very deservedly, since the scripture is the absolute rule of truth." From these generous principles, he was induced, with several other excellent divines, to write against the superstitious and ridiculous practice of bowing at the name of Jesus.+ Upon the same generous principles, he was no friend to episcopacy, but a decided advocate for the eldership, which the puritans sought to have established. "Episcopacy," saith he, "was invented by men as a remedy against sin; which remedy many wise and holy men have judged to be worse than the disease itself, and so it hath proved by woeful experience." In his answer to Campian's ten arguments, he says, "A presbyter and a bishop are by divine right the same; and if Arius was an heretic for saying so, Jerome certainly was akin to the same heresy." And in his reply to Dury, he avows the same sentiment, saying, "Presbyters being by divine right the same as bishops, might warrantably set other presbyters over the churches." He was decidedly of opinion, that all ecclesiastical persons should confine themselves to their ecclesiastical functions, without the exercise of any temporal authority. On these accounts, Mr. Strype very justly observes, that though he was a learned and pious man, a public professor of divinity, and a good writer against the church of Rome; yet" he was no friend to the church of England."

Dr. Whitaker, Dr. Fulke, Dr. Chadderton, Mr. Dod, and other learned puritans, held their private meetings in the university, with a view to their own improvement in a knowledge of the holy scriptures. Our divine married for his first wife, the pious sister of the two famous preachers, Mr. Samuel and Mr. Ezekiel Culverwell, and Dr. Lawrence Chadderton married another sister. For his second wife, he married the grave and pious widow of Mr. Dudley Fenner; and by both of them he had eight children, to whom he gave a religious education.++ "It must be confessed," says Mr. Baker," he had somewhat of the old leaven," meaning his puritanism. "His marriage into the families of the Culverwells and Fenners, and his acquaintance with Cartwright, Fulke, Chadderton and Dod, might give him

Calamy's Defence of Noncon. vol. i. p. 127. Edit. 1703.

+ Prynne's Cant. Doome, p. 469.-Wood's Athenæ Oxon. vol. i. p. 348. Leighton's Sion's Plea, p. 18: from Whitaker.

Petition of Prélates Examined, p. 15. Edit. 1641.
Calamy's Defence of Noncon, vol. i. p. 71.

Baker's MS. Collec. vol. xx. This vol. is not paged. ** Strype's Whitgift, p. 355.

VOL. II.

++ Clark's Eccl. Hist. p. 817.

G

an insensible bias that way; yet the meetings he held with these persons, were not intended to introduce a new discipline, but to expound the scripture."

In the year 1595, there were many warm disputes about points of christian doctrine. The fire of contention broke out in the university of Cambridge, in which Dr. Whitaker was deeply involved. He shewed himself the zealous advocate of the supralapsarian sentiments, and was warmly opposed by Dr. Baro and others of the same party. To put an end to these disputes, the heads of the university sent Dr. Whitaker and Dr. Tyndal up to Lambeth, for the purpose of consulting with the archbishop, and other learned divines, upon these points; when they concluded upon nine propositions, commonly called the Lambeth articles, to which the scholars in the university were enjoined an exact conformity.+

Dr. Whitaker, during his journey to Lambeth, fell sick, occasioned by his unusual fatigue and want of sleep, and died soon after his return to Cambridge. Through the whole of his affliction, he discovered great submission to the divine will. With holy and happy composure, he said, "O Lord my God, though thou kill me; yet, I am sure, that with these eyes I shall see thee; for in thee do I hope.' To a friend, who asked him one morning how he did, he replied, “Ó happy night! I have not taken so sweet a sleep since my disease fell upon me." His friend afterwards finding him in a cold sweat, and telling him that signs of death were upon him, he immediately answered, "Life or death is welcome to me, which God pleaseth; for death shall be an advantage to me. I desire not to live, but only

* Baker's MS. Collec. vol. i. p. 214. vol. xx.

+ These articles were the following:-" God hath, from eternity, predestinated certain persons to life; and hath reprobated certain persons unto death.-The moving or efficient cause of predestination unto life, is not the foresight of faith, or of perseverance, or of good works, or of any thing that is in the persons predestinated: but only the good will and pleasure of God.-There is pre-determined a certain number of the predestinate, which can neither be augmented nor diminished.-Those who are not predestinated to salvation, shall inevitably be condemned for their sins. A true, lively, and justifying faith, and the spirit of God justifying, is not extinguished, doth not utterly fail, doth not vanish away, in the elect, either finally or totally.-A true believer, that is, one who is endued with justifying faith, is certain with the full assurance of faith, of the remission of his sins, and of his everlasting salvation by Christ.-Saving grace is not given, is not granted, is not communicated to all men, by which they may be saved if they will.-No man is able to come unto Christ, unless it be given him, and unless the Father draw him ; and all men are not drawn by the Father, that they may come to the Son.-It is not in the will or power of every man to be saved."-Fuller's Church Hist. b. ix. p. 230-231.

so far as I may do God and his church service;"* and soon after quietly departed in the Lord, December 4, 1595, in the forty-seventh year of his age, having filled the professor's chair about sixteen years, and that of master almost nine.

