication of his sermon The Way of True Peace and Unity in the Churches, in which he argued that congregations should choose their ministers, and the State should keep out of church and theological matters. Dell, opposed to enforced uniformity in church practice, made a clear distinction between unity and uniformity, regarding the latter as an inappropriate exercise of State power in spiritual matters. This brought him into controversy with the Presbyterians. Further, for his preaching of free grace, Dell was falsely attacked – personally as a libertine, and his doctrine for antinomianism – by, among others, Samuel Rutherford in his Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist (1648). Rutherford was libellous: ‘Come and learn at Mr Dell to keep the heart right, and violate all the ten commandments'. Even so, the Rump Parliament appointed Dell to the Mastership of Caius. Nevertheless, he was prepared to criticise those on the Parliamentarian side who had done well out of the war, and, while he supported Oliver Cromwell.