Ralph Cudworth

Ralph Cudworth
FRS
Born 1617 (1617)
Aller, Somerset, Kingdom of England
Died June 26, 1688(1688-06-26) (aged 70–71)
Alma mater Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Occupation Classicist, theologian, philosopher

Ralph Cudworth FRS (1617 – 26 June 1688) was a famed English classicist, theologian and philosopher, and a leading figure among the Cambridge Platonists.[1] From a family background embedded in the early nonconformist environment of Emmanuel College in the University of Cambridge, where he studied, he became Regius Professor of Hebrew 1645–88, Master of Clare Hall 1645–54 and Master of Christ's College 1654–88. His great work, entitled The True Intellectual System of the Universe, was published in 1678. He was a leading opponent of Thomas Hobbes's political and philosophical views.

Family origins and background

The Cudworth family originated in Cudworth near Barnsley, Yorkshire, and came to Werneth Hall in Lancashire by the marriage of John Cudworth to Margaret, daughter and coheiress of Richard Oldham, during the early 15th century.[2] Ralph Cudworth the philosopher derived from this branch, his father having become established as a scholar in Cambridge and later as an Anglican minister in Somerset.[3]

Ralph Cudworth the elder (1572-1624)

The elder Ralph Cudworth (the philosopher's father) matriculated from Emmanuel College in the University of Cambridge in 1588/89, and graduated B.A. in 1592/93 and M.A. in 1596. Ordained a priest by Richard Bancroft in 1599,[4] he gained the degree of Bachelor of Divinity in 1603 and became a Fellow of the college.[5] Emmanuel College, founded by Sir Walter Mildmay in 1584 under the mastership of Laurence Chaderton, was from its inception a stronghold of Reformist, Puritan and Calvinist teaching, shaped the development of puritan ministry, and contributed largely to the emigrant ministry in America.[6] The elder Cudworth came particularly under the influence of the godly divine William Perkins (of Christ's College), whom he succeeded (on Perkins's death in 1602) as lecturer of St Andrew the Great in Cambridge.[7] Perkins's pupil William Bedell was a slightly older contemporary of Cudworth's at Emmanuel.

At the request of Perkins's friends and executor, Cudworth (who was then lecturing in the Epistles of St Paul)[8] in 1604 edited and brought to completion Perkins's Commentary on the first five chapters of St Paul's Epistle to the Galatians,[9] (dedicated by Cudworth to Robert, Lord Rich, Baron of Leez[10]), and adding (as his first published writing[11]) his own commentary on the sixth chapter,[12] which he dedicated to Sir Bassingbourn Gawdy of West Harling, a Norfolk justice, sheriff and M.P. of puritan sympathy.[13] In 1606 Cudworth was admitted to the perpetual vicarage of Coggeshall, Essex, at the presentation of Lord Rich,[14] to replace Thomas Stoughton, who had been deprived by High Commission for nonconformism. However he resigned this position in March 1608, and in November 1609 was licensed to preach from the pulpit (ad contionand) by the Chancellor and Scholars of Cambridge University.[15] In February 1609/10, after John Davenant had been appointed Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity, Cudworth confided to Samuel Ward[16] his plans to apply for the rectory of Aller, Somerset, the advowson of which belonged to the college.[17] He received the appointment in August 1610.[18] On 18 June 1611 at Southwark[19] he married Mary Machell,[20] who had been a nurse to Prince Henry the son of James I.[21] Mosheim remarked that Cudworth was accepted among those concerned in the King's private devotions.[22]

A pedigree tradition,[23] reinforced by a more recent claim,[24] indicates that Mary was the daughter of Mathew Machell and Mary Lewkenor, sister of Sir Edward Lewknor, M.P., of Denham Hall near Bury St Edmunds. Lewknor was a central figure, with the Jermyn and Heigham families, among the puritan East Anglian gentry and magistracy strongly invested in the College.[25] Lewknor's mother-in-law Martha Heigham of Denham established a scholarship at Emmanuel, by her will of 1593,[26] on behalf of Timothy Oldmayne alias Pricke,[27] son of her minister at Denham. Lewknor, as her sole executor, implemented it. Her nephew Sir Robert Jermyn of Rushbrooke Hall, Suffolk, Lewknor's close parliamentary associate, endowed a fellowship at the college,[28] and his two sons studied at Emmanuel during the 1590s.[29] Lewknor's sons attended the college during the early 1600s,[30] and Mathew Machell's son John bore the standard at Lewknor's heraldic funeral at Denham in January 1605/06.[31] Mary's aunt Jane Machell was wife of Richard Rich[32] of Leez (died 1598),[33] and Lewkenor's uncle Thomas Wroth was husband of Mary Rich - son and daughter of Richard Rich - and both therefore within the family and sphere of Cudworth's patron, Baron Rich. This remains true for the alternative theory that Mary Cudworth was the daughter of Mathew Machell's elder brother John and his second wife Ursula Hynde.[34] These Machell brothers were sons of John Machell, Sheriff of London 1555-56, and uterine cousins of the author Thomas Lodge.[35]