Dean Nowell, in his last will and testament, made the following bequest: "To his cousin, Dr. Whitaker of Cambridge, he gives twenty books of his own choosing:" but the venerable dean survived him some years.+ In the above year he was preferred to a prebendary in the church of Canterbury. He certainly deserved greater preferment, and he stood in need of it; for he died poor, considering the family he left behind him. It was some reproach to the nation, that the two greatest men that ever filled the professor's chair in the university of Cambridge, should have been no better provided for: these were Dr. Whitaker, and the celebrated Martin Bucer, who was forced to borrow money with his last breath. Dr. Whitaker's library was very choice and valuable, which the queen designed to obtain for herself, and Archbishop Whitgift wished to procure his numerous and valuable manuscripts. At his death, the college conferred upon him the honour of a public funeral, an account of which is still preserved among the records of the society, where so much is put down for his funeral feast, so much for his tomb, and so much for the other necessary expenses. Mr. Bois delivered a funeral oration at his grave, and the vice-chancellor and public orator or his deputy at St. Mary's church. His corpse was, with very great solemnity and lamentation, carried to the grave, and was interred in the chapel of St. John's college. Near the place of his interment was a costly monumental inscription erected to his memory, of which the following is a translation :

This Monument is erected

to the memory of DOCTOR WHITAKER, formerly the royal interpreter of Scripture.

His interpretations were adorned with elegance of language; his judgment was acute,

his method beautiful,

his memory strong,

his labours and perseverance invincible,
and his life most holy.

With these very rare endowments of mind,
his candour, virtue, and humility,

Clark's Eccl. Hist. p. 819. + Churton's Life of Nowell, p. 354, 356.

Baker's MS. Collec. vol. i. p. 224.

§ Ibid. p. 221.

Knight's Life of Colet, p. 398.

shone with the greatest splendour.
He was a prudent Master of this College
more than eight years,

being a firm defender of all that was right,
and an avenger of whatever was wrong.

Dr. Whitaker, through the whole of his life, both in public and private, discovered great piety and holiness. He was most patient under insults, and easily reconciled to those who injured him. He was very bountiful to the poor; especially to pious and industrious students. He was always modest in giving his judgment upon mens' opinions and actions. Among his friends, he was courteous and pleasant; faithful in keeping secrets; prudent and grave; and always ready to assist them with counsel or money. He was of a grave aspect, a ruddy complexion, a strong constitution, a solid judgment, a liberal mind, and an affable disposition; but that which added the greatest lustre to his character, was his great meekness and humility.* "He was one of the greatest men his college ever produced ; and," says Wood, "the desire and love of the present times, and the envy of posterity, that cannot bring forth a parallel."+"The learned Whitaker," says Leigh, "was the honour of our schools, and the angel of our church; than whom our age saw nothing more memorable. What clearness of judgment, what sweetness of style, what gravity of person, what gracefulness of carriage, was in the man!" "Who ever saw him without reverence!" said Bishop Hall," or heard him without wonder?" He was styled "the oracle of Cambridge, and the miracle of the world."

It was a maxim with this celebrated divine," that refreshing the memory was a matter of great importance in every kind of learning, but especially in the most useful parts of it. He therefore read over his grammar and logic once every year. He was the greatest champion in the cause of the protestants, even by the confession of Cardinal Bellarmine, who, though he had been so often baffled by him, procured his picture from England, and preserved it in his study. When his friends were introduced to him, he used to point to the picture and say, that though Whitaker

Clark's Eccl. Hist. p. 819, 820.-Fuller's Abel. Red. p. 406. + Baker's MS. Collec. vol. i. p. 213.-Wood's Athenæ, vol. i. p. 744. Leigh on Religion and Learning, p. 363, 364.

Granger's Biog. Hist. vol. i. p. 213.

was an heretic, "he was the most learned heretic he ever read.".

His WORKS.-1. Translation of Nowell's Catechism into Greek.2. Translation of the English Liturgy into Latin.-3. Translation of Bishop Jewel's Dispute against Harding into Latin.-4. Answer to Edmund Campian his Ten Reasons.-5. A Defence of his Answer against John Durey.-6. A Refutation of Nicolas Saunders his Demonstration, whereby he would prove that the Pope is not Antichrist.-7. A Collection thereto added of ancient Heresies raked up again to make up the Popish Apostacie.-8. A Thesis propounded and defended at the Commencement in 1582. that the Pope is the Antichrist spoken of in Scripture.-9. Answer to William Rainolds against the Preface to that against Saunders in English.10. A Disputation concerning the Scripture against the Papists of these times, especially Bellarmine and Stapleton.-11. A Defence of the Authority of the Scriptures, against Thomas Stapleton his Defence of the Authority of the Church.-12. Lectures on the Controversies concerning the Bishop of Rome.-13. Lectures on the Controversie concerning the Church.-14. Lectures on the Controversie concerning Councils.-15. A Treatise of Original Sin, against Stapleton's three former books of Justification. The four articles last mentioned were published after the author's death by John Allenson. -16. A Lecture on the first of Timothy, ii. 4. read on February 27, 1594; before the Earl of Essex, and other Honourable Persons, 17. Lectures concerning the Sacraments in general, and the Eucharist and Baptism in particular. This last was taken down by John Allenson, and published by Dr. Samuel Ward. His "Works" were afterwards collected and published in Latin, at Geneva, in two volumes folio, in 1610.

HENRY ALVEY, B. D. This zealous puritan was a learned divine, and fellow of St. John's college, Cambridge, where he most probably received his education. He was tutor to the celebrated Mr. Thomas Gataker, junior, and other excellent divines. During the contention about the visitation of the university, he subscribed to the following protestation, dated February 20, 1587, and found in the Bishop of Ely's register-office-" I, Henry Alvey, do protest, with dutiful obedience, that, in respect to the oath which I have taken to the college, I dare not acknowledge the jurisdiction of any but of our appointed visitors: and that by my personal appearing and answering, I do not renounce that right or benefit that I may have by them; but that it may be lawful, whensoever just occasion shall be found, to appeal unto them. Which protestation reserved unto

* Wood's Athenæ Oxon. vol. i. p. 303. + Fuller's Abel Red. p. 407, 408. Wood's Athenæ Oxon. vol. i. p.

744.