Philip Aubrey, Mr Secretary Thurloe: Cromwell’s Secretary of State—1652-1660

London: The Athlone Press, 1990, 247 pgs. 

Summary: A concise consideration of the history and activity of John Thurloe (1616-1668), a Puritan lawyer and member of parliament, who became Secretary of State successively under the Rump Parliament, the Nominated Assembly, the Protectorate of Oliver and then Richard Cromwell, brought back as Secretary under Monck, and did some work for the restored Charles the II. 

His position as Secretary of State and Postmaster General also led to him being the head of domestic and international intelligence collection through both agents and the interception and monitor of the mail. Thurloe also had code breakers. For instance mathematician and pastor John Wallis (1616-1703), who helped develop infinitesimal calculus and the infinity sign, seems to have broken some of the codes “after supper” as a favor for friends (28). 

His success in intelligence gathering can be drawn from the following narrative:

The Duke of Richmond was given leave by the Protectorate government to go abroad, but only on the condition that he did not see his cousin Charles Stuart. In order to keep his undertaking, their meeting took place in the dark. When, on his return, he told Cromwell that he had not seen Charles, the Protector exclaimed that it was no wonder, since the candles had been put out (103). 

The Secretary was a personal friend of Oliver Cromwell and provided intelligence and counsel to the Cromwells on international and domestic affairs. He managed to hide his papers sufficiently well to allude discover until decades after his death from natural causes.

He appears to have been an Independent or what we would call a Congregationalist and sat under the preaching of John Owen. 

Benefits/Detriments: Mr Secretary Thurloe was written by a former British naval officer with connections to the intelligence services. The book is a bit dry for non-specialists, but a fascinating read for those interested in thinking through how a godly and thoughtful Christian interacts with the exigencies of government service. 

Thurloe’s life reminds me of an epithet on worn a tombstone in a forgotten cemetery: “He lived as he was a Christian.” The closing paragraph of the book summarizes it well:

In an age when the tenure of any office under the crown or the republic was looked upon by many as personal service to the monarch or Protector, by others as a licence to extract fees and by a few as a right to income in return for minimal exertion, Thurloe saw his role quite plainly as service to the public and to the nation as a whole. His achievement lay in his devotion to his duty to God and Man as he saw it, in his single-minded pursuit of efficiency in administration and of godliness in living. There was nothing hypocritical about the expressed desire of the Puritan leaders to carry out the will of God. Thurloe could lay down his burden in the knowledge that he had done his very best for God, his nation and his family (226).