Ralph and Mary settled at Aller and their children were christened there over the following decade.[36] Cudworth continued to pursue scholarly interests. Although the publishing of William Perkins's Treatise of the Cases of Conscience was entrusted to Thomas Pickering of Emmanuel (it appeared in 1606),[37] this became the elder Cudworth's subject, and he was associated with William Crashaw in an edition of 1613.[38] His edition of the Galatians commentary was republished in 1617,[39] and in January 1618 he wrote to James Ussher of Emmanuel seeking advice and criticism of a work, The Cases of Conscience in Family, Church and Commonwealth on which he was engaged, sending also news of old college friends and complaining of the agueish climate at Aller rectory.[40] In 1650 Joseph Hall, introducing his own work, wrote that the elder Cudworth, his "ancient and learned colleague", had with much labour finished the task of preparing a complete Body of Case-Divinity, but that it remained unpublished: he called the younger Ralph "his worthy Sonne, the just heyre of his Fathers great abilities".[41] Cudworth was awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1619.[42] He died at Aller in autumn 1624, declaring a nuncupative will on 7 August before Anthony Earbury, the puritan prebend of Wherwell[43] and vicar of Westonzoyland 1617-39,[44] and Dame Margaret Wroth of Petherton Park, first cousin to Mary Cudworth.[45] Earbury was associated with the Millenary Petition of 1603, was one of the puritan representatives at the Hampton Court Conference, and was author of the bill accusing Richard Bancroft of treason in 1604;[46][47][48] both he and Cudworth were among the dedicatees of Richard Bernard's 1621 edition of The Faithfull Shepherd.[49]

Ralph Cudworth the philosopher: career

Education and early career

The third of at least five, probably six children, and second son, Ralph Cudworth the philosopher was born at Aller in 1617. Following his father's death, John Stoughton (son of Thomas Stoughton of Coggeshall), also Fellow of Emmanuel College, succeeded him as rector and took the widow Mary Cudworth as his own wife.[50] Dr. Stoughton paid careful attention to the education of his stepchildren, which Ralph later described as a "diet of Calvinism".[51] The letters of both James and Ralph Cudworth to Dr Stoughton make this plain, and in 1632, when Ralph matriculated from Emmanuel to begin his university career,[52] Stoughton thought him "as wel grounded in Schol-Learning as any Boy of his Age that went to the University".[53] In that year Stoughton was appointed curate and preacher at St Mary Aldermanbury in the City of London[54] and the family left Aller. Ralph's elder brother James Cudworth married and emigrated permanently to Scituate, Plymouth Colony in New England in 1634.[55] Their mother died in summer 1634[56] and Dr. Stoughton married a daughter of John Browne of Frampton and Dorchester.[57] Dr. Stoughton died in 1639.

A diligent student, Ralph graduated B.A. 1636 and M.A. 1639. After some misgivings, over which he confided in his stepfather,[58] he was elected Fellow and became a successful tutor. He delivered the Rede Lecture in 1641. In 1642 he published a tract entitled The Union of Christ and the Church, in a Shadow,[59] and another, A Discourse concerning the True Notion of the Lord's Supper[60] in which his readings in Karaite manuscripts, stimulated by meetings with Johann Stephan Rittangel, were influential.[61] In 1645, following sustained correspondence with John Selden,[62] to whom he supplied Karaite literature, he was (at 28) elected Regius Professor of Hebrew. He took the degree of Bachelor of Divinity in 1646.[63]

Master of Clare College, 1645-1654

In 1645 Thomas Paske was ejected as Master of Clare Hall for his Anglican allegiance, and Ralph Cudworth, despite his immaturity of years, was selected to replace him.[64] His fellow-theologian Benjamin Whichcote was similarly installed as Provost of King's College.[65] In March 1647 Cudworth preached before the House of Commons of England (on 1 John 2, iii and iv[66]), published in that year together with a Letter of Dedication to the House.[67] Despite these distinctions, and his receipt in 1650 of the college living of North Cadbury, Somerset, he was comparatively impoverished. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1651.[68] In January 1651/52 his friend John Worthington wrote of him, "If through want of maintenance he should be forced to leave Cambridge, for which place he is so eminently accomplished with what is noble and Exemplarily Academical, it would be an ill omen."[69]

Marriage, and Master of Christ's College

However he remained, and in late October 1654 he was elected, and on 2 November admitted, as master of Christ's College.[70] This appointment coincided with Cudworth's marriage, and his position in the University became secure. On 30 January 1654/55 Worthington wrote, "After many tossings Dr Cudworth is through God's good Providence returned to Cambridge and settled in Christ's College, and by his marriage more settled and fixed."[71] He married Damaris, daughter (by his first wife, Damaris) of Matthew Cradock, the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company, who had died in 1641.[72]

