CAVE, WILLIAM, an eminent scholar and divine, was born December 30th, 1637, at Pickwell in Leicestershire, where his father was rector of the parish. He was admitted at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1653, took the degree of B.A. in 1656, and that of M.A. in 1660. In 1662 be was admitted to the vicarage of Islington in Middlesex, and soma time after became one of the king's chaplains in ordinary. He took the degree of D.D. in 1672, and in 1679 was collated by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the rectory of Allhallows the Great in Thames-street, London. In July 1631 he was incorporated D.D. at Oxford, and in November 1684 was installed canon of Windsor. Ha resigned his rectory of Allhallows in 1689, and his vicarage of Islington in 1691, having on the 19th of November 1690 been the vicarage of Isleworth in Middlesex. He died at Windsor on the 4th of August 1713, and was buried in Islington church, where a monu ment was erected to his memory. He published two single sermons, one preached before the lord mayor and citizens of London, November 5th, 1680, 4to, London, 1680 ; the other preached before the king, January 18th, 1684-85, 4to, London, 1685. His works of greater importance are 'Primitive Christianity,' in three parts, 8vo, London, 1672; reprinted several times since. 2.`Tabula] Ecclesias ticee, Tables of the Ecclesiastical Writers,' fol., London, 1674 ; reprinted at Hamburg in 1676 without his knowledge. 3. 'Antiquitatea Apos. toll= ; or, the Lives, Acts, and Martyrdoms of the Apostles,' fol.,
London, 1676; republished in 1702. 4. 'Apostolici; or, the History of the Lives, Acts, Deaths, and Martyrdoms of those who were Contemporaries with or immediately succeeded the Apostles P • as also of the most eminent of the Primitive Fathers for the first three hundred years : to which is added, a Chronology of the three first Ages of the Church,' foL, London, 1677. 5. 'Eccicsiastici; or, the History of the Lives, Acts, Deaths, and Writings of the most eminent Fathers of the Church that flourished in the fourth century,' fol., London, 1682. 6. ' A Dissertation concerning the Government of the Ancient Church,' 8vo, London, 1683. 7. 'A serious Exhortation, with some important Advices, relating to the late cases about Conformity, recommended to the Protestant Dissenters from the Church of England,' 4to, London, 1683. 8. Chartophylax Ecclesiasticus,' 8vo, London, 1685. 9. Scriptorum Ecelesiasticorum Hletoria Literaria a Christer nato nape ad Smeulum xiv. facili methodo digests; in two parts, fol., the first printed at London in 1688; the second in 1693; republished, fol. Col. Allob., 1705 and 1720. The best edition is that printed at the Clarendon press, by subscription, in two vols. fol., 1710-43 : it contains the author's last corrections and additions. Cave's Lives of the Apostles,' Lives of the Fathers,' and his Primitive Christianity,' are justly esteemed the best books upon those subjects.