The parish was in the gift of the local landowner, Edward Montagu, described by one source as the sponsor of a "moderate puritan brotherhood",[1] and by another as "a bountiful patron [to Bentham]".
[5] Bentham was encouraged by fellow clergymen Robert Bolton and Nicholas Estwick to publish some of his "wise and witty" sermons, and during the 1630s two volumes appeared, entitled "The Societie of the Saints" (1630) and "The Christian Conflict" (1635).
Puritans, he asserted, were "practising Protestants; such men who daily reade the Scriptures, pray with their families, teach them the way to heaven ... [and who] ... spend the Lord's daies holily in hearing God's Word, prayer, meditation, conference, singing of Psalmes, meditation of the creatures, are merciful to the poore, diligent in their particular Callings, frame their lives according to God's will revealed in his Word".
[1][6] While less than enthusiastic about aspects of the religious orthodoxy increasingly propounded by government, Bentham's theology was nevertheless non-confrontational in respect of the state: he was, in the words of one source, keen "to prevent the godly from molestation by the courts".
[1] As politics became ever more polarised those with influence found themselves under increasing pressure to nail their colours to one of the two available masts, and Bentham's patron, Edward Montagu, whose earlier parliamentary career had been marked by a preference for attending his Northamptonshire constituents' interests rather than for involvement in national debate, came out as a partisan for the king.