The path to this alliance was laid by the marriage of Cradock's widow Rebeccah, the stepmother of Damaris, to Benjamin Whichcote in 1643, so that the intellectual, social and official connections between the two scholars was reinforced by a familial bond. Its opportunity arose with the death of the first husband of Damaris, the London citizen Thomas Andrewes of London and Feltham (son of Sir Thomas Andrewes, Lord Mayor of London in 1649 and 1651–52, d. 1659), whom she had married by 1646 and who predeceased his notable father in 1653 having produced several children.[73][74] Their family circle also included Samuel Cradock, undergraduate and Fellow of Emmanuel College 1637–1656, nephew of Mathew Cradock and pupil of Whichcote.[75] In 1641 Samuel and Damaris had inherited the whole of Mathew Cradock's New England estate in two moieties.[76] Damaris was the mother of Dr Cudworth's children and outlived him, dying in 1695.[77]

Dr Cudworth now became recognized as a leader among the remarkable group known as the Cambridge Platonists. The whole party was more or less in sympathy with the Commonwealth: during the late 1650s Dr. Cudworth was consulted by John Thurloe, Cromwell's secretary to the council of state, in regard to university and government appointments, and in other matters.[78][79] In 1656 he was appointed vicar of Great Wilbraham, and rector of Toft, in Cambridgeshire, but surrendered these Ely diocese livings respectively in 1661 and 1662, when he received permanent presentation to the rectory of Ashwell, Herts, by the Bishop of London, Dr Gilbert Sheldon.[80]

Later life

At the Restoration Dr. Cudworth's mastership of his College was challenged, but he retained it until his death.[81] In 1665 he almost quarrelled with his fellow-Platonist, Henry More, because the latter had written an ethical work which Cudworth feared would interfere with his own long-contemplated treatise on the same subject.[82] To avoid clashing, More brought out his book in 1666-1669, the Enchiridion ethicum, in Latin;[83] Cudworth's never appeared.

His own majestic work, The True Intellectual System of the Universe,[84] was conceived in three parts of which only the first was brought to completion. As to this he wrote: "there is no reason why this volume should therefore be thought imperfect and incomplete, because it hath not all the Three Things at first Designed by us: it containing all that belongeth to its own particular Title and Subject, and being in that respect no Piece, but a Whole."[85] The work was given the Archbishop's Imprimatur for publication in 1671 but did not finally emerge from the press until 1678.

Dr Cudworth was installed prebendary of Gloucester in 1678.[86] Dr Whichcote died at Cudworth's house in Cambridge in 1683,[87] and Dr Cudworth himself died on 26 June 1688, and was buried in the chapel of Christ's College.[88] An oil portrait of Ralph Cudworth from life hangs in the hall of Christ's College.[89]

Family

Ralph's sons included John Cudworth (c. 1656–1726), who became a Fellow of Christ's College,[90] Charles (d. 1684), who died in India,[91] and probably Thomas, who obtained his M.A. at Christ's College in 1682.[92] His daughter Damaris (1659–1708), a devout and talented woman, became the second wife of Sir Francis Masham of High Laver, Essex.[93] The Lady Masham was distinguished as the friend of John Locke and exchanged letters with Gottfried Leibniz.

His elder brother James Cudworth (1612–1682) became an Assistant Governor of Massachusetts and a Commissioner of the United Colonies,[94] whose descendants form an extensive American branch of the Cudworth family. His younger brother, John Cudworth (1622–1675),[95] of London and of Bentley, Suffolk, became an Alderman of London and Master of the Worshipful Company of Girdlers in 1667–68.[96] In 1675 John left four orphans of whom Thomas (1661–1726)[97] and Benjamin (d. 1725)[98] both attended Christ's College.

His sister Elizabeth (1615–1654) became the second[99] of three wives of Josias Beacham of Broughton, Northamptonshire (Rector of Seaton, Rutland from 1627 to 1676) in 1636,[100] by whom she had several children. Beacham was ejected by the Puritans in 1653 but was reinstated by 1662.

A certain Jane or Joan Cudworth living unmarried in 1647 might also have been a sister of Ralph's, but this is not finally confirmed.[101]

Works

His sermons, such as that preached before the House of Commons, on 31 March 1647, advocate principles of religious toleration and charity. In 1678 he published The True Intellectual System of the Universe: the first part, wherein all the reason and philosophy of atheism is confuted and its impossibility demonstrated (imprimatur dated 1671). No more was published, perhaps because of the theological clamour raised against this first part. Much of Cudworth's work still remains in manuscript; A Treatise concerning eternal and immutable Morality was published with a preface by Edward Chandler in 1731;[102] and A Treatise of Freewill, edited by John Allen, in 1838; both are connected with the design of his magnum opus, the Intellectual System.[103]

A finely-bound first edition of the True Intellectual System in the British Library (shelfmark: Davis 187).

The Intellectual System arose, so its author tells us, out of a discourse refuting "fatal necessity", or determinism.[104] Enlarging his plan, he proposed to prove three matters:

(a) the existence of God;
(b) the naturalness of moral distinctions; and
(c) the reality of human freedom.

These three together make up the intellectual (as opposed to the physical) system of the universe; and they are opposed respectively by three false principles, atheism, religious fatalism which refers all moral distinctions to the will of God, and thirdly the fatalism of the ancient Stoics, who recognized God and yet identified Him with nature. The immense fragment dealing with atheism is all that was published by its author. Cudworth criticizes two main forms of materialistic atheism, the atomic, adopted by Democritus, Epicurus and Hobbes; and the hylozoic, attributed to Strato of Lampsacus, which explains everything by the supposition of an inward self-organizing life in matter. Atomic atheism is by far the more important, if only because Hobbes, the great antagonist whom Cudworth always has in view, is supposed to have held it. It arises out of the combination of two principles, neither of which is atheistic taken separately, i.e. atomism and corporealism, or the doctrine that nothing exists but body. The example of Stoicism, as Cudworth points out, shows that corporealism may be theistic.

Cudworth plunges into the history of atomism with vast erudition.[105] It is, in its purely physical application, a theory that he fully accepts; he holds that it was taught by Pythagoras, Empedocles, and in fact, nearly all the ancient philosophers, and was only perverted to atheism by Democritus. It was first invented, he believes, before the Trojan war, by a Sidonian thinker named Moschus or Mochus, who is identical with the Moses of the Old Testament. In dealing with atheism Cudworth's method is to marshal the atheistic arguments elaborately, so elaborately that Dryden remarked "he has raised such objections against the being of a God and Providence that many think he has not answered them"; then in his last chapter, which by itself is as long as an ordinary treatise, he confutes them with all the reasons that his reading could supply. A subordinate matter in the book that attracted much attention at the time is the conception of the "Plastic Medium," which is a mere revival of Plato's "World-Soul," and is meant to explain the existence and laws of nature without referring all to the direct operation of God. It occasioned a long-drawn controversy between Pierre Bayle and Le Clerc, the former maintaining, the latter denying, that the Plastic Medium is really favourable to atheism.

A much more favourable judgment must be given upon the short Treatise on eternal and immutable Morality, which deserves to be read by those who are interested in the historical development of British moral philosophy. It is an answer to Hobbes's famous doctrine that moral distinctions are created by the state, an answer from the standpoint of Platonism. Just as knowledge contains a permanent intelligible element over and above the flux of sense-impressions, so there exist eternal and immutable ideas of morality. Cudworth's ideas, like Plato's, have "a constant and never-failing entity of their own," such as we see in geometrical figures; but, unlike Plato's, they exist in the mind of God, whence they are communicated to finite understandings. Hence "it is evident that wisdom, knowledge and understanding are eternal and self-subsistent things, superior to matter and all sensible beings, and independent upon them"; and so also are moral good and evil. At this point Cudworth stops; he does not attempt to give any list of Moral Ideas. It is, indeed, the cardinal weakness of this form of intuitionism that no satisfactory list can be given and that no moral principles have the "constant and never-failing entity," or the definiteness, of the concepts of geometry (these attacks are not uncontested — see, for example, the "Common Sense" tradition from Thomas Reid to James McCosh and the Oxford Realists Harold Prichard and Sir William David Ross). Henry More, in his Enchiridion ethicum, attempts to enumerate the "noemata moralia"; but, so far from being self-evident, most of his moral axioms are open to serious controversy.

Commentary on Cudworth

Andrew Dickson White wrote in A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896):

In 1678 Ralph Cudworth published his Intellectual System of the Universe. To this day he remains, in breadth of scholarship, in strength of thought, in tolerance, and in honesty, one of the greatest glories of the English Church... He purposed to build a fortress which should protect Christianity against all dangerous theories of the universe, ancient or modern. ...while genius marked every part of it, features appeared which gave the rigidly orthodox serious misgivings. From the old theories of direct personal action on the universe by the Almighty he broke utterly. He dwelt on the action of law, rejected the continuous exercise of miraculous intervention, pointed out the fact that in the natural world there are "errors" and "bungles" and argued vigorously in favor of the origin and maintenance of the universe as a slow and gradual development of Nature in obedience to an inward principle.

References

  1. ↑ J.A. Passmore, Ralph Cudworth: An Interpretation (Cambridge University Press 1951).
  2. ↑ Edwin Butterworth, Historical Sketches of Oldham (John Hirst, Oldham 1856), pp. 22-23 (Google).
  3. ↑ 'Pedigree of the Families of Oldhams and Cudworths' in James Butterworth, History and Description of the Parochial Chapelry of Oldham (J. Dodge, etc, Oldham 1826), pp. 52ff. See also Thomas Fuller, History of the Worthies of England, ed. T. Austin Nuttall, 3 Vols., (Thomas Tegg, London 1811), II, p. 208 (Internet Archive).
  4. ↑ Church of England clergy database, Ordination record: ID 123517. Person Record CCEd ID 89100.
  5. ↑ Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses I Part 1, p. 431.
  6. ↑ 'History of the College' Emmanuel College website. See S. Bendell, C. Brooke and P. Collinson, A History of Emmanuel College (Boydell Press, Woodbridge 1999).
  7. ↑ B. Carter, 'The standing of Ralph Cudworth as a Philosopher' in G.A.J. Rogers, T. Sorell & J. Kraye (eds), Insiders and Outsiders in 17th Century Philosophy (Routledge 2009), at p. 100 (see note 4). Carter mistakenly calls Dr Stoughton "Richard".
  8. ↑ 'Praefatio Moshemii', Systema Intellectuale.
  9. ↑ H.C. Porter, Reformation and Reaction in Tudor Cambridge (Cambridge University Press, 1958), pp. 264-66 (Google)
  10. ↑ See Cudworth's first 1604 Letter of Dedication (Umich/eebo)
  11. ↑ "Not having taken pensill in hande before... the first fruits of my labours, a simple floure growing in a schollars garden..." (Dedication to Gawdy).
  12. ↑ A Commentarie or Exposition, upon the Five First Chapters of the Epistle to the Galatians: penned by the godly, learned, and iudiciall divine, Mr. W. Perkins. Now published for the benefit of the Church, and continued with a supplement upon the sixt chapter, by Rafe Cudworth Bachelour of Divinitie (Printed by Iohn Legat, printer to the Universitie of Cambridge, 1604).
  13. ↑ See Cudworth's second 1604 Letter of Dedication (Umich/eebo).
  14. ↑ Clergy of the Church of England database, CCEd Appointment Record ID: 193664.
  15. ↑ Church of England clergy database, CCEd Records ID: 193711 (Vacancy), and 178652 (Appointment).
  16. ↑ 'Letter from Dr Ralph Cudworth to Dr Samuel Ward', Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Tanner 75, fol. 339: Early modern letters online.
  17. ↑ R.W. Dunning (ed.), 'Parishes: Aller ', A History of the County of Somerset Vol. 3 (1974), pp. 61-71. pp. 61-71 (British History Online).
  18. ↑ CCEd Appointment Evidence Record ID: 178651, as 30 August 1610.
  19. ↑ Marriage register of St Mary Newington, Southwark, June 1611, appears as 'Rodolph' Cudworth ministr, married to Mrs Mari Machell ye xviii day by lisence' [sic].
  20. ↑ Memoirs of Cudworth in The Present State of the Republic of Letters Vol. 17 (1736), at pp. 24-25: 'An Account' by T. Birch in his edition of the True Intellectual System (J. Walthoe etc., London 1743), at p. vi. (both translated from Mosheim 1733, see below).
  21. ↑ This story derives from J.L. v. Mosheim, Radulphi Cudworthi Systema intellectuale hujus universi, 2 Vols (sumtu viduae Meyer, Jena 1733), I, 'Praefatio Moshemii' (34 sides, unpaginated), side 19, who calls her 'nutrix' to Prince Henry. Mosheim credits the biographical research to Edward Chandler, as Bishop of Lichfield & Coventry 1717-1730, both in text and footnote to this 'Praefatio', sides 18-19. (See Vol. I pp. xxv-xxvii in 1773 edition.) Chandler's access to Cudworth's papers is discussed, see B. Carter, 'The standing of Ralph Cudworth as a Philosopher' in G.A.J. Rogers, T. Sorell & J. Kraye (eds), Insiders and Outsiders in 17th Century Philosophy (Routledge 2009), pp. 99-121, at p. 115 & note 72 (p. 121).
  22. ↑ "fuit et inter eos adscitus, qui Regis Iacobi I. a sacris privatis tum erant."
  23. ↑ E. Bellasis, ' 1886, 'Machell of Crackenthorpe', Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society VIII (1886), 2nd Machell pedigree (from John Machell of London) at end of article, based partly upon a pedigree tradition which is in places confused. The descent shown by Mrs. de Salis ('Maternal Ancestry of Gen. James Cudworth of Scituate, New England', in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, October 1876, p. 464) as daughter of Mathew's son John (1580-1647) is now discounted.
  24. ↑ D. Richardson, 'Cudworth', Jewels of the Crown Newsletter 4 (Fall 2009), pp. 4–6, at p. 5. (see Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition (2011), III, p. 10, items 15–16).
  25. ↑ P. Collinson, '17: Magistracy and Ministry - A Suffolk Miniature', in Godly People. Essays on English Protestantism and Puritanism, History Series 23 (The Hambledon Press, London 1983), pp. 445-66.
  26. ↑ Will of Martha Heigham (P.C.C. 1593, Nevill quire). Transcript in S.H.A. Hervey, Denham Parish Registers, 1539–1850, with notes and notices (Paul and Mathew, Bury St Edmunds 1904), pp. 93-100, at p. 94, and see pp. 192-97 (Internet Archive).
  27. ↑ Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, Part I, Vol. 3 (Cambridge University Press, 1924), p. 398: 'Pricke, Timothy', admitted 1595, MA 1602.
  28. ↑ Will of Sir Robert Jermyn (P.C.C. 1614, Lawe quire). Transcript in S.H.A. Hervey, Rushbrook Parish Registers 1567-1850 (George Booth, Woodbridge 1903), pp. 150-54, at p. 153: see also Will of Frances Jermyn, pp. 147-48 (Internet Archive).
  29. ↑ Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses Part I, Vol. 2 (Cambridge University Press, 1922), p. 473: 'Jermyn, Thomas', admitted 1585; Jermyn, Robert', admitted 1597, BA 1599-1600.
  30. ↑ Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, Part I, Vol. 3 (Cambridge University Press, 1924), p. 82: 'Lewknor, Edward', admitted 1599, BA 1604-05; 'Lewknor, Robert', admitted 1604.
  31. ↑ D. Gurney, 'Appendix LXXXII: On the family of Lewkenor', The Record of the House of Gournay (J.B. Nichols & J.G. Nichols (privately), London 1848) Part II, at pp. 469–70.
  32. ↑ Jane Machell married 'Richard Riches' at St Mary Aldermary, City of London on 13 December 1574. J.L. Chester, The Parish Registers of St Mary Aldermary, Harleian Society, Registers Vol. V (London 1880), p. 5.
  33. ↑ Will of Richard Rich of Leigh, gentleman, Essex Record Office D/ABW 32/91.
  34. ↑ A. Boaz, Specific Ancestral Lines of the Boaz, Paul, Welty and Fishel Families (Otter Day Books, LLC, 2014), at pp. 479-81.
  35. ↑ C.J. Sisson, 'Thomas Lodge and his Family', in Thomas Lodge and other Elizabethans (Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass. 1931), pp. 1–164.
  36. ↑ D. Richardson, ed. K.J. Everingham, Magna Carta Ancestry 2nd Edn (2011), II, p. 10 items 15-16)
  37. ↑ The Whole Treatise of the Cases of Conscience : distinguished into three bookes: the first whereof is revised and corrected in sundrie places, and the other two annexed. Taught and deliuered by M. W. Perkins in his holy-day lectures, carefully examined by his owne briefes, and now published together for the common good, by T. Pickering Bachelour of Diuinitie (Printed by Iohn Legat, Printer to the Vniuersitie of Cambridge, 1606, and are to be sold in Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the Crowne by Simon Waterson).
  38. ↑ W. Perkins, R. Cudworth and W. Crashaw, The whole treatise of the cases of conscience: distinguished into three bookes (London: Iohn Legatt, Printer to the Vniuersitie of Cambridge, 1613).
  39. ↑ A commentarie, or, exposition vpon the fiue first chapters of the Epistle to the Galatians: penned by the godly, learned, and iudicious diuine, Mr. William Perkins. Now published for the benefit of the Church, and continued with a supplement vpon the sixt chapter, by Ralfe Cudworth Bachelour of Diuinitie (Printed at London: By Iohn Legatt, printer to the Vniuersitie of Cambridge, 1617).
  40. ↑ Letter of Dr Ralph Cudworth to James Ussher, Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Rawlinson Letters 89, fol. 25 r-v: Early modern letters online.
  41. ↑ J. Hall, Resolutions and Decisions of Divers Practicall Cases of Conscience in Continuall Use Amongst Men Very Necessary for their Information and Direction in these Evil Times, in four decades (N.B., and R. Royston, London 1650), 'Advertisement to the Reader' (Umich/eebo).
  42. ↑ Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses.
  43. ↑ Earbury was rector at Wherwell while Stephen Bachiler was vicar, under the patronage of Anna, widow of William West, 1st Baron De La Warr.
  44. ↑ CCEd Person ID: 56628; J. Foster, Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714 (British History Online). The Somerset V.C.H. distinguishes two Anthony Earburys, successive vicars of Westonzoyland and prebends of Wherwell (under De La Warre patronage), the elder 1617-1629 and younger 1629-1638. See 'Parishes: Westonzoyland', in R. Dunning (ed.), A History of the County of Somerset, Vol. VIII: The Poldens and the Levels (V.C.H. London 2004), pp. 190-210 (British History Online). If there were two, Cudworth's witness is the elder.
  45. ↑ Will of Raphe Cudworthe, Doctor of Divinity, Parson of Aller, Somerset (P.C.C. 1624, Byrde quire).
  46. ↑ R.G. Usher, The Reconstruction of the English Church, 2 vols (D. Appleton and Company, New York and London 1910), I, pp. 254, 306, 329, 346-47 (Internet Archive); see M.A.E. Green (ed.), Calendar of State Papers Domestic: James I, 1603-1610, VIII: May, 1604 (HMSO, London 1857), pp. 103-40, May 15-16, nos. 21-25 (British History Online, accessed 21 September 2018).
  47. ↑ A. Davidson and B. Coates, 'Pelham, Herbert (1545-1620), of Fordington, Dorset', in A. Thrush and J.P. Ferris (eds), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629 (Cambridge University Press, 2010), History of Parliament Online.
  48. ↑ W.H. Curtis, 'William Jones: Puritan printer and propagandist', The Library, Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, Series 5 Volume 19, issue 1 (1 January 1964), pp. 38-66, at pp. 41-42.
  49. ↑ R. Bernard, The Faithfull Shepherd, wholy in a manner transposed, 3rd Edition (Thomas Pavier, London 1621), dedication in front matter (Internet Archive). (1st Edition, 1607, 2nd 1609).
  50. ↑ J.C. Whitebrook, 'Dr. John Stoughton the Elder', Transactions of the Congregational Historical Society Vol. VI, no. 2 (October 1913), pp. 89-107, continued in Vol. VI, no. 3 (February 1914), pp. 177-87 (Internet Archive).
  51. ↑ F.J. Powicke, The Cambridge Platonists: A Study (J.M. Dent & Co., London 1926), p. 111.
  52. ↑ "Cudworth, Ralph (CDWT632R)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge. . See Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses I.i, p. 431.
  53. ↑ Mosheim, Radulphi Cudworthi Systema Intellectuale(1733), I, 'Praefatio Moshemii' (34 sides, unpaginated) 19th side, note.
  54. ↑ Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, I.iv, p. 171.
  55. ↑ 'Letter of James Cudworth of Scituate, 1634', (to Dr. Stoughton), in New England Historical and Genealogical Register 14 (1860), pp. 101-04.
  56. ↑ Whitebrook, 'Dr John Stoughton the Elder', p. 94 (Internet Archive).
  57. ↑ Marriage at St Mary Aldermanbury, 18.i.1635/36. J.P. Ferris, Browne, John II (1580-1659), of Dorchester and Frampton, Dorset, History of Parliament online, 1604-1629.
  58. ↑ T. Solly, The Will Divine and Human (Deighton Bell & Co., Cambridge/Bell & Daldy, London 1856), pp. 287-91.
  59. ↑ The Union of Christ and the Church, in a Shadow by R.C. (Richard Bishop, London 1642) (Umich/eebo).
  60. ↑ R.C., A Discourse concerning the True Notion of the Lord's Supper, 2nd edition (J. Flesher for R. Royston, London 1670) (Google).
  61. ↑ D.J. Lasker, 'Karaism and Christian Hebraism: a New Document', Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 59 no. 4 (Winter 2006), pp. 1089-1116.
  62. ↑ D. Levitin, Ancient Wisdom in the Age of the New Science: Histories of Philosophy in England, c. 1640–1700 (Cambridge University Press, 2015), p. 171 and note 300, with itemized citations (Google).
  63. ↑ Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses.
  64. ↑ D. Neal (ed. J.O. Choules), The History of the Puritans, or Protestant Nonconformists, 2 Vols (Harper & Brothers, New York 1844), p. 481 (Google). See J. Barwick, Querela Cantabrigiensis (Oxford 1646), 'A Catalogue' (Umich/eebo).
  65. ↑ S. Hutton, 'Whichcote, Benjamin (1609-1683), theologian and moral philosopher' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
  66. ↑ New King James Version at Bible Gateway
  67. ↑ A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons, at Westminster, March 31. 1647. By R. Cudworth, B.D. (Cambridge: Printed by Roger Daniel, printer to the Universitie, 1647), Letter of Dedication (Umich/eebo).
  68. ↑ Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses.
  69. ↑ Letter of John Worthington dated 6 January 1651/52, quoted in Mosheim's Preface to Systema Intellectuale (1733), at Vol. I p. xxviii in 1773 edition.
  70. ↑ '1654, Oct. 29. Dr Cudworth was chosen Master of Christ's College, admitted Nov. 2.' (Diary). James Crossley, Diary & Correspondence of Dr. John Worthington (Chetham Society XIII, 1847) Vol. I, p. 52.
  71. ↑ Letter of John Worthington dated 30 January 1654/55 quoted in Mosheim's Preface (1733), at Vol. I p. xxviii in 1773 edition.
  72. ↑ Will of Mathew Cradock of London, Merchant (P.C.C. 1641).
  73. ↑ Will of Thomas Andrewes, Leather seller of London (P.C.C. 1653).
  74. ↑ These relationships are confirmed in the wills cited and in the Chancery case Andrewes v Glover (The National Archives), the participants in which are described in W.G. Watkins, 'Notes from English Records', New England Historical and Genealogical Register January 1910, Vol. LXIV, pp. 84-87.
  75. ↑ Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses I.i, p. 411. J.C. Whitebrook, 'Samuel Cradock, cleric and pietist (1620-1706): and Matthew Cradock, first governor of Massachusetts', Congregational History Society 5, part 3 (1911), pp. 183-90. S. Handley, 'Cradock, Samuel (1620/21-1706), nonconformist minister', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
  76. ↑ Will of Mathew Cradock (P.C.C. 1641).
  77. ↑ Will of Damaris Cudworth (P.C.C. 1695).
  78. ↑ T. Birch, Account of the Life and Writings (1743), pp. viii-x (pp. 16-18 in pdf).
  79. ↑ 'Life of Cudworth, Appendix A: Letters to Thurloe', in W.R. Scott, An Introduction to Cudworth's Treatise concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality (Longmans, Green & Co., London 1891), pp. 19-23 (Hathi Trust).
  80. ↑ Clergy of the Church of England database.
  81. ↑ Letter dated 6.viii.1660, in James Crossley, Diary & Correspondence of Dr. John Worthington (Chetham Society XIII, 1847) Vol. I, p. 203. See Christ's College website, List of Masters of Christ's College.
  82. ↑ 'Life of Cudworth, Appendix B: Letters of Cudworth and More', in Scott, An Introduction to Cudworth's Treatise, pp. 24-28 (Hathi Trust).
  83. ↑ See (Edward Southwell, transl.), An Account of Virtue; or, Dr. Henry More's Abridgement of Morals, put into English Facsimile of Benjamin Tooke's London 1690 English edition (Facsimile Text Society, New York 1930), Internet Archive.
  84. ↑ R. Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe: The First Part; Wherein, All the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is Confuted, and its Impossibility Demonstrated (Richard Royston, London 1678).
  85. ↑ R. Cudworth,True Intellectual System (1678), 'Preface to the Reader'.
  86. ↑ Clergy of the Church of England database.
  87. ↑ G. Dyer, History of the University and Colleges of Cambridge, 2 Vols (Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, London 1814), II, p. 355 (Google).
  88. ↑ Epitaph in Mosheim's Preface (1733), at Vol. I p. xxix in 1773 edition. An image of his funerary inscription can be seen here.
  89. ↑ Oil portrait of Ralph Cudworth, image (copyright Christ's College) viewable here.
  90. ↑ J. Peile, Biographical Register of Christ's College 1505-1905, Volume II, 1666-1905 (Cambridge University Press 2014) (orig. 1913), II, p. 46.
  91. ↑ J. Peile, Biographical Register, II, pp. 49-50.
  92. ↑ J. Peile, Biographical Register, II, p. 70.
  93. ↑ M. Knights, 'Masham, Sir Francis, 3rd Bt. (c.1646-1723), of Otes, High Laver, Essex', in D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks and S. Handley (eds), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715 (Boydell & Brewer, 2002) Read here.
  94. ↑ Samuel Deane, 'Gen. James Cudworth' in History of Scituate, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1831 (James Loring, Boston 1831), pp. 245-51. See also Scituate Historical Society Archived 24 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
  95. ↑ Will of John Cudworth, Girdler of London (P.C.C. 1675).
  96. ↑ W. Dumville Smythe, An Historical Account of the Worshipful Company of Girdlers, London (Chiswick press, London 1905), pp. 109-10.
  97. ↑ J. Peile, Biographical Register, II, p. 64.
  98. ↑ J. Peile, Biographical Register, II, p. 111.
  99. ↑ The first was Maria Sheffield (died November 1634). S.H.C., 'Extracts from the Parish register of Seton, Co. Rutland, relative to the family of Sheffield', Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica I (J.B. Nichols & Son, London 1834), pp. 171-73.
  100. ↑ Will of Josias Beacham, Rector of Seaton (Rutland) (P.C.C. 1675/76). London Marriage Allegations, 28.iv.1636 (St Mary Aldermanbury). Foster, Index Ecclesiasticus. Beacham was a graduate of Brasenose College, University of Oxford.
  101. ↑ D. Richardson, Jewels of the Crown, 4 (2009), citing the references to Jane Cudworth in Will of John Machell of Wonersh (P.C.C. 1647).
  102. ↑ Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality by Ralph Cudworth, D.D., with a Preface by... Edward Lord Bishop of Durham (James and John Knapton, London 1731) (First edition).
  103. ↑ Sarah Hutton (ed), Ralph Cudworth. A Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality with A Treatise of Freewill, Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy (Cambridge University Press 1996). Read here
  104. ↑ For the following account, see H. Sturt, 'Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688), English philosopher', Encyclopedia Britannica VII (1910), pp. 612-13.
  105. ↑ See a recent study by Catherine Osborne, 'Ralph Cudworth's The True Intellectual System of the Universe and the Presocratic Philosophers', in Oliver Primavesi and Katharina Luchner (eds) The Presocratics from the Latin Middle Ages to Hermann Diels (Steiner Verlag 2011), pp 215-235.

Sources

  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cudworth, Ralph". Encyclopædia Britannica. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 612–613.

Further reading

The Intellectual System was translated into Latin by Johann Lorenz von Mosheim and furnished with notes and dissertations which were translated into English in John J. Harrison's edition (1845). First Latin edition, Johann Lorenz von Mosheim, Radulphi Cudworthi Systema intellectuale hujus universi, 2 Vols (sumtu viduae Meyer, Jena 1733), second (with paginated Mosheimii Praefatio), (Samuel and John Luchtmans, Lugduni Batavorum 1773).

  • Cambridge Platonists Research Group: Research Portal: Ralph Cudworth Bibliography
  •  "Cudworth, Ralph". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  • H. Sturt, 'Cudworth, Ralph (1617–1688)',
  • Article on Cudworth in Christ's College, Cambridge, Treasures in Focus blogspot, No. 8, July 2013.
  • "Cudworth, Ralph". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  • Klaus-Gunther Wesseling (1999). "Cudworth {der Jüngere}, Ralph". In Bautz, Traugott. Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). 16. Herzberg: Bautz. cols. 352–362. ISBN 3-88309-079-4.
  • The True Intellectual System of the Universe on Google Books
  • The True Intellectual System of the Universe on Internet Archive: 3-volume edition Tegg 1845 Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3
  • Sermon before the Commons, at Westminster, 31 March 1647 reprinted 1852
  • A Treatise concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality (1731)
  • They know Christ who keep his Commandments (reprinted 1858)
Academic offices
Preceded by
Thomas Paske
vacancy from 1645		 Master of Clare College, Cambridge
1650–1654		 Succeeded by
Theophilus Dillingham
Preceded by
Samuel Bolton		 Master of Christ's College, Cambridge
1654–1688		 Succeeded by
John Covel